Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that his company has made mistakes in processing data belonging to 50 million users and has promised tougher measures to restrict developers' access to the data.
The largest social media network in the world is facing increasing control by governments in Europe and the United States on allegations made by an informant that the Cambridge consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, has erroneously consulted user information to build profiles on American voters who were later used to help elect US president Donald Trump in the 2016.
Zuckerberg, in his first comments after the scandal that broke out over the weekend, said in a post on Facebook that the company "made mistakes, there is still a lot to do and we need to take a step forward and do it".
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said she was deeply sorry "she didn't do enough" on Cambridge Analytica. “We have spent the last few days working on getting a more complete picture,” he said.
Zuckerberg pledged actions to "prevent access to user information" and said the company is working with investigators investigating what happened.
The company lost more than $ 45 billion of its stock market value in the last three days after the news reporting the charges had been published over the weekend.
The fear is that the failure of large companies to protect personal data could discourage advertisers and users. A stricter regulation adopted in recent days has also affected Twitter and Snap.
On Tuesday, the Cambridge Analytica border suspended its CEO Alexander Nix, who was intercepted in a secret recording where he boasted that his company had played a decisive role in Trump's victory.
“I think what Cambridge Analytica has been trying to sell is magical. The amount of data in possession manages to profile users in a very precise way even if this is not the case, according to Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at the University of Cambridge, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday to the BBC.
Kogan, who collected the data by running a survey application on Facebook, also said he was named a scapegoat by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Both companies have accused Kogan of alleged data abuse.
Only 300.000 Facebook users responded to the Kogan quiz, but this allowed the researcher to also access the Facebook friends of those people, who had not agreed to share information, producing details about 50 millions of users.
Facebook claimed that it later made changes that prevent people from sharing data about friends and claims that no data breaches occurred because the original users gave permission. Critics argue that it was essentially a violation because data from unsuspecting friends were taken.
Zuckerberg said the company "will further restrict access to developer data to prevent other types of abuse." Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from using one of Facebook's services on Friday.
Many analysts have now raised concerns that the incident negatively impacts user engagement with Facebook, potentially reducing its influence with advertisers.
DZ Bank was the third Wall Street brokerage firm this week making a rare cut in price targets for Facebook.
"Investors now need to assess whether or not the company has been able to significantly improve the way it is managed," said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser.
Shares of Facebook closed 0,7% on Wednesday, but are still down more than 8% since Friday. Over the past five years, the company has earned more than 550 percent in value.