Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a rare television interview Wednesday Facebook clearly made a mistake in its part in an illegal data collection scandal.
"This was a major breach of trust. I am really sorry this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people's data," he told cnn.
Zuckerberg did not elaborate on what mistake Facebook made, but he promised to check all apps and do a full forensic audit.
He also told cnn he is sure someone is trying to meddle in the upcoming November midterm U.S. congressional elections. He said Facebook is "really committed" to stop anyone from interfering in the elections through Facebook, including upcoming votes in Brazil and India.
Facebook disclosed Friday that it has known since 2017 that British researcher Aleksandr Kogan illegally shared users' information with a research firm, after collecting that data legally through an application for a personality quiz.
The research firm is alleged to have illegally used the data of an estimated 50 million Facebook users to build profiles for U.S. political campaigns, including the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
Facebook has been criticized for failing to alert its users to the incident in 2017. Wednesday was the first time Zuckerberg publicly addressed the issue.
脸书（Facebook）创始人扎克伯格星期三罕见接受电视采访时说，在有关非法收集用户信息的丑闻中，脸书明显有错。
他对美国的有线电视资讯网（cnn）说：“这是严重违背信任。我对发生的事情十分抱歉。我们负有保护用户信息的基本责任。”
扎克伯格没有具体说脸书犯了什么错误，但是保证将检查所有的应用件（APP）并进行全面核查。
扎克伯格还对cnn说，他肯定有人试图干预将于11月举行的美国国会中期选举，脸书承诺将阻止任何人通过其平台干预选举，也包括即将在巴西和印度举行的选举。
脸书星期五披露，它从2017年就知道英国研究人员柯根从脸书的一个个人测验APP收集了用户数据后与一家研究公司非法分享。这家公司据称非法利用大约5000万脸书用户的数据为包括川普竞选阵营在内的政治竞选阵营提供选民分析。
脸书因为没有在2017年立即通知其用户而受到批评。星期三是扎克伯格第一次公开承认这个问题。