Mark Zuckerberg said it was “extremely glib” to suggest that because the public did not pay to use Facebook that it did not care about them.

Last week, Apple’s Tim Cook said it was an “invasion of privacy” to traffic in users’ personal lives.

And when asked what he would do if he were Mr Zuckerberg, Mr Cook replied: “I wouldn’t be in that situation.”

Facebook has faced intense criticism after it emerged that it had known for years that Cambridge Analytica had harvested data from about 50 million of its users, but had relied on the political consultancy to self-certify that it had deleted the information.

Channel 4 News has since reported that at least some of the data in question is still in circulation despite Cambridge Analytica insisting it had destroyed the material.

Mr Zuckerberg was asked about Mr Cook’s comments during a lengthy interview given to news site Vox about the privacy scandal.

He also acknowledged that Facebook was still not transparent enough about some of the choices it had taken, and floated the idea of an independent panel being able to override some of its decisions.

‘Dire situation’

Mr Cook has spoken in public twice since Facebook’s data-mining controversy began.

On 23 March, he took part in the China Development Forum in Beijing.

“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary,” news agency Bloomberg quoted him as saying in response to a question about the social network’s problems.

“The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life – from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist.”

Then in an interview with MSNBC and Recode on 28 March, Mr Cook said: “I think the best regulation is no regulation, is self-regulation. However, I think we’re beyond that here.”

During this second appearance – which has yet to be broadcast in full – he added: “We could make a tonne of money if we monetised our customer, if our customer was our product. We’ve elected not to do that… Privacy to us is a human right.”

Apple makes most of its profits from selling smartphones, tablets and other computers, as well as associated services such as online storage and its various media stores.

This contrasts with other tech firms whose profits are largely derived from advertising, including Google, Twitter and Facebook.

Mr Zuckerberg had previously told CNN that he was “open” to new regulations.

But he defended his business model when questioned about Mr Cook’s views, although he mentioned neither Apple nor its leader by name.

“I find that argument, that if you’re not paying that somehow we can’t care about you, to be extremely glib and not at all aligned with the truth,” he said.

“The reality here is that if you want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the world, then there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay.”

He added: “I think it’s important that we don’t all get Stockholm syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you, because that sounds ridiculous to me.”

Mr Zuckerberg also defended his leadership by invoking Amazon’s chief executive.

“I make all of our decisions based on what’s going to matter to our community and focus much less on the advertising side of the business,” he said.

“I thought Jeff Bezos had an excellent saying: “There are companies that work hard to charge you more, and there are companies that work hard to charge you less.”

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Source: BBC

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Cambridge Analytica is embroiled in a storm over claims it exploited the data of millions of Facebook users.

The BBC has seen a brochure published by parent company SCL Elections, it is believed prior to 2014.

It claims, for instance, that it organised rallies in Nigeria to weaken support for the opposition in 2007.

The UK Foreign Office says it was unaware of this alleged activity before SCL was awarded British government contracts in 2008.

Cambridge Analytica says it is looking into the allegations about SCL.

In the document, SCL Elections claimed potential clients could contact the company through “any British High Commission or Embassy”.

It also claims SCL received “List X” accreditation from the UK’s Ministry of Defence which provided “Government endorsed clearance to handle information protectively marked as ‘confidential’ and above”.

The brochure outlines how SCL Elections had apparently organised “anti-election rallies” to dissuade opposition supporters from voting in the Nigerian presidential election in 2007. The election was described by EU monitors as one of the least credible they had observed.

The document claims SCL Elections deliberately exploited ethnic tensions in Latvia in the 2006 national elections in order to help their client.

SCL also claims that ahead of the elections in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010, it orchestrated an “ambitious campaign of political graffiti” that “ostensibly came from the youth” so the client party could “claim credit for listening to a ‘united youth'”.

Most of the examples detailed in the brochure took place before the British government entered into at least six contracts with SCL.

The former Labour Foreign Office Minister and Cabinet minister Lord Hain has tabled a written question in the House of Lords on Monday for urgent clarification on the matter of Embassy endorsement. He told the BBC’s Sunday Politics show that the SCL case was “lifting the lid on a potential horror story” of other companies using data to manipulate voters.

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed SLC were given a provisional List X accreditation but had not had it since 2013.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “It is not now nor ever has been the case that enquiries for SCL ‘can be directed through any British High Commission or Embassy’.”

“Our understanding is that, at the time of the signing of the contract for project work in 2008/9, the FCO was not aware of SCL’s reported activity during the 2006 Latvian election or 2007 Nigerian election.”

In a statement, the acting CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Dr Alexander Tayler, said “Cambridge Analytica was formed in 2013, out of a much older company called SCL Elections.

“We take the disturbing recent allegations of unethical practices in our non-US political business very seriously. The board has launched a full and independent investigation into SCL Elections’ past practices, and its findings will be made available in due course.”

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Source: BBC

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