Rep. Larry Bucshon (R., Ind.) is one of the millions of Americans who believe his phone is surreptitiously eavesdropping on him in order to serve him ads and other online content.

In Wednesday's hearing, Mr. Bucshon recounted the story of how he and his mother-in-law were discussing a dead relative. Shortly after, an item about the same relative appeared in her Facebook feed. He said his son had a similar experience when talking about buying suits and was served clothing ads shortly after.

"If you're not listening to us on the phone, who is? And do you have specific contracts with these companies that will provide data that is being acquired verbally?" Mr. Bucshon asked.

Facebook and other tech companies have long denied they are using a smartphone's mic to record people without their permission. Mr. Zuckerberg repeated that denial before the House panel Wednesday. (He also addressed the issue as a "conspiracy theory" in Tueasday's Senate session.)

"My understanding is that a lot of these cases that you're talking about are a coincidence," Mr. Zuckerberg said. "Or someone might be talking about something but then they also go to a website or interact with it on Facebook because they were talking about it and then they'll see the ad because of that."

Mr. Bucshon remained unconvinced.

"It's pretty obvious to me that someone is listening to me on the audio on our phones. I see that as a pretty big issue," he said.

The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern examined the prevalence of that conspiracy theory last month in an article. In speaking to experts, she concluded that collecting that much audio data on cell phone users would strain the capacity of even the nation's spy services.

"Facebook is now so good at watching what we do online—and even offline, wandering around the physical world—it doesn’t need to hear us," she concluded.</s>The senators groused and grimaced and expressed general disapproval with all that has gone wrong at Facebook, but they stopped short of giving its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, reason for panic on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Zuckerberg’s five-hour grilling by 44 lawmakers confirmed Facebook is in for a prolonged period of government scrutiny, but also highlighted how unprepared Congress is to impose game-changing rules on the world’s biggest social network.

Once lawmakers finally got Zuckerberg where they wanted him — under oath and forced to answer all their questions about Facebook’s role in the 2016 election and its lax privacy protections — they struggled to articulate how exactly they want his company to change.

WATCH LIVE: Lawmakers to grill Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg over data-privacy scandal »

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The proceedings brought into stark relief how San Francisco Bay Area innovation can be more nimble than Washington bureaucracy. Zuckerberg had to spend a good deal of time explaining the basic workings of Facebook, such as how its Messenger app functions. The biggest revelation to come out of the hearing may have been that Facebook has been approached by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and is cooperating with his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

As the highly anticipated hearing that was supposed to be a reckoning for Facebook stretched toward evening, the company’s stock price lifted; investors watching it did not see signs that lawmakers were equipped and ready to rein in the company.

Instead, the lawmakers mostly aired grievances. They had many.

Among the notable exchanges was one in which Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) demanded of Zuckerberg: “Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?” No, Zuckerberg would not. Durbin emphasized that the loss of control of such personal details by Facebook users necessitated the hearing.

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They drilled down on privacy invasions and other issues dogging Facebook, such as foreign operatives using the platform to influence elections, a proliferation of hate speech and calls for ethnic violence in Myanmar, and its vulnerability to discriminatory marketing practices. Again and again, Zuckerberg was asked how the data of 87 million unsuspecting Facebook users landed in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked on the Trump campaign.

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” Zuckerberg said in his opening statement.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein demanded to know why Cambridge Analytica wasn’t banned when Facebook learned it had abused the platform years ago. California Sen. Kamala Harris demanded to know why Facebook waited until the media learned of the abuse — only months ago — to inform its users about it.

“In retrospect, we clearly view it as a mistake that we didn’t inform people,” Zuckerberg said. “Knowing what we know now, we should have handled a lot of things differently.”

If the tech icon who favors hoodies and gray T-shirts felt out of place in his Washington attire of a dark suit and bright blue tie, it didn’t show. Zuckerberg — who is also scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday — confidently answered questions and rarely stumbled.

Pressed on whether Facebook should be regulated more, Zuckerberg said he would support the “right regulations” that “capture the nuances of how these services work.”

Working in Facebook’s favor is the reluctance of Republicans to impose rules more strict than those the company already seems to be embracing. But even they warned they are tired of the company’s long history of abusing the trust of users, publicly apologizing and then repeating the cycle again.

“I don’t want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God I will,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “I just don’t feel like we are connecting. There are going to be a whole bunch of bills introduced to regulate Facebook. It is up to you whether they pass or not.”

