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Published 13:15 IST, January 25th 2019

"We don't sell people's data, even though it's often reported that we do," says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Ahead of Facebook's 15th anniversary, Facebook's founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg defended his company saying they are is not selling users' data to anyone. Zuckerberg wrote an opinion piece the Wall Street Journal.

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"We don't sell people's data, even though it's often reported that we do," says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
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Ahead of Facebook's 15th anniversary, Facebook's founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg defended his company saying they are not selling users' data to anyone. Zuckerberg wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Zuckerberg's defence came after Facebook endured massive scrutiny over the way they managed data of more than two billion throughout recent data scandals.

"We don't sell people's data, even though it's often reported that we do," said Zuckerberg.

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Zuckerberg went to explain how Facebook creates categories to show ads to users based on pages they like, content they click on and more. He also said that users have control over what information Facebook can use to serve them ads and users can block any advertiser from reaching them.

"Clickbait and other junk may drive engagement in the near term, but it would be foolish for us to show this intentionally because it's not what people want," he added.

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Earlier, there was a report that Facebook had considered selling users' data to other companies via Graph API but later decided to act against it. Facebook's Graph API was an underlying issue in Cambridge Analytica data scandal last year.

Facebook is often accused of selling users' personal data to third-parties. Throughout last year, Facebook was severely criticised for their role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that shook Facebook to its very foundation.

Facebook was also scrutinised for being unable to address the suspicious involvement of Russians deep into its system. Despite their never-ending apology tour, Facebook is still answerable to users over a lot of different issues.

13:15 IST, January 25th 2019