Y’all know I am not a fan of social media, especially Facebook. IMHO social media isn’t good for your emotional well-being, is a privacy and security nightmare, and is bad for society in general. I’ve posted numerous examples here in the past. Below is another one. It is written by Sandy Parakilas, former operations manager, platform team at Facebook.
We Can’t Trust Facebook to Regulate Itself
“I led Facebook’s efforts to fix privacy problems on its developer platform in advance of its 2012 initial public offering. What I saw from the inside was a company that prioritized data collection from its users over protecting them from abuse. As the world contemplates what to do about Facebook in the wake of its role in Russia’s election meddling, it must consider this history. Lawmakers shouldn’t allow Facebook to regulate itself. Because it won’t…Facebook knows what you look like, your location, who your friends are, your interests, if you’re in a relationship or not, and what other pages you look at on the web…Facebook knows what you look like, your location, who your friends are, your interests, if you’re in a relationship or not, and what other pages you look at on the web…But when I was at Facebook, the typical reaction I recall looked like this: try to put any negative press coverage to bed as quickly as possible, with no sincere efforts to put safeguards in place or to identify and stop abusive developers…The company won’t protect us by itself, and nothing less than our democracy is at stake.“
This is the second anti-facebook statement by a former high-ranking Facebook employee this month.
Is anyone listening?