Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo

Boz's response: https://twitter.com/boztank/status/979478961582325760

Mark Zuckerberg's response: https://twitter.com/JohnPaczkowski/status/979486163642630144

Always wondered what facebook leadership told themselves so they could sleep at night. Now i know. Connection at all costs. Didn't matter if you destroyed their privacy, violated their trust, got them hooked, manipulated their emotions, allowed fraud, clickbait, and misinformation to take over. They'll be happier when connected.

The ones who think theyre building a utopia are always the ones who build the dystopia. They're the best at delluding themselves.

I'd almost feel better if the memo cynically admitted the mission was just to sell ads.

Facebook employees: why are you still there? Do you buy into this?

Pretty incredible scoop by BuzzFeed. This guy seems like a sociopath.

It's no longer clear that Uber is the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley.

Dear Mr Boz,

You and your kind are the reason I deleted my facebook account years ago. You can claim you didn't mean it, but at the end of the day facebook's behaviour is what counts and it behaves as you described. Your product is hideous.

Also, please delete my shadow profile. Thank you.

"questionable contact importing practices"

Now this seems like something "no one" (other than "techies") would really care about, right?

Yet he is calling this out specifically. This just shows that people inside Facebook (or LinkedIn or the other internet companies that do this) cannot claim they see nothing wrong with these practices. They cannot claim "no one cares" except some outliers, e.g. nerds.

They know what they are doing is wrong. Even if users dont know what Facebook is doing, if they are duped into giving "consent", Facebook knows and knows it is wrong.

If someone pilfers other peoples email address books or mobile phone contacts, that gives a very effective view into peoples personal and business connections. The thief can "connect people" (e.g., find her next targets).

But, assuming this thief hasnt gone bananas, she doesnt start trying to justify the theft by saying she is on some grand mission to "connect people" and "Its just what I do." Shes a thief who steals email address books and contacts -- personal belongings that were never intended to be shared with anyone else.

Nor does it make sense for her to try to start a "debate" on whether or not her thievery is justified. Its wrong, she knew that from the start and she did it anyway. Her actions were intentional. Theres nothing to debate.

Thanks for deleting your account from Facebook people!

I usually get minus points only, when criticising facebook or google. So much so.. that I stop to commenting anything in hacker news. I really do not like hacker news way to block comments!