Clare’s Junior Minister insists that safeguards will be in place to ensure that the online data of people in this country is protected.
Pat Breen is commenting after it emerged that a British firm gained access to million’s of user’s private details from Facebook.
Facebook Boss Mark Zuckerberg has now broken his silence on the matter after four days.
The founder of Facebook has apologised for the breach of trust between his company and users, following the revelation that millions of profiles were allegedly used by Cambridge Analytica, in an attempt to influence elections.
Mark Zuckerbeg has admitted that Facebook made mistakes in it’s handling of the matter, saying it had “a basic responsibility to protect people’s data” and if it can’t do that, it doesn’t “deserve the opportunity to serve people”.
He’s promised a full forensic audit to find out if anyone else is improperly using members data, and has promised to ensure that nothing similar ever happens again.
It’s expected that Facebook bosses will be called before an Oireachtas committee over the matter.
Clare’s Junior Minister Pat Breen, whose responsibilities include data protection, has admitted that it is concerning that anyone can advertise content that could influence political voters here.
But he doesn’t believe it will be an issue here after Facebook introduces promised safeguards, and after data protection legislation kicks in from May.
Facebook’s share price has tumbled in recent days on account of the controversy, but the company hasn’t seen a significant number of people deleting their profile.
These people in Clare told us how they feel about the social media platform.
