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Facebook Privacy Social Networks Technology

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Says the 'Future is Private' (theverge.com) 153

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's committed to turning his company around. Onstage at Facebook's F8 developer conference, the chief executive said that privacy will be the defining pillar of his social network's sprawling empire going forward. From a report: His opening statements build on the massive shift in Zuckerberg's vision for the company that he first outlined early last month when he announced that Facebook would transition away from the News Feed and public posts and toward a "privacy-focused communications platform" that unified its messaging products around concepts like ephemerality and encryption. "The future is private," Zuckerberg told the crowd, noting that Facebook's most dominant vision over the last decade was to build global communities that would bring the world together, for better or worse. "Over time, I believe that a private social platform will be even more important to our lives than our digital town squares. So today, we're going to start talking about what this could look like as a product, what it means to have your social experience be more intimate, and how we need to change the way we run this company in order to build this."
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Says the 'Future is Private'

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  • by Vermonter ( 2683811 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:11PM (#58517438)

    Seeing as their business model is selling their user's data, I'm not sure how they are going to do this.

    • by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:16PM (#58517478)

      Ah, you see, you misunderstood. The future isn't your privacy, it's Facebook's privacy. The Zuck is telling us that in the future, even more of Faceook's workings will be kept a closely guarded secret.

      • Facebook has always had strong anti-scraping policies in place.

        Because they aren't into sharing (for free).

        Can't blame them, blame facebook's users. Those are the morons.

        • by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

          As you point out, privacy is the least of Facebook's users' concerns. Yes, they only want their shared stuff shared with who they said they want it shared with, and Facebook hasn't even done that in the past. But the real problems with Facebook have to do with their facilitating fraud.

          It starts with their ads saying "your friend X likes Amazon (or some other site)" in connection to some product your friend X never clicked like on - or even viewed (though I assume X clicked 'like' on something on the site

      • I don't know why anyone still listens to this clown. Any headline involving a statement by Zuckerberg should be "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Says Whatever He Has To to Draw Heat Way from Facebook's Behaviour". At least until he stops doing it, which he's shown no sign of doing for several years now. Does the CEO of Reynolds American or Arch Coal get turned into news stories every time they says something in public?
    • Their Business model was _suppose_ to be their customers will give them the ads and Facebook would be showing those ads to the best group of people. Not giving their user's data to these customers. However this hasn't shone to be true.

    • For the low, low price of just $9.99/mo, Zuck will keep your data private.

    • It's less than impressive - it's a lie.
      • by msauve ( 701917 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @03:45PM (#58518282)
        It's not a lie, merely misleading. Read it again - when he says "private", he's talking about privacy between users and groups of users. There's no mention of Facebook respecting user privacy by not collecting and selling user info. Them's weasel words.

        "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."
        • That may be technically accurate. I would submit however, that purposely using words in a misleading fashion is dishonest, therefore synonymous with a lie. thus, it's a lie - or a statement by an elected official.
    • Seeing as their business model is selling their user's data, I'm not sure how they are going to do this.

      See google, you indirectly sell your users. The data never has to leave google's or facebook's hands. They merely decide which targeted ads to show to whomever. Only google/facebook know both parties and they control the connection between the two.

      Facebook's days of selling the raw data are over. Whether it is voluntary or government mandated. They might as well do it voluntarily to preempt legislation and get the PR brownie points.

      FWIW, Facebook already has a thriving targeted ad business where they

    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      They don't mean privacy from FB, they mean privacy from other users. Basically, they intend to build a giant infidelity support network.

    • by Dracos ( 107777 )

      Yep, this is CYA bullshit on his part. Privacy is anathema to facebook.

    • There actually is a mathematical solution. You can run the auctions on groups of products. As it could theoretically apply to the google or Facebook, rather than selling out individuals, the advertisers would only be bidding for groups of people without ever knowing the individuals or their personal information. (I actually prepared a couple of business proposals along such lines. Long ago, before the course of the Internet had been firmly set by such "successes" as the google and Facebook.)

      Here are the mai

    • by Z80a ( 971949 )

      "only you and me (and everyone we sell data to) will have your data"

    • by noodler ( 724788 )

      How they're going to do this is by consolidating the societal divisions they have helped create, build walls around the them and feed them more of their own 'truths'.
      Nothing else will change.

    • I don't think he's saying they won't collect user data or selling ads, but that there will be a greater focus on private social groups.