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The Menlo Park, Calif., company has been on the defense since it downplayed the effect of Russian interference on its platform during the 2016 presidential election. The widening Cambridge Analytica scandal has also resulted in a new Federal Trade Commission investigation into whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree requiring the company to properly inform users about changes to their privacy settings.

The biggest threat to Facebook, however, would be new regulations that challenge the company’s lifeblood: access to increasing amounts of personal data from its 2 billion users.

Such access is necessary, Zuckerberg argued, to support Facebook’s ad-driven business model.

“We want to offer a free service anyone can afford,” Zuckerberg told the lawmakers. “It’s the only way we can reach billions of people.”

Rather than wait for regulation, Facebook in recent days has announced a slew of changes aimed at boosting transparency for users and limiting how much data is accessible to outside apps. Zuckerberg has also expressed support for the Honest Ads Act, a bipartisan proposal to apply the same disclosure rules to political ads online as those on television or print media.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), however, challenged Zuckerberg on the issue of competition, asking the executive if he thought Facebook was a monopoly.

“It certainly doesn’t feel that way to me,” Zuckerberg said, eliciting chuckles in the room.

Asked if new privacy rules introduced by European regulators were appropriate, Zuckerberg was less than specific in his response. “I think they get things right,” he said, drawing even more laughter.

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After the hearing, Graham said the “dark side” of Facebook needs to be addressed, and the government may not have the tools to address it. “It could possibly take the creation of new laws and regulations to deal with this platform,” he said in a statement.

Some Democrats are ready to impose them immediately. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Facebook’s business model would always favor data collection over user privacy and security, and new laws are needed to keep it in check.

“We’ve seen the apology tours before,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t see how you can change your business model unless there are specific rules of the road.”

He and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pressured Zuckerberg to support their Consent Act, which would require tech companies to get explicit permission from users before using or sharing their personal data.

Zuckerberg said he supports the principle of consent but declined to endorse any such bill, saying “the details [of a bill] matter a lot.” Markey retorted that the act is a carbon copy of the new European regulation Facebook is going to have to live with starting next month.

But the measure has limited traction in a Congress conflicted about how to oversee a tech powerhouse that has had a profound effect on democracy but operates in a way many still struggle to understand. The platform is so widely used by voters that any unintended consequences of regulations could have considerable political fallout.

One of the few senators able to rattle Zuckerberg was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who complained the platform was censoring conservative content.

“There are a great many of Americans deeply concerned Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship,” Cruz said. Among his complaints: The muting of a Chick-fil-A appreciation page and the page of Trump supporters Diamond and Silk.

Zuckerberg said Facebook was a platform for all ideas and dismissed a suggestion from Cruz that conservatives were not getting hired at the company. He said Facebook did not fire Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey because of his political ideology, but would not elaborate on the reason for the termination.

Concerns that the company is also failing to police at the fringes were also fired at Zuckerberg.

Senators pressed him about the spread of misinformation and hate speech in Myanmar that has fueled additional violence against the Southeast Asian nation’s Rohingya minority group. Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) asked why the onus always seems to be on users to flag problematic content rather than the company itself.

He relayed an anecdote involving an erroneous photograph he discovered of himself that was being shared on Facebook..

“Isn’t it Facebook’s job to better protect users?” he asked.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the problems exist — but suggested the company is already ahead of Congress in addressing it. He noted there are 20,000 employees engaged in monitoring and security at Facebook, and the company is “hiring dozens of more Burmese language content reviewers.”

Along with that human oversight, Zuckerberg proposed a technological solution to a technological problem.

He said artificial intelligence and sophisticated algorithms will be part of the company’s broader plan to weed out bad actors on its platform. Lawmakers posed few questions on that.

david.pierson@latimes.com

Follow me @dhpierson on Twitter

UPDATES:

6:30 p.m.: This article was entirely rewritten to include broader political context.

4:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Maggie Hassan.

3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Sens. Kamala Harris and John Kennedy.

3:10 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Dean Heller.

2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with details about testimony regarding Myanmar.

2:15 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Christopher Coons.

1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated after questions from Sen. Ted Cruz.

1:15 p.m.: This article was updated after questions from Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

12:55 p.m.: This article was updated after questions began to focus on regulation.

12:10 p.m.: This article was updated after the hearing began.

