Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally apologizes for Facebook’s privacy data scandal in a full-page newspaper advertisement. The ads have appeared in seven British and three American newspapers where he apologizes for the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal for which the social network is stormed into a legal and regulatory battle. The newspapers where the statement was advertised are – The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Observer, Sunday Mirror, The Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express, and the Sunday Telegraph.
The advertisement reads, “You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time.”
But initially, neither Zuckerberg nor his officials released any apology post on Facebook. Rather informed that Facebook would limit the data apps from accessing the users’ information.
And now, a new, more definitive apology has come few days after the CEO’s plenty of interviews with American media organizations, including CNN, Wired, The New York Times, and Recode.
This was a breach of trust and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time… I promise to do better for you. – Mark Zuckerberg.
It is understandable that previously in 2014, the data mining and analytics company had gained access to data of as many as 50 million Facebook profiles because of the offensive data-sharing policies Facebook app developers had. In 2015 Facebook knew that the company had access to its users’ data, and it was sold to Cambridge Analytica against Facebook’s terms of service. The accused firm is reported to be associated with the Donald Trump election campaign. But, this time, the fallout has been severe with numerous lawsuits, governmental inquiries, a #DeleteFacebook user boycott campaign, and a sharp drop in share price that’s erased nearly $50 billion of the company’s market cap.
There is also an irony to it because Facebook, which has previously decreased the advertisement revenue of newspapers, is now spending millions on advertising its apology statement in newspapers.
