Zuckerberg: It was someone else’s fault, kinda

Zuckerberg: It was someone else’s fault, kinda

“I started this when I was so young and inexperienced,” the 33-year-old Zuckerberg said. “I made technical errors and business errors. I hired the wrong people. I trusted the wrong people,” he said.

Source: Mark Zuckerberg apology: ‘I’m really sorry that this happened’ – Mar. 21, 2018
His official statement, posted on Facebook, and the various interviews he is now doing, all sounds like they were scripted by his public relations team – because, duh, that’s how these things work.
Zuckerberg is “really sorry”. We made “mistakes”. He takes the problems “seriously” but gives no specifics, other than hand waving, as to how the root cause problems will be fixed.
That’s all PR speak, not solution-speak.
Here are some ideas that he could discuss:

  • FB will enable all users to see the data collected by Facebook *and* how it has been interpreted in terms of the conclusions they have drawn about us. We can currently download the original raw posts, photos that we’ve uploaded but we know nothing about how Facebook has characterized us.
  • Explain to us who has access to our information, how is it stored securely, and how it is destroyed when no longer needed. Or is it ever destroyed?
  • How Facebook will provide tools for users to control their own data. At this time, it is nearly impossible to delete your posts, comments, likes, shares and photos. Many of us have years of content on Facebook but the only way to delete them or change privacy settings is to review the Activity line and select each item, one by one, and change settings, which various takes several mouse clicks for every single item. If Zuckerberg understood the issues and cared, Facebook would provide users the ability to readily control their own data with features like Flickr for bulk editing or deleting of photos.
  • Do like Twitter and enable us to download the full dossier, including the assumptions being made about us, and a list of the advertisers who have our contact information.

Until Facebook puts users in control of their own data, we should all be extremely careful about posting anything on Facebook. You should never, ever Like a post or comment or page as this is the primary way they trick us into sharing our interests. Once you’ve liked something, even if you unlike it later, there is no way to take back the information you once provided to Facebook.

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