Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments that early users of his social network were ‘dumb f***s’ for trusting him with their data have re-emerged.

Zuckerberg made the shocking remark during an instant messenger conversation with a friend at the age of 19, shortly after launching the site.

First picked up on by the media in 2010, his comments have now re-surfaced in the wake of a privacy row involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.

The firm is reported to have bought data from 50 million Facebook users that was obtained without their permission.

This information is said to have been used to help elect President Donald Trump in the US, as well as to boost the Brexit campaign in the UK.

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's comments that early users of his social network were ‘dumb f***s’ for trusting him with their data have re-emerged. Zuckerberg made the shocking remark during an instant messenger conversation with a friend at the age of 19 (stock)

The leaked conversation was published in a Medium blog post by journalist Maria Bustillos.

Ms Bustillos it shows that Zuckerberg has a long history of disregarding the privacy expectations of users over handling of their data.

The conversation, which has since been discussed widely on social media, ran as follows:

Zuckerberg: Yea so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard, just ask. ‘i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns

Friend: what!? how’d you manage that one?

Zuckerberg: people just submitted it. i don’t know why. they “trust me”. dumb f***s.

Cambridge Analytica is the firm currently centre of a scandal over alleged misuse of Facebook users' personal data.

First picked up on by the media in 2010, the Facebook founder's comments have now re-surfaced in the wake of a privacy row involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. The firm is reported to have bought data from 50 million Facebook users obtained without permission

Cambridge Analytica, a communications firm based in London, was hired by the team behind Donald Trump's successful US presidential bid.

An affiliate of British firm Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), Cambridge Analytica has offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and Malaysia.

The company boasts it can 'find your voters and move them to action' through data-driven campaigns and a team that includes data scientists and behavioural psychologists.

'Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections,' with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica claims on its website.

Speaking to TechCrunch in 2017, CEO Alexander Nix said the firm was 'always acquiring more' data.

'Every day we have teams looking for new data sets,' he told the site.

This information obtained by Cambridge Analytica is said to have been used to help elect President Donald Trump in the US, as well as to boost the Brexit campaign in the UK. CEO Alexander Nix has said the firm was 'always acquiring more' data

As well as working on the election which saw Trump reach the White House, Cambridge Analytica has been involved in political campaigns around the world.

In the US, analysts harnessed data to generate thousands of messages targeting voters through their profiles on social media such as Facebook, Snapchat, or the Pandora Radio streaming service.

British press have credited Cambridge Analytica with providing services to pro-Brexit campaign Leave.EU, but Nix has denied working for the group.

Globally, Cambridge Analytica said it has worked in Italy, Kenya, South Africa, Colombia and Indonesia.

Cambridge Analytica stole information from 50 million Facebook users' profiles in the tech firm's biggest-ever data breach, according to the New York Times and the Observer.

This was designed to help them create software that can predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box.

University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan created a personality prediction test app, thisisyourdigitallife, which was downloaded by 270,000 people.

The tool allowed Kogan to access information such as content Facebook users had 'liked' and the city they listed on their profile, which was then passed to SCL and Cambridge Analytica.