Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that Facebook worked as they designed it when it shared 87 million users’ data with a researcher who then turned around and sold it to a political consultancy tied to the Trump campaign.
The company founder, testifying to Congress, said all of those users should have been aware that their data could be harvested that way — and they consented to it at some point during their use of Facebook.
“The system basically worked as it was designed,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “This issue is that we designed the system in a way that wasn’t good.”
He said the breakdown came later, when a professor who developed an app for the Facebook platform sold the data he harvested.
“That’s in violation of our terms,” he said.
He said they have since taken steps “locking down the platform” to prevent app developers from being able to collect, hold and sell the amount of data involved in the past breach.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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