In full-page ads, Zuckerberg apologizes for Facebook's failure to protect users' personal data

A letter from Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears in nine Sunday papers today in the form of a full-page advertisement. The letter, which includes the Facebook logo and Zuckerberg's signature, contains an apology of sorts. Citing the data on 50 million Facebook users that researcher and former Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan leaked to Cambridge Analytica without permission (some reports allege that Kogan sold the data to the consulting firm), Zuckerberg says that this represented a "breach of trust." In addition, the executive said that he is sorry that Facebook didn't do more to stop this from occurring, and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Zuckerberg's letter points out the steps that Facebook is taking right now. They include:

• Limits on the amount of data that apps get when you sign in using Facebook.
• Stopping apps like the one created by Russian-American Kogan from receiving "so much information."
• Finding out which apps received large amounts of information and banning them.

Facebook also plans to remind you which apps have your permission to mine your information; this way you can rescind your permission and prevent certain apps from obtaining your information.

While some Facebook users have been protesting its actions by deleting the app, investors have been dumping the stock. The latter actually hits Mark Zuckerberg where it hurts the most (in his wallet). From a high of $185.09 on March 16th, Facebook's shares closed at $159.39 this past Friday. That is a one-week decline of 13.9% which erased over $5 billion from Zuckerberg's net worth.

The U.S. newspapers sporting the apology include The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. The full-page ad is also found inside U.K. papers The Observer, The Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express and Sunday Telegraph.

source: TheVerge