This article was originally published at 6 a.m.</s>The acting chief executive officer of Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm embroiled in controversy after improperly sharing data from some 87 million Facebook users, has stepped down. Alexander Tayler is the second CEO to step down since the scandal broke in March.

A statement on Cambridge Analytica's website says Tayler will resume his former position as chief data officer "in order to focus on the various technical investigations and inquiries."

The announcement comes during a moment of particular prominence: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying Wednesday before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, in part about that scandal. He testified in an hours-long joint session before two Senate committees on Tuesday.

In March, Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica from its platform after an investigation from The Observer of London and The New York Times revealed that the firm improperly accessed user data. Facebook users who downloaded an app developed by Cambridge University psychology professor Aleksandr Kogan gave personal data to the firm — as well as information from their Facebook friends who had not downloaded the app.

Facebook said it learned of Cambridge Analytica's violation in 2015, and was told by the firm that the data was deleted. Those assurances may have been false.

Though no members of the London-based company appeared before Congress, Cambridge Analytica advocated for itself online as Zuckerberg testified on Tuesday, denying any wrongdoing.

Cambridge Analytica has maintained that it deleted the data it received from Kogan's app when it learned that its retrieval violated Facebook's terms of service, and has denied that data acquired via the app was "used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign."

Cambridge Analytica suspended its previous CEO, Alexander Nix, one day after he alluded to tactics of the firm that may have violated U.S. campaign finance laws in a hidden-camera expose by Britain's Channel 4. "His suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation," the company's board of directors said in a statement.

Rep. Tony Carednas, D-Calif., brought up the announcement of Tayler leaving the CEO post to Zuckerberg as the Facebook chief testified before the House committee on Tuesday. Zuckerberg offered no comment on the change.

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., asked Zuckerberg if Facebook was planning to sue Cambridge Analytica. "There were a number of other researchers who were building similar apps," Zuckerberg replied. "So we do need to understand whether there is something bad going on at Cambridge University overall that will require a stronger action from us."

Facebook began to notify users whose data was shared by the company earlier this week.</s>Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. That's what we're all mad about now. Or maybe the more cynical among us are just rolling their eyes. Either way, aren't you a little bit curious about whether Cambridge Analytica accessed your personal Facebook data? Soon we'll be able to find out ourselves. Here's how.

As part of its efforts to salvage its reputation and win back user trust, Facebook will be allowing users to check if their data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica. This initiative began on Monday, but is only being rolled out gradually, so don't worry if you haven't seen it yet.

Facebook users should soon see a message at the top of the Newsfeed, titled "Protecting Your Information". The content of the message will differ depending on whether the user was directly affected by Cambridge Analytica's data harvesting or not.

If you or one of your friends used Alexander Kogan's app—called "This Is Your Digital Life"—you will see a message specifically concerning Cambridge Analytica.

"We have banned the website 'This Is Your Digital Life,' which one of your friends used Facebook to log into," the message reads. "You can learn more about what happened and how you can remove other apps and websites any time if you no longer want them to have access to your Facebook information."

Those who weren't affected will instead get a direct link to Facebook's Apps and Websites privacy settings, where they can see which apps have access to their data, and the option to remove them.

This new function rolls out at the same time that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify before Congress about Cambridge Analytica. As the Facebook boss prepares to defend his company in front of the US government, the social network is also scrambling to reassure its users by reworking its privacy policy and settings, as well as auditing third party apps on the site.

What does it mean if I get the Cambridge Analytica warning?

Back in 2013, Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University researcher, designed a personality quiz app called "This is Your Digital Life," which collected the personal information of around 300,000 users.
• How to see which apps are tracking you on Facebook and stop them
• Why Mark Zuckerberg won't fix the problems with Facebook

Facebook's structure allowed the app to access data from friends of the quiz takers (with around 87 million total) without their consent, and then share the information with Cambridge Analytica. The data analytics firm then used the data to help the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
• How to save your data and permanently delete your Facebook account

Facebook's new tool will enable you to see for yourself if your own personal information was used in this effort. While your personal feelings on the matter may vary, enough users have been outraged by this that a backlash has gained momentum, urging people to #DeleteFacebook.

Have you received this notification? How do you feel about Facebook's attempt at transparency?</s>Some Facebook users can now see whether their data may have been obtained by political data firm Cambridge Analytica.

On Monday, the social media giant began rolling out a "see how you're affected" tool at the top of News Feeds to inform users if they're among the tens of millions of people who had their data improperly harvested by Cambridge Analytica.

