Mark Zuckerberg discovers privacy

With the swellIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing confidence of a colonial power happenIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing upon a long-settled distant land, today Mark Zuckerberg discovered the concept of privacy.

Index.html" target="_blank">In a Zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networkIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing/10156700570096634/">balloonIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing 3,225 words — a roughly average word count for the termIndex.html" target="_blank">Inally verbose Facebook founder — Zuckerberg Index.html" target="_blank">Informed his miserably loyal 2.3 billion plus subjects that his company has happened upon a concept known as privacy and Index.html" target="_blank">In doIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing so it sees an Index.html" target="_blank">Ing-room/">opportunity. But can Facebook reform its 15 year legacy as devourer of all thIndex.html" target="_blank">Ings private with a sIndex.html" target="_blank">Ingle sweepIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing, underedited screed from its copycat visionary and dark pattern technocrat?

Fuck no, of course it can’t.

Index.html" target="_blank">In articulatIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing his vision, all 3,225 words worth, Zuckerberg predictably failed to own the fact that his company sIndex.html" target="_blank">Inglehandedly created the modern concept of social media as a cash-prIndex.html" target="_blank">IntIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing machIndex.html" target="_blank">Ine that mIndex.html" target="_blank">Ines our Index.html" target="_blank">Innermost thoughts, desires and connections. The whole thIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing is a self-parody so on the nose it’s almost borIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing. And it’s a bummer, because “Zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networkIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing/10156700570096634/">A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social NetworkIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing” could be a compellIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing declaration (please deliver us!) from nearly any company that isn’t Facebook.

“I believe there’s an opportunity to set a new standard for private communication platforms — where content automatically expires or is archived over time,” Zuckerberg wrote, thIndex.html" target="_blank">InkIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing about privacy for the third time. “…This philosophy could be extended to all private content.”

Unfortunately, no company can build anythIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing Index.html" target="_blank">InterestIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing Index.html" target="_blank">In the social media space because Facebook’s well-established wildly aggressive stance toward competitors means that the game over before the game even begIndex.html" target="_blank">Ins. If the big blue acquirer doesn’t capture, it kills.

Regulation looms

Surely it’s pure coIndex.html" target="_blank">Incidence that Facebook’s sudden Index.html" target="_blank">Interest Index.html" target="_blank">In privacy comes as the company faces an ever-crestIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing tidal wave of public backlash and heavy breathIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing from thirsty regulators Index.html" target="_blank">In Congress. Sated after soppIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing up all of the ad dollars driftIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing around the wreckage of a soul-crushIndex.html" target="_blank">Ingly monetized social web, Facebook realizes it’s probably time to chart a different path forward. Luckily, it picked up some brands people hate less along the way.

MilkIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing Facebook’s stewardship of WhatsApp for all it’s worth, Zuckerberg was Index.html" target="_blank">Intentional about pitchIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing his new centralized yet private future for Facebook around the model of the encrypted messagIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing app, a platform so antithetical to Facebook’s broad mission that its founders left Index.html" target="_blank">In disgust after cashIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing their checks.

Index.html" target="_blank">In recent years, the company realized that it’s easier to just to let someone else Index.html" target="_blank">Innovate, build and a product and attract users than doIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing anythIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing very Index.html" target="_blank">InterestIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing itself. Facebook’s contemporary role Index.html" target="_blank">In the tech landscape is to either build a functional facsimile of it or to swoop Index.html" target="_blank">In and buy that Index.html" target="_blank">Innovation and keep it at arm’s length from the core Facebook brand for long enough for users to get sort of complacent (users are very good at this).

It’s different with privacy. Privacy is about philosophy. It’s about how you handle thIndex.html" target="_blank">Ings from the start. Facebook effectively stole a bunch of shit over a long period of time, relyIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing on Index.html" target="_blank">Intentional obfuscation, legal muscle and user ignorance to pull off the heist. Now, Zuckerberg is tryIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing to make it out of the store with all that contraband stuffed under his shirt before the security guard ambles back. Unfortunately for Facebook, its hands are staIndex.html" target="_blank">Ined with a decade and a half of data wrung out of a now cumulative 2.3 billion users.

That’s a lot of exploded fuckIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing Index.html" target="_blank">Ink tags.

This is a company that can barely give us a straight answer about what happens when someone wants their data deleted. One that waited 15 years to Index.html" target="_blank">Introduce somethIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing that lets Index.html" target="_blank">Ing#.iyr5VGqQrm">users clear traces of their history, except by most accounts that tool won’t even wipe those records from its servers.

I’m just goIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing to Index.html" target="_blank">Ing-about-you/">leaveIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing-users-deleted-videos/">theseIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing-lujan-Zuckerberg/">lIndex.html" target="_blank">Inkshere.

WhatsApp and encryption are still good

But what about WhatsApp, you (Facebook PR) might gasp, mawkishly. What about that? WhatsApp is the world’s largest encrypted messagIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing platform — and that’s great. More encryption is good, no matter who owns the wirIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing. Even Facebook!

Facebook hasn’t killed WhatsApp or hamstrung its encryption and that’s been good too. Still, we don’t owe Facebook anythIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing, least of all our faith that the patron saIndex.html" target="_blank">Int of personal data strip-mIndex.html" target="_blank">InIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing does anythIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing good for reasons beyond simply buyIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing up goodwill or gettIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing caught red handed.

Index.html" target="_blank">In declarIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing that “people Index.html" target="_blank">IncreasIndex.html" target="_blank">Ingly also want to connect privately Index.html" target="_blank">In the digital equivalent of the livIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing room,” Zuckerberg senses no irony Index.html" target="_blank">In the idea that people might not want more privacy withIndex.html" target="_blank">In Facebook — they want more privacy because Facebook. Namely, because the company laid waste to the concept so thoroughly before apparently flittIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing off just now to refashion itself Index.html" target="_blank">Into a “a privacy-focused messagIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing and social networkIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing platform” while stuffIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing users Index.html" target="_blank">Into the Index.html" target="_blank">Instagram and WhatsApp-branded life rafts.

Thus, Zuckerberg stumbles out of his great boat, awful blue flag limp on a breezeless shore. All of this is ours, he mutters, gesturIndex.html" target="_blank">Ing to all of it.

Zuckerbergs-testimony/">A brief history of Facebook’s privacy hostility ahead of Zuckerberg’s testimony