“Facebook allowing that level or amount of information to get in the hands of the third party is [where] the buck stops right there. The third party Cambridge Analytica misusing and abusing that trust obviously is an issue. But in the end, consumers need to recognize that they are the product when they are providing their personal information to social media sites and that something like this, and how the data is being misused, should not be a surprise to anyone,” said Robert Siciliano, security analyst at Hotspot Shield, a virtual private network utility protecting users on the Internet.

His comment came after personal information from more than 50 million Facebook profiles was harvested by an app created by Dr. Aleksandr Kogan for a personality quiz. The information was then shared with the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to create targeted microcontent for individuals.

On his Facebook account, Zuckerberg posted “In 2015, we learned from journalists at The Guardian that Kogan had shared data from his app with Cambridge Analytica. We demanded that Kogan and Cambridge Analytica formally certify that they had deleted all improperly acquired data...  Last week, we learned from The Guardian, The New York Times and Channel 4 that Cambridge Analytica may not have deleted the data as they had certified.”

“Facebook knew about this for the last three years. For some reason, they did not do anything about it,” said Einar Tangen, current affairs commentator. He questioned, “what exactly Facebook has been doing during that time.”

He expressed concern about consumer protection. He thought that, even though consumers signed themselves up; they did not know exactly what are they signing up for. “It’s a bit of a stretch to say that you signed up for this and just take it on the chin and all these things... Younger people, or older people, or people do not know making decisions to do something which they think is fun, is actually giving them a window into other things,” Tangen said.

Siciliano argued that “Facebook needs to do a better job of vetting who’s accessing their data, and what they are using it for.” He also added “this should be a wake-up call for consumers and advertisers that Facebook’s providing enough information that could be used against you in a number of different ways. If you don’t see that now, it’s just a matter of time until you’re unduly influenced in another way.”