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Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook made mistakes in massive data breach

Aaron Dahmen
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out for the first time since news broke of a massive Facebook data breach  Wikimedia Commons

Cambridge Analytica allegedly used information obtained from over 50 million Facebook users to sway elections around the world, including the 2016 American Presidential election.

The social media network is making big changes to data protection in the wake of the biggest breach in its history.

A personality quiz installed by over 300,000 people first gave Cambridge University researcher Alexandr Kogan access to the data in 2013. 

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company needs to do more to protect the data of its users. 

"We made mistakes... things need to change. [It's] time to step up and do it."

It was his first public statement since the breach was made public, ironically on his own personal Facebook profile.

Zuckerberg said the company will now audit large apps and remove developer access to data if the app has not been used in three months.

Facebook also plans to implement a tool allowing users to revoke data, or edit permissions from apps connected to their account.

Over 2.2 billion active users are registered on Facebook, the largest social media network in the world.