Zuckerberg forced to break his silence

Mark Zuckerberg is finally breaking his silence five days after a data scandal engulfed Facebook.
The Facebook CEO pledged in a post on Wednesday to take a series of steps to protect user data and said he is ultimately responsible for whatever happens on the platform.
"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again.

" I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I'm responsible for what happens on our platform. I'm serious about doing what it takes to protect our community. While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn't change what happened in the past. We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward."

Zuckerberg is also set to speak with CNN's Laurie Segall in an interview to be broadcast on "Anderson Cooper 360" at 9 p.m. ET.
News broke this weekend that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump's campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
Facebook says the data was initially collected by a professor for academic purposes in line with its rules. The information was later transferred to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook's policies.
The controversy wiped away nearly $50 billion from Facebook's stock price earlier this week and prompted politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to call for Zuckerberg to testify.
Facebook is now facing lawsuits from investors and users as well as a "delete Facebook" movement. The latest member of the latter: Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for $19 billion in 2014.
In his post on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said Facebook would further restrict developers' access to user data and promote an existing tool that helps users revoke permissions of apps accessing their data.
Zuckerberg also said Facebook is "working with regulators" conducting investigations into the Cambridge Analytica issue.
"I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I'm responsible for what happens on our platform," Zuckerberg said. "We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward."
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, also spoke out for the first time since the scandal erupted, calling it "a major violation of peoples' trust."
[Related: Fed up with Facebook? Here's how to protect your privacy and data] 
Here's everything you need to know about how to better control what's shared on Facebook:
How to (mostly) stop Facebook from sharing your data
Deleting or deactivating Facebook isn't an option for everyone -- you may not want to give up staying in touch with family and friends or participating in support groups.
But you may be surprised how many apps like Airbnb or Venmo you've logged into through the social network over the years. Services make it easy to log in with Facebook rather than requiring a separate username and password.
This raises concerns because users may not realize how much of their personal data those third-party apps gain access to.
To do some spring cleaning, you'll want to visit Facebook's App page under the Settings menu to see how many apps you have connected to your account. You can select which services you want to remove at the top of the page or disable all of them via Apps, Website and Plugins > Edit.
However, you won't be able to log into apps like Instagram or Spotify using your Facebook account anymore. Instead, you'll need to sign up for the service directly with a unique log in.
Keep in mind apps you've already installed could still have your shared information even after disabling the feature. You'll have to contact the app individually and ask for your data to be removed. Facebook doesn't give instructions on how to best reach out to the app.
Another thing you may not know: People on Facebook who can see your information can bring it with them when they use apps such as games. By selecting Settings > Apps > Apps Others Use, uncheck the boxes you don't want those apps to access, such as your birthday, hometown, and political views.
How to delete or deactivate your Facebook
Another way to protect your personal data is to permanently delete your account.
Facebook has a dedicated page to walk you through the steps. But you won't be able to reactivate your account or access any of the content or information you've shared, if you change your mind.
The process of wiping the associated data also takes a bit of time.
"It may take up to 90 days from the beginning of the deletion process to delete all of the things you've posted, like your photos, status updates or other data stored in backup systems. While we are deleting this information, it is inaccessible to other people using Facebook," the company says in its Help Center page.
Third-party apps will still have access to any personal data they stored, even after your Facebook account has been permanently deleted.
Facebook users can also opt to deactivate accounts in case they want to access them again. The deactivation option can be found in the Settings menu under Manage Account > Edit.
A disabled profile scrubs names and photos from Facebook, but some information could still be seen by other users, such as messages you previously sent.
If you're afraid of losing content you've posted on Facebook over the years, such as photos or statuses, you can preserve it via Settings > General > Download a copy of your Facebook data.

Thought you should Know
john  azdewars