facebookappFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this afternoon addressed the ongoing Cambridge Analytica situation, in which Cambridge Analytica used personal data acquired from Facebook in an illicit manner by a third-party app to create targeted political advertisements during the 2016 election.

Zuckerberg outlined a multi-step response that Facebook plans to take to prevent this situation from recurring, and one feature Facebook will add is a new tool at the top of the News Feed which will let people see which apps they've used.

Any app used on the Facebook platform has access to a user's personal data, so the Facebook tool will let people see which apps have their info and it will offer up an easy way to revoke permissions.


This tool is already available through Facebook's privacy settings, but the company plans to make it more accessible to all users.

Back in 2014, Facebook implemented changes to reduce the amount of data apps had access to (the CA data was pre-2014), and Facebook says it will now investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before the platform change.

We will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity. We will ban any developer from our platform that does not agree to a thorough audit. And if we find developers that misused personally identifiable information, we will ban them and tell everyone affected by those apps.

Zuckerberg also says Facebook plans to remove developers' access to data if an app hasn't been used in three months, and the amount of data provided to an app when a user signs in will be further restricted to name, profile photo, and email address. Access to posts or other private data will require users to explicitly approve the action.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal has resulted in a massive "Delete Facebook" movement from users concerned over the data Facebook collects and how it's used, and Facebook stock has sharply declined this week.

Facebook users who are not satisfied with Zuckerberg's response can permanently delete a Facebook account by clicking this link. Before doing so, it's recommended Facebook users download an archive of their content so no photos are lost.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Top Rated Comments

BMcCoy Avatar
93 months ago
If you’re not paying for a product, you ARE the product..
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
philipk Avatar
93 months ago
I deleted my account yesterday. It was a bit hard to do as I will miss seeing friends who live at a distance. However, I was tired of my privacy being sold. Someone has already stated, if you were not paying for the product you are the product.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Solomani Avatar
93 months ago
Google is next (for a much-deserved backlash) with their predatory information-gathering information-snooping culture.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
93 months ago
Nice talk but it doesn't change the fact that changing privacy setting is extremely complicated. That complexity makes Facebook is a very opaque platform for average user. It's difficult to know what will be visible and shared. The safest thing to do is use Facebook in extreme moderation and lock down setting as much as possible (and best you can understand).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
93 months ago
While I've made it clear that I'm not a fan of FB, what boggles my mind is that people still continue to use it. Why?
social media is one hell of a drug
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dogslobber Avatar
93 months ago
facebook is a marketing company and these controls are illusions. Smoke and mirrors from the Great Zuck.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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