Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg admits there could be even MORE data breaches – and says they should’ve acted ‘years’ ago
FACEBOOK's Sheryl Sandberg has said that even more user data breaches could have happened that we still don't know about.
The social site's chief operating officer admitted that there could have been more leaks like the Cambridge Analytica breach – where info for 87million users was exposed.
Sandberg spoke out during an interview on NBC's Today programme, where she was probed over Facebook's failure to protect user data.
Host Savannah Guthrie asked whether Facebook users could expect info on more data breaches.
And Sandberg replied: "Yes, that's certainly possible. That's why we are doing the audit."
Her remarks echo Mark Zuckerberg's statement last month, where he revealed that Facebook would audit all of the third-party apps that had access to user data – because other leaks are a worrying possibility.
Facebook Data Breach – what happened?
Here's what you need to know...
- A personality quiz app obtained data for 270,000 willing Facebook users
- But it also sucked up info on all of their Facebook friends
- Facebook said this allowed data for 87 million users to be sold on to UK research firm Cambridge Analytica
- Cambridge Analytica helps politicians and lobby groups create propaganda
- The data was supposedly used to boost the Brexit campaign and get Trump into the White House
- Facebook is said to have known about the data breach since 2015
- The social network asked companies with the data to delete it, but didn't enforce the rule
- The Guardian revealed the incident in an exposé thanks to Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie
- Many countries are now investigating whether Facebook has broken the law
- It's made worse by Facebook's April admission that 'most' of the site's 2billion users have had their data hoovered up by outsiders
- Mark Zuckerberg is due to appear before US Congress to testify about the matter soon
- But the billionaire Facebook boss has refused to accept an invite from UK MPs to explain himself in Britain
It follows a scandal where a personality quiz app sucked up data for 270,000 Facebook respondents – and more than 80million of their Facebook friends too.
This data was then sold on to British propaganda firm Cambridge Analytica, which reportedly worked on the Brexit and Trump campaigns.
Facebook stopped apps from being able to take info from people's Facebook friends without the permission of those friends back in 2015.
But the company failed to warn users or regulators of the breach.
Facebook did ask Cambridge Analytica to delete the data, but didn't bother to make sure it had actually been deleted.
Speaking today, Sandberg said: "We thought the data had been deleted and we should have checked.
"They gave us assurances and it wasn't until other people told us it wasn't true.
"We had legal assurances from them that they deleted it.
"What we didn't do is the next step of an audit, and we're trying to do that now."
She admitted that the company should have acted "two and a half years ago" to protect user data.
"We have a responsibility to protect people's data.
"And we have a responsibility for people to know that they can trust using our services.
"So whether it happens to one person or a lot of people, whether it's on the front page of the newspaper or it just happens to one person, that's always a 10."
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Billionaire Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is due to testify about the scandal before US Congress next week.
And MPs are expected to hear from senior Facebook execs in the UK about the breach soon too.
British MPs had originally asked Zuckerberg himself to turn up, but the 33-year-old Facebook founder declined – and offered other employees instead.
Worse still, the company recently admitted that 'most' of its 2billion users probably had their personal info taken.
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