The full roll out will happen over time, so not all users will see the link at the same time.

Users who were not affected will see a different link highlighting which apps are connected to their Facebook accounts and what data those third parties can see. The link also directs users to a tool that allows them to disconnect apps from accounts.

Related: What you need to know about Facebook's data debacle

Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to "show everyone a tool at the top of your News Feed with the apps you've used and an easy way to revoke those apps' permissions to your data."

Facebook has also said it will reviews thousands of apps to search for additional abuse.

"If we find developers that misused personally identifiable information, we will ban them and tell everyone affected by those apps," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook has been under fire since the Cambridge Analytica news broke last month. The controversy has raised questions about whether the social media giant does enough to protect user information.

Last week, Facebook said Cambridge Analytica may have had information on about 87 million Facebook users without the users' knowledge. Previous reporting had put the number of users at about 50 million.

The data obtained was originally collected by University of Cambridge professor Aleksandr Kogan who used an app called "thisisyourdigitallife," which offered a personality test. Facebook users who downloaded the app granted it permission to collect data on their location, friends and things they Liked. The data collection was allowed by Facebook at the time.

However, Facebook has said that Kogan violated its terms of service by giving the information to Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook banned Kogan and Cambridge Analytica from its platform last month ahead of a New York Times investigative report about how the data was passed on.

On Tuesday, Zuckerberg will appear before Congress to discuss the data controversy.</s>
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday.
• He was there to explain the role his company played in the improper handling of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• During the questioning, Zuckerberg confirmed thathe was among the as many as 87 million users whose personal information was improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica.
• Zuckerberg didn't specify whether he downloaded the app that harvested his data himself, or whether his information was compromised via a friend.

Not even Facebook's CEO was safe in the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal.

During his second round of Congressional hearings on Wednesday, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg a string of questions about Facebook's responsibility to users, demanding "Yes" or "No" answers for the of her allotted four minutes.

When asked whether his data was among the 87 million users whose information was compromised, Zuckerberg answered "yes," providing no further explanation.

Only 270,000 users actually installed the personality quiz that data analytics company Cambridge Analytica used to gather information used to sway voter decisions during the 2016 election. The quiz harvested the personal data of those users' friends, bringing the total number of those affected to 87 million users, meaning there's no way to know for sure whether Zuckerberg himself downloaded the application or had a Facebook friend who did it instead.

Zuckerberg will be answering questions from 55 members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce about Facebook's responsibility to users and the related scandals the company may have been involved in.

You can keep up with Wednesday's testimony on our live blog, or catch up on yesterday's joint hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation here.</s>Are you one of the 87 million people affected by the Cambridge Analytica data leak? Starting today, Facebook is adding a note at the top of News Feeds that will let you know if your information was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook will show you one of the two messages below: If your data was included in the leak, you will see the message on the right; if not, you'll see the one on the left.

"We have banned the website 'This is Your Digital Life,' which one of your friends used Facebook to log into," the message for affected individuals reads. "We did this because the website may have misused some of your Facebook information by sharing it with a company called Cambridge Analytica."

Facebook goes on to say that it's "committed to confronting abuse and to putting you in control of your privacy."

Under the message will be a link where you can learn more information about the leak and see how you're affected. Whether you're affected or not, it's smart to visit your Facebook Settings and remove all the apps and websites you no longer want connected to your account. For detailed instructions on how to do that, head here.

Thus far, the alerts have not yet rolled out to anyone at PCMag, but it's still early on the West Coast.

The leak dates back to 2013 when Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan developed a personality test app called thisisyourdigitallife, billed as "a research app used by psychologists." It gathered data, with permission, from 270,000 Facebook users. That information should have remained with Kogan, but he instead gave it to Cambridge Analytica, an analytics firm best known for its work on the Donald Trump campaign, which used it to build profiles on potential voters for GOP candidates.

Since thisisyourdigitallife provided access to users' friends, the leak extended well beyond the 270,000 people who downloaded the app. After calculating and tallying up the maximum possible number of friends each person who downloaded it had at any given time, Facebook last week said the leak affected up to 87 million people, most of whom reside in the US.

Meanwhile, Facebook today confirmed it has suspended another developer, CubeYou, for allegedly engaging in Cambridge Analytica-style data collection tactics. The CubeYou discovery comes as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress this week about the Cambridge Analytica leak.</s>WASHINGTON (CBS News) – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces another day of grilling on Capitol Hill as he testifies before the House Energy & Commerce committee on Wednesday.

