Whats app Co-founder joins ‘delete Facebook’ campaign

The co-founder of WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook four years ago for $19 billion, has joined the movement to delete Facebook.

Brian Acton tweeted: “It’s time. #deletefacebook.”

This hashtag has been trending since reports surfaced in recent days regarding the improper use of personal information on Facebook by Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm used by the Trump campaign before the election.

After remaining silent for a while, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement apologizing for this ‘breach of trust’, as nearly $50 billion in market capitalization of his company has been wiped out with investors fearing new oversight by government regulators.

British Prime Minister Theresa May joined the conversations, and said that allegations that Facebook users’ data was improperly used by political campaigns are “very concerning.”

May says she expects Facebook and data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to “comply fully” with British authorities investigating how personal information was obtained and used.

Mark Zuckerberg apologizes for ‘breach of trust’, outlines fixes

Breaking more than four days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving a data-mining firm.

Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that Facebook has a “responsibility” to protect its users’ data and if it fails, “we don’t deserve to serve you.”

Zuckerberg and Facebook’s No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, have been quiet since news broke Friday that Cambridge Analytica may have used data improperly obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to sway elections.

Facebook has already taken the most important steps to prevent such a situation from happening again, Zuckerberg said. For example, in 2014, it reduced access outside apps had to user data. However, some of the measures didn’t take effect until a year later, allowing Cambridge to access the data in the intervening months.
Zuckerberg acknowledges that there is more the company needs to do.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said it will ban developers who don’t agree to an audit. An app’s developer will no longer have access to data from people who haven’t used that app in three months. Data will also be generally limited to user names, profile photos and email, unless the develop signs a contract with Facebook and gets user approval.

Source – Al Arabiya