Mozilla will pause paying for ads on Facebook because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

• Software company Mozilla has announced that it's pausing paying for ads on Facebook because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• The company said that it will consider restarting the ads when Facebook strengthens its default privacy settings.
• It has also launched a petition calling for more strict default privacy settings.

Software company Mozilla has announced that it's pausing its advertising on Facebook because of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The company said in a blog post published on Wednesday that "When Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, specifically strengthening its default privacy settings for third party apps, we'll consider returning."

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Mozilla's foundation is also running a petition calling on Facebook to change default app permissions and "respect" its users.

Here's Mozilla's full blog post:

"Mozilla is pressing pause on our Facebook advertising. Facebook knows a great deal about their two billion users - perhaps more intimate information than any other company does. They know everything we click and like on their site, and know who our closest friends and relationships are. Because of its scale, Facebook has become one of the most convenient platforms to reach an audience for all companies and developers, whether a multibillion corporation or a not-for-profit.

We understand that Facebook took steps to limit developer access to friends' data beginning in 2014. This was after Facebook started its relationship with Cambridge University Professor Aleksandr Kogan, whose decision to share data he collected from Facebook with Cambridge Analytica is currently in the news. This news caused us to take a closer look at Facebook's current default privacy settings given that we support the platform with our advertising dollars. While we believe there is still more to learn, we found that its current default settings leave access open to a lot of data - particularly with respect to settings for third party apps.

We are encouraged that Mark Zuckerberg has promised to improve the privacy settings and make them more protective. When Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, specifically strengthening its default privacy settings for third party apps, we'll consider returning.

We look forward to Facebook instituting some of the things that Zuckerberg promised today."