Zuckerberg slogged through more than five hours of questioning Tuesday in front of senators, deflecting numerous questions for follow-up by his team at a later date.

Lawmakers did land a few uncomfortable punches, however. Zuckerberg, flanked by two senior Facebook policy officers, was forced to admit that employees were working with the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling, and also that he did not know about terms and conditions that put Facebook on notice that millions of users’ data would be sold.

The 54-member House committee will continue a line of questioning on Facebook’s treatment of user data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.</s>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing regarding the company’s use and protection of user data on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
• Mark Zuckerberg faced a tough day of questioning on his second day of US Congressional questioning on Wednesday.
• The Facebook CEO was grilled over what data Facebook collects, and his answers were often evasive and unsatisfying.
• Republican lawmakers were largely focused on allegations of anti-conservative bias at the social network.
• It comes after a Senate hearing on Tuesday, in which Zuckerberg avoided any real upsets.

Mark Zuckerberg's second day of congressional testimony didn't go quite as smoothly as his first.

When the Facebook CEO appeared before a US Senate joint committee hearing on Tuesday to answer questions on Facebook's scandals, there were no real upsets or scandalous remarks. He stuck closely to talking points, and the technical illiteracy of many lawmakers was on painful display.

In round two on Wednesday, in front of a committee of the House of Representatives, the 33-year-old chief executive was grilled more closely for around five hours, and at times failed to answer key questions as he pivoted robotically back to pre-prepared lines.

With just four minutes of questioning allowed per representative, however, Zuckerberg was never pushed as far as he could have been. And many of the lawmakers present were primarily preoccupied with allegations of anti-conservative bias at Facebook, a line of questioning that failed to produce any illuminating answers.

Congresspeople including Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Tim Walberg (R-PI) hit Zuckerberg with a laundry list of occassions when Facebook has been perceived to have been censoring conservatives. Pro-Trump internet personalities Diamond & Silk were brought up time and time again, in light of how the social network recently labeled their videos as "unsafe." Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) even relayed a question from the vloggers: "What is unsafe about two black women supporting Donald J. Trump?"

Zuckerberg disputed the assertion, attributing the Diamond & Silk situation to error on the part of moderators, saying: "I wouldn't extrapolate from a few examples to assuming the overall system is biased."

The executive, who has never been a natural public speaker, stumbled more when grilled by technically adept members of Congress, and seemed unwilling to go into detail about exactly what data Facebook collects and how.

Under questioning from Representative Ben Luján (D-NM), the CEO was unable to say how many categories of data Facebook collects— both on users of its service, and on those users who have never signed up for an account, but it profiles anyway.

When Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) asked if Facebook has legal liability for content shared on Facebook, he punted and starting talking about unrelated changes the social network made in 2014 to its app platform.

And the exec failed to give straight answers when Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) asked about certain kinds of data Facebook collects, attempting to shift to a rehearsed talking point: "Congresswoman, the primary way that Facebook works is that people choose to share data, and they share content because they're trying to communicate."

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) summarized Zuckerberg's sometimes-deficient responses in a remark towards the end of the hearing: "As CEO, you didn't know some key facts. You didn't know about major court cases regarding your privacy policies against your company. You didn't know that FTC doesn't have fining authority and that Facebook could not have received fines for the 2011 consent order."

She continued: "You didn't know what a shadow profile was. You didn't know how many apps you need to audit. You did not know how many firms have been sold data by Dr. Kogan, other than Cambridge Analytica and Eunoia Technologies, even though you were asked that question yesterday. And yes, we were all paying attention. You don't even know all the kinds of information Facebook is collecting from its own users. "

I n Tuesday's hearings, Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook employees have been interviewed by the special counsel's office as part of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, and he conceded that he doesn't think most users read Facebook's terms of service.

There were less explosive revelations on Wednesday — though the CEO did admit that, like tens of millions of other Facebook users, his personal data has been scraped and obtained by Cambridge Analytica.

He also said Facebook was considering legal action following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, both against the research firm itself, the researcher Aleksander Kogan who sold user data to the firm, and Cambridge University where Kogan worked.</s>Mark Zuckerberg is on Capitol Hill to deliver one of the most high-profile mea culpas in tech history.

