Poll: Facebook users more worried about privacy

Facebook users are increasingly worried about their privacy online amid revelations that political contractor Cambridge Analytica used the social media platform to obtain information on 87 million Americans without their consent, according to a new Gallup poll.

Forty-three percent of Facebook users surveyed said they were concerned about the invasion of privacy, while only 11 percent of users in the poll said they were “not concerned at all.” 

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The poll marks an uptick in the number of the platform’s users who say they are worried about privacy on Facebook. 

Thirty percent of Facebook users in 2011 said they were concerned about the invasion of privacy. 

Facebook is currently embroiled in a controversy with Cambridge Analytica, which was linked to the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election. 

The company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg held his own during lengthy testimony before a Senate panel on Tuesday. 

Zuckerberg apologized for the platform’s mistakes but sought to make the case that Facebook is a force for good to connect users around the world. 

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” Zuckerberg told the panel. 

“My top priority has always been our social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer together,” he said. “I believe deeply in what we’re doing. And when we address these challenges, I know we’ll look back and view helping people connect and giving more people a voice as a positive force in the world.”

The Gallup poll was conducted from April 2-8, 2018, among 1,509 adults living in the U.S. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.