• Zuckerberg admits to Cambridge Analytica rumor.
• Facebook says calls and texts logging requires users’ permission.

Just last week, there was news of Facebook Inc. alleged leak of some 50 million users’ personal information to a British firm, Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica has supposedly worked for President Trump in the 2016 electoral campaign. Following that, several users have reported that the application has been accessing and logging users’ calls and SMS history without consent. All of these issues have led to the downfall of Facebook’s reputation and public image.

As a result, the United States Federal Trade Commission has stood out to announce the commencement of its official investigation to find out the role of this social media platform in conjunction with these issues.

In an official statement issued, Tom Pahl, the acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection has declared:

“The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield, or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act. Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements. Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.”

As soon as FTC issued the statement, there was a noticeable fall in the market share values of Facebook. Nonetheless, it recovered afterward on the day the entire market experienced about three percent increase, closing up a fraction of a point.

Brian Acton, one of the founders of WhatsApp, the application Facebook Inc. has procured four years ago with an estimated $19 billion, has backed up a trend on Twitter. The hashtag trend, #deleteFacebook continues to blowout. Unlike market values, however, the public opinion towards Facebook has not recuperated as effortlessly.

Towards the end of last week, Facebook finally came into the limelight to address the rumor. Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive of Facebook has admitted to the mistake. In response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he states that they will “step up” and improve their security.

 “We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward,” he says.

While Facebook has admitted to its fault regarding the Cambridge Analytica case, they have not accepted the blame over Facebook’s possible breach in security recently.

“This is not the case,” Facebook Inc. has denied in a statement. They insist that the application has not and will not log users’ calls and texts history without consent.

Last week’s reports have provided a brief clarification on the matter:

“Call and text history logging is part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android. This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about and provides you with a better experience across Facebook. People have to expressly agree to use this feature.”

Through this statement, Facebook attempts to clarify that any possible history logging has no doubt gained permission from users’ beforehand. Nonetheless, the company reassures all users of the safety of their application. This logging feature is apparently opt-in. When users initially download the application, they are provided with a brief explanation regarding the feature. While users are allowed both options, “Turn on” or “Not now”, Silicon Angle suggests that one is presented in a more appealing form than the other. In fact, users are strongly advised to check their settings because many have a habit of simply accepting the application’s service agreement without a close reading. Of course, Facebook reasserts that the data provided will not be sold nor given to an external source without users’ permissions. In addition, they have proclaimed that the feature “does not collect the content of your text messages or calls.”

Conversely, by disabling the feature and revoking your permissions in the future, “all previously shared call and text history shared via that app” will be removed.

Featured image via Pixabay