The 33-year-old multibillionaire is testifying before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday and then talking to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

His task: to answer questions about the biggest scandal to hit Facebook since it was founded 14 years ago and to reassure lawmakers, investors, advertisers and 2.2 billion users that Facebook can be trusted with their data.

"My top priority has always been our social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer together," Zuckerberg said in prepared remarks released Monday ahead of Wednesday's House committee meeting. "Advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I'm running Facebook."

Zuckerberg has a lot of convincing to do. In March, Facebook was forced to acknowledge that data about millions of users was shared without their permission. That admission came only after a whistleblower gave the details to The New York Times and The Guardian's Observer, which revealed that University of Cambridge lecturer Aleksandr Kogan had created an app several years ago that could collect profile, location and friends data for hundreds of thousands of people by promising a personality quiz in exchange.

Through those people, he was able to collect friends information from as many as 87 million people's profiles, Facebook said. Kogan then reportedly passed along all that info to a UK-based political data analytics firm called Cambridge Analytics.

Facebook found out about the episode and in 2015 asked Kogan and Cambridge Analytica to sign documents promising the data had been destroyed. It didn't publicly disclose any of this until a day before the news stories about the arrangement were published.

The news that Facebook lost control of its users' data, and that it said nothing publicly in the years since, has raised a fundamental question of trust in the world's largest social network. Facebook is a free service that makes its money -- more than $40 billion in sales in 2017 -- by capitalizing on the details and information that its users share.

Some advertisers have already ditched Facebook, users have started a campaign called #DeleteFacebook on Twitter and prominent tech executives -- including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook -- have berated the company. Musk, who deleted Tesla and SpaceX pages from Facebook, said the social network gave him "the willies."

"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm," Zuckerberg said in his prepared testimony. "That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake."

Interest in Zuckerberg's testimony has only been exacerbated by the company's mishandling of the scandal. Facebook put out a statement late on a Friday before the initial stories were published, then Zuckerberg remained silent for days before finally agreeing to a few interviews. In those interviews, he began the line he's followed since: He's sorry, Facebook screwed up, and they're going to fix this.

Zuckerberg has two jobs while appearing at this week's hearings. His first is to apologize -- believably -- according to public relations and policy experts. The second is reassure the lawmakers he's answering to, who will likely use the event to grandstand against the California-based CEO.

"With all of the data exchanged over Facebook and other platforms, users deserve to know how their information is shared and secured," Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the US Senate's Committee on the Judiciary, said in a statement last week.

Not everyone's convinced Zuckerberg will succeed. Saturday Night Live skewered him over the weekend, with an impression of Zuckerberg as being unwilling to delete people's data ("You gave it to me. No backsies," parody-Zuckerberg said) and uncaring about the magnitude of the scandal around him. "Sure, maybe Facebook sold out our democracy to Russian troll farms. My bad?" SNL's faux Zuckerberg said with a snarky shrug.

Meanwhile, the real Zuckerberg has promised to fix networks' issues around "privacy, safety and democracy." In response to the scandal, Facebook has reset its advertising and data policies. For example, it's its stopped working with third-party data providers like Acxiom and Experian to help marketers target ads at Facebook users. It's also booted other data analysis firms, including AggregateIQ and CubeYou, that have been accused of misusing data.

The social network is also limiting the data it will share with outside developers. Facebook is going to approve all apps that request access to information such as check-ins, likes, photos, posts, videos, events and groups.

Facebook's "Login" feature for easily signing up to use apps, which Kogan's app used to collect the data he allegedly passed onto Cambridge Analytica, will also be further locked down. As of last week, software developers won't be able to ask for personal information, such as religious affiliation, political views, relationship status, education and work history.

Facebook also said last week it's disabling a feature that allowed you to search for other users' profiles by typing phone numbers and email addresses into the social network's search box. Facebook said that left users vulnerable to having their public profiles "scraped," or collected, by bad actors. The company also put more limits on what information developers could gather from a handful of Facebook services, including its Events, Groups and Pages features. For example, apps will no longer get to see the guest list for an Event page, or the member list for a Group page.

In his testimony, Zuckerberg said that even if foreign actors or third-party developers misbehave, the buck stops with him. "I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here," he said. "It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I'm committed to getting it right."

Cambridge Analytica: Everything you need to know about Facebook's data mining scandal.

iHate: CNET looks at how intolerance is taking over the internet.
United States senators question Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the various controversies the social network is dealing with, including recent disclosures concerning Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook data.