Mark Zuckerberg apologises for Facebook's 'mistakes' over Cambridge Analytica

Following days of silence, CEO announces Facebook will change how it shares data with third-party apps and admits 'we made mistakes'

• The Cambridge Analytica saga is a scandal of Facebook's own making

Facebook is changing the way it shares data with third-party applications, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday in his first public statement since the Observer reported that the personal data of about 50 million Americans had been harvested and improperly shared with a political consultancy.

The Facebook CEO broke his five-day silence on the scandal that has enveloped his company this week in a Facebook post acknowledging that the policies that allowed the misuse of data were "a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it".