Cambridge Analytica
- Breach of trust; sorry we let it happen; took steps in 2014 to stop it happening again.
- Quiz app designed by Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.
- People who used app gave Kogan FB information like public profile, page likes, friend list + birthday; same for friends’ whose settings allowed sharing; NO credit card/SSN info.
- Kogan sold to CA in violation of our terms; when we found out, told them to delete data.
- Confirmed they had — now seems untrue. Should have done more to audit + tell people.
- Didn’t think enough about abuse; rethinking every part of our relationship with people.
Compensation
- Important issue but no credit card information or SSN shared.
- People gave Kogan access to Facebook information like their public profile, page likes, friend list, birthday; same for friends’ whose settings allowed sharing.
- 2014 changes mean it couldn’t happen now; restricted apps’ access to data even further.
Reverse lookup (scraping)
- Found out about abuse two weeks ago, shut it down.
- Useful to find someone by phone number/email; if people have the same name.
- Malicious actors linked public info (name, profile photo, gender, user ID) to phone numbers they already had; shut it down. Need to do more to prevent abuse.
Accountability
- Fire people for CA?: It’s about how we designed the platform. That was my responsibility. Not going to throw people under the bus.
- Do you ever fire anyone?: Yes; hold people accountable all the time; not going to go into specifics.
- Resign?: Founded Facebook. My decisions. I made mistakes. Big challenge, but we’ve solved problems before, going to solve this one. Already taking action.
- No accountability for MZ?: Accountable to you, to employees, to people who use FB.
Data safety:
- I use FB every day, so does my family, invest a lot in security.
- Made mistakes, working hard to fix them.
- Giving people more controls, just yesterday stated showing people their app controls.
Business model (ads)
- Want FB to be a service that everyone can use, has to be free, can only do that with ads.
- Key for me is mission — helping people connect. Business model supports that mission.
- Let’s be clear: Facebook doesn’t sell data. You own your information. We give you controls.
- People know [...] need ads; tell us if they have to see ads, want them to be relevant.
[...]/wellbeing
- Facebook [...] not time spent; time spent fell 5% Q4; pivot to MSI.
- [...]ssesm[..] to communicate with kids; MK gives parents control.
- [...] like N[...] have commercial ads. We have no plans to do so.
Defend Facebook
- [If attacked: Respectfully, I reject that. Not who we are.]
- Billions people globally use FB every day to connect to the people that matter.
- Families reconnected, people met and gotten married, movements organized, tens of millions of SMBs now have better tools to grow and create jobs.
- More work to do, but can’t lose sight of all the ways people are using FB for good.
Tim Cook on biz model
- Bezos: “Companies that work hard to charge you more and companies that work hard to charge you less.”
- At FB, we try hard to charge you less. In fact, we’re free.
- [On data, we’re similar. When you install an app on your iPhone, you give it access to some information, just like when you login with FB.
- Lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data, never seen Apple notify people.
- Important you hold everyone to the same standard.]
Disturbing content
- It’s very disturbing; and sadly we do see bad things on Facebook.
- Should have no place on our service; community standards prohibit hate, bullying, terror.
- Working to be more proactive; AI, hiring more people e.g. terror, e.g. suicide.
- Will never be perfect; but making huge investments.
Election integrity (Russia)
- Too slow, making progress. France, Germany, Alabama.
- Midterms are important, but not just in the US — Brazil, Mexico, Hungary.
- Just announced committee of academics to commission independent research on social media on democracy.
Diversity
- Silicon valley has a problem, and Facebook is part of the problem.
- Personally care about making progress; long way to go [3% African American, 5% Hispanics].
Competition
- Consumer choice: consumers have lots of choice over how they spend their time
- Small part of ad market: advertisers have choices too — $650 billion market, we have 6%.
- Break up FB?: US tech companies key asset for America, break up strengthens Chinese companies.
GDPR (Don’t say we already do what GDPR requires)
- People deserve good privacy tools and controls wherever they live.
- We build everything to be transparent and give people control. GDPR does a few things:
- Provides control over data use — what we’ve done for a few years.
- Requires consent — done a little bit, now doing more in Europe and around the world.
- Get special consent for sensitive things e.g. facial recognition.
- Support privacy legislation that is practical, puts people in control and allows for innovation.