      I think it raises an interesting set of questions. Years ago, the Internet was more dominantly about private communications. During the past 15 years, you've seen a lot of "sharing" social media platforms that are designed to provide a public platform for their users to self-publish creative works and provide commentary to a worldwide audience. These have become immensel

  • by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:13PM (#58517454)

    "Privacy" in the future will mean personal data and communications will be securely kept by third parties like Facebook. As opposed to privacy where such personal data will actually be private and not stored at all by such third parties.

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:13PM (#58517462)
    O'l Zuck shut the company down. We'll miss ya Facebook.
  • by nightcats ( 1114677 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (woemthgin)> on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:14PM (#58517470) Homepage Journal
    Trump has announced that the future is immigration.
  • chief executive said that privacy will be the defining pillar of his social network's sprawling empire going forward

    Hold my beer as I laugh hysterically for the next five years.

  • ... on how many apologies will be issued throughout this "transition" of Facebook.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:19PM (#58517494)

    Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
    Zuck: Just ask
    Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
    [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
    Zuck: People just submitted it.
    Zuck: I don't know why.
    Zuck: They "trust me"
    Zuck: Dumb fucks

  • Glad my privacy has been increased by Facebook.

  • Let me take a deep breath, so that I can laugh long and hard.
  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:30PM (#58517548)
    Bill Gates announces the Year of Linux desktop. Larry Ellison admits everyone should probably move to PostgreSQL. Jack Dorsey announces commitment to free speech. Pigs fly. The dead raise from the graves.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    What he really means is that the future is private because Facebook hasn't figured out how to extract data from the future yet. Once they do...

  • I do not think it means what you think it means...

  • by Anonymous Coward

    This translates as "Please government, don't try to regulate the tech industry, we mean well... honest, pinky swear to do better"

  • The Stages (Score:5, Informative)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:40PM (#58517594) Homepage

    1) shit happens
    2) zuck makes promises
    3) zuck doesn't actually act on said promises
    4) shit continues to happen
    5) rinse and repeat

    how many times do we need the same articles over and over again, but just a new day of the week !?

    • 1) shit happens 2) zuck makes promises 3) zuck doesn't actually act on said promises 4) shit continues to happen 5) rinse and repeat

      how many times do we need the same articles over and over again, but just a new day of the week !?

      Until people realize Facebook has always been about the advertising data? It's like expecting Coca-Cola to sincerely apologize for bubbles, sugar, and caffeine.

  • And in other news (Score:2, Insightful)

    by chrispdx ( 1820840 )
    And in other news, Donald Trump announced today that honesty will become a pillar of his administration.
  • Trust Me I wouldn't Fuck You for a fourth, fifth or sixth time would I?

  • by Daralantan ( 5305713 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @01:54PM (#58517686)
    I don't appreciate /. making me spew drink all over my screen in laughter.
  • I'm sorry Mark but you are a soggy stinking sack of hooker genital sores, Every time you've said this in the past you've been proven a liar, so you can shove a broken beer bottle sideways where the sun doesn't shine.

    Word of the Day: Guillotine: the inevitable outcome of the neo-feudalist stage of capitalism.

  • How do you make PRIVATE spaces if your other goal is POLICING people's spaces for wrong think? It's not exactly "private" if Facebook reads everything you read, say, think, and do to ensure you're not commiting a thought crime.

    • Their plan is to show Republicans news stories that favor Republicans, and to everyone else stories that favor their preferred party.

      That way, politicians won't complain that there is bias on Facebook, because the candidates will see coverage that is favorable to them.
  • Your private life belongs to you and me and no one else!

  • "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Says the 'Future is Private'"

    LOL, the fucking irony is off the scale for this shit.

    In fact, the needle on my Hypocrisy-O-Meter just blew through the side of the case and was last seen rocketing through low Earth orbit on its way to Saturn.

  • The responses here are all terribly cynical and dismissive of the whole thing - as they should be.

    But, just for a moment, let's play a mind game where we assume that Zuckerberg finally outgrew adolescence and became an adult, had his moral epiphany, and genuinely aspires to do right. (Don't laugh, it's just a game after all.)
    Second, assume that, contrary to the cynical statements above, the new vision for Facebook that professes privacy is actually about user privacy, not Facebook hording your information in its own private vaults. (Let me remind you again, this is just a game.)

    Trace through how this works. Scenario one - it is too private, too inaccessible to outside intrusion or reading. How does that influence the advertisers and data monsters that pay Facebook? Revenues and profits sink. They might not evaporate, but they will find a new lower level. So, FB must downsize, and if they do, the lose their cachet (good or bad), and their subscriber base falls off, the next MySpace.

