On the second day of his congressional testimony, Facebook chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg had a startling admission to make.
Taking his seat in front of the members of the House of Representatives, Zuckerberg was asked a series of questions in designated four-minute segments. The time limitations given to each representative did not make for compelling answers from Facebooks founder. Still, there was enough time for one significant revelation.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, the Democratic representative from California, who notably oversees California’s Palo Alto area where several of the largest tech companies are headquartered, asked Zuckerberg if his own personal information was compromised.
She asked:
Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third-parties? Your personal data?
To this, Zuckerberg simply responded: “Yes”
While there was scarcely any time for a follow-up question or any elaboration on the answer, the admission from Zuckerberg is an entirely dramatic addition to the ongoing controversy of Facebook’s handling of users’ personal data.
“What we found now is that there’s a whole programme associated with Cambridge University where… there were a number of other researchers building similar apps,” Mr Zuckerberg said in response to a separate question. “So, we do need to understand whether there was something bad going on at Cambridge University overall that will require a stronger reaction from us.”
Image credit: Flickr.
