A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
People who know me understand how strongly I feel about some companies in the world of technology. In the past, Sony has screwed us many times, more than once by compromising personal information. I can mostly ignore them and not just not give them my data. This month I’m going to rant about a company that is harder to not use.
What got me thinking about this is Mark Zuckerberg’s recent post about how Facebook is going to reduce the amount of information that third parties can access. He wrote 3000 words telling the world how important our privacy is. Sorry Mark. I’ve heard this from you many times and I just don’t believe it.
After all, you’ve been apologizing to users for misusing their data even before Facebook existed. Way back in 2003, you created your “joke” site Facemash. After your apology to the Harvard disciplinary panel, you were cleared to continue attending the school. Even that long ago, you said “Issues about violating people’s privacy don’t seem to be surmountable.”
In 2006, you told your users to “calm down and breathe.” You went on to assure everyone that their news feed was private. I wonder why three days later, you said that “we really messed up.” At least you were nice enough to tell us that you were sorry and that our privacy is important. After all, Facebook has always been about giving us users control over our own information.
That is why I don’t understand why you created Beacon the following year. You do remember that service” that told friends about your activities on various third‑party sites. It didn’t take you long to forget about user control. Like you said, you made some mistakes while setting it up and even more with they way you handled them. Of course, I’m assuming that Erick Schonfeld wasn’t lying in his Tech Crunch article.
It looks like 2010 was a pretty rough year for you. I wonder what your private thoughts might have been when the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook (and other social networks) divulged unique user IDs to advertisers. I will admit that your op‑ed in the Washington Post was really interesting. I especially liked the principles under which you operate. Then in September you were faced with those 4000 old e‑mails, pictures, addresses and more. You may have been right when you said that users are “dumb f**ks” for trusting you with their data.
That’s just been ancient Facebook history. I’m not going to talk about how you denied that Facebook book influenced the 2016 election, followed by your remorse for those statements. Luckily for you, many of the “dumb f**k” users know little about the Cambridge Analytical Scandal. For years, you’ve done wrong and then asked for forgiveness while promising to do better. It’s like I said at the top of the page, Mark, I just don’t believe you.
Thanks for reading.