As Facebook runs ads apologizing, trust in company plummets

26 Mar As Facebook runs ads apologizing, trust in company plummets

The embattled social media network has taken to old-fashioned newspaper advertising to apologize for the data sharing scandal that has rocked the company for the past several weeks. The ad is signed by Mark Zuckerberg and states that if Facebook can’t protect users’ information, it doesn’t deserve to have it. Unfortunately for Zuck, most of the ad’s readers probably agree. A Reuters/Ipsos online poll conducted on Sunday found that just 41% of Americans trust Facebook to adhere to laws that protect their personal information. In comparison, 62% of poll respondents trust Amazon with their data, while Google and Microsoft garnered a 60% trust rating.

The ad in full:

We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it.

You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

We’ve already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we’re limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.

We’re also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.

Finally, we’ll remind you which apps you’ve given access to your information–so you can shut off the ones you don’t want anymore.
Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook took out full page ads in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost, and 6 UK papers today https://t.co/kMA822kTpU pic.twitter.com/CUEYwyWuTT

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 25, 2018

Source: Fast Company