LONDON – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in nine major British and US newspapers on Sunday to apologise for a huge data privacy scandal.
“We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t we don’t deserve it,” he said.
The ads ran in prominent positions in six British nationals, including the best-selling Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times and The Observer – which helped break the story – as well as the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
The billionaire placed full-page ads in response to pressure from US and European governments following the leak of 50 million users’ data to Cambridge Analytica. The UK political consulting firm is accused of using the information to influence the US presidential election. “We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it,” the advert read. The Observer, the newspaper that has led the Cambridge Analytica revelations in recent days, also carried the ad.
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Zuckerberg described the leak as a “breach of trust” and said Facebook was investigating other apps that had access to the data. “We expect there are others. And we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected,” he said. The Facebook CEO has seen the value of his company drop as much as $50billion since the story broke last week.
