Something is changing on Facebook. Along with promises to improve privacy, which is still part of their marketing strategy, significant internal voices are starting to emerge on the social network. At the end of December, Andrew Bosworth, vice president of the virtual and augmented reality division at Facebook, Send an internal letter with a strong message of privacy.
A Facebook manager recognized for being “the way we have worked for so long is no longer the best way to serve those who use our products” One of the most heard voices within the companyAfter several similar messages that marked the inner culture and 15 years of working with Zuckerberg.
Facebook is striving to create an internal cultural revolution similar to Microsoft
The inside message, revealed by Big Technology, shows how the Facebook manager asks Prioritize privacy, even at the expense of user experience“Public sentiment has changed so distinctly that people are willing to make sacrifices in product quality.”
Facebook examples and cases with privacy are well known and cited in the message. From testimonies Zuckerberg had to testify in front of the US Senate, to millions of dollars in lawsuits filed by the Federal Trade Commission. And it doesn’t look like something will change in the next few years, at least given Joe Biden’s hostile opinion of Facebook.
The fight that Facebook internally suggests equates to the one that Microsoft faced in the 2000s with security problems. A battle for privacy “It will only be effective to the extent that we stop fighting them on the cultural level.”Bosworth says. The next paragraph of the message well defines the position Facebook should take:
“Instead of imagining a product and trimming it to comply with modern data security and privacy standards, we will start with the assumption that we cannot collect, use or store any data. The onus is on us to explain why some of the data is really necessary for the product to work.”
It’s been two years since Mark Zuckerberg made his promise. Microsoft’s example in the first decade of the 21st century, named in the letter, serves to provide us with an idea of the company’s current state of affairs. They spent so much time dealing with our data that it is hard to imagine a different company.
Bosworth explains this Users did not trust Microsoft due to viruses. But Microsoft made a comeback and is today one of the most trusted software companies in the world.
“I think that’s a template for us on Facebook. We must become the undisputed leader in providing privacy conscious softwareThe director explains.
Recently, Facebook had to postpone the new privacy terms for WhatsApp due to the controversy it caused. In 2019, during the annual Facebook F8 conference, Zuckerberg stated on stage that “the future is private.” We are still waiting for this future to come.
Image | Joshua Hohen
