My Own Data Was Shared in Data Leak Scandal: Mark Zuckerberg

Even Mark Zuckerberg was unable to protect his own information on Facebook from parties seeking to exploit it.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses while testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington.

(Photo: AP)

Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 11 April, told lawmakers that he was among the 87 million or so Facebook Inc users whose data was improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

During the questioning, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo asked Zuckerberg “Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third parties? Your personal data?”

Zuckerberg replied “Yes”.

But the chief executive of the world's largest social media network pushed back on Congress members' suggestions that users do not have enough control of their data on Facebook.

"Every time that someone chooses to share something on Facebook... there is a control. Right there. Not buried in the settings somewhere but right there", the 33-year-old internet billionaire told the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.

Zuckerberg’s admission that his own data made its way into the hands of Cambridge Analytica laid bare that even the company’s technologically adept founder was unable to protect his own information from parties seeking to exploit it.

That underscores the problem Facebook has in persuading lawmakers that users can safeguard their own information if they carefully manage their personal settings and that further legislation governing Facebook's use of data is unnecessary.

"How can consumers have control over their data when Facebook does not have control over the data?" asked representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce committee, at the beginning of the hearing.