    Or, scenario two - it is too private, too inaccessible to outside intrusion or reading, so users who gorge themselves on the trivialities of everybody else's life cannot get their "fix", so they drop out, bored and disinterested, or they seek their data addiction elsewhere. The article implies that users will have tighter more private personal networks, so that keeps your inner circle safe, but is that fun anymore for many users?

    Sadly, as illicit and detestable as FB is (and by the way, I have never had an account with them), it survives because people want it or use it, and they cannot stay away. I have no respect for FB or its executives, but they survive because people just can't say no. Sure, there are plenty of normal honest regular folk using it responsibly, but the platform is as rich and robust as it is because people buy in regardless the consequences to their personal identities. As long as there is a massive public user base that craves more Twinkies or Cheetos, more cigarettes, more heroin or cocaine, or more Facebook, their current model is not going to change anytime soon. And, as much as Slashdotters who respond here may be immune to persuasions to drink the Kool-Aid, that is not true in general, which is why FB is ascendant in the first place.

    Even if Zuckerberg has his epiphany, it might necessitate significant downsizing, and either way the user base might not want things any other way. A social experiment gone bad, the modern techno analog of Fascism and Communism. Just let it die.

    • But, just for a moment, let's play a mind game where we assume that Zuckerberg finally outgrew adolescence and became an adult, had his moral epiphany, and genuinely aspires to do right.

      He's tired of being harassed by politicians and dragged into congress to testify. What he's building will be a band-aid that will try to prevent that from happening again.

    • by Sebby ( 238625 )

      But, just for a moment, let's play a mind game where we assume that Zuckerberg finally outgrew adolescence and became an adult

      You're asking us to do this for far too long!

  • Mark Zuckerburg pissed off a hell of a lot of people and now he is scared as hell, he ought to be scared, i would be scared as hell if i pissed off as many people as he did.
  • Is Zuck facing 1.5 million CFAA charges yet for harvesting all the emails from his users without their consent in pursuit of advertising profit?

    After all, Assange is facing extradition for one CFAA count related to possibly helping crack a ZIP file password in pursuit of exposing war crimes as a publisher.

  • Because that would at this point be the only thing that he could do to make even one step in that direction...

  • by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @03:33PM (#58518228)

    "Privacy is dead, get over it" - Mark Zuckerberg

  • by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @03:43PM (#58518276)
    To translate what Zuckerberg actually meant to say: "We completed our mission to harvest every bit of information on every living person on the planet, so we can henceforth make our profits from selling that information.

    Now we shall lobby to make it impossible for any competitor of ours to harvest just as much data."
  • What he really means is _your_ private information is the future. Once he has that, he'll have everything he needs!

  • I honestly read this as "His opening statements build on the *massive shit* in Zuckerberg's vision..." at first.
  • Our past was also private until some Silicon Valley twats came along and decided to make a quick buck by selling our data.
  • They've sold it to everyone they can, there's only one revenue stream left to take advantage of, you.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Approved ads that use crypto to stay with the user, protected all the way into their computer/device.
    The ads get the "privacy" they need to track and stay with the user. Protected from any ad blocking software.
  • Sure, sure, just convince everyone (ha ha) that you're Taking People's Privacy Seriously And Your First Priority -- then up your surveillance and data-gathering game so it (theoretically) can't be detected. At least not by the sheep whose private lives and data you're monetizing. Fuck you, Zuckerberg. Die in a fire, along with Facebook.
  • Too late, Mark, nobody trust you anymore.
  • Five years from now, we’ll all link back to this post and say “Remember when Zuck promised Facebook would be the pillar of privacy?

    And then we’ll all laugh over this all over again

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • C'mon folks, why would you ever believe a company that says it's going to cripple itself over a few tiny concerns about...uh... Privacy. They've done literally everything they can think of to keep people strung along this long, do you think that's suddenly going to change?

  • "The future is private" unless you're on facebook. Fuck facebook.
  • One for the Kiwi Slashdoters. If you have never seen a Tui's billboard basically the "Yeah Right" is sarcasm. [imgflip.com]
  • ...never changes its spots. Sorry Zuck you've just not given a monkey's toss far too often and I'm afraid your business model relies on selling collect data to the highest bidder, so pardon me if I don't believe a single word you say anymore.
  • Who's Future?

  • It's first of May, not first of April.

  • by Miser ( 36591 )

    Isn't privacy the antithesis to Facebook?

    How would this even work?

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