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Why Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Come Clean About his Views on Privacy

41 points by mahipal 16y ago

alanthonyc 16y ago
I'm not sure what he needs to come clean about. His recent actions speak louder than any words he can come up with now. It's pretty clear where he stands on this.
- falsestprophet 16y ago
  Facebook's position on privacy will be whatever maximizes shareholder value. If jealously protecting user information will maximize shareholder value, then we can expect that. But, it probably doesn't so we probably can't.
knuckle_cake 16y ago
We know what his views are. It's more interesting whether he tells the truth about them publicly or not.
joecode 16y ago
“Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity." This strikes me as an extremist viewpoint. Portraying oneself more conservatively in less familiar company is often essential. Indeed, in some cases (private thoughts, for instance) the only appropriate company with which to share is oneself.
- dejb 16y ago
  > Portraying oneself more conservatively in less familiar company is often essential. People's reaction to the 'less conservative' aspects of each other would have to change if there was no way of hiding them. It is rather analogous to gay people 'coming out of the closet' and the whole gay rights movement but applied to a whole spectrum of preferences and proclivities. People's prejudices will eventually dissipate, especially when they are most likely 'coming out' in some way themselves. In fact those that genuinely are conservative in every area will probably find themselves in a minority. Of course if people have really bad secrets like they are a wife beater of something then this is unlikely to be accepted and there would rightly be moves to stop that behavior.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - prodigal_erik 16y ago
    > People's reaction to the 'less conservative' aspects of each other would have to change if there was no way of hiding them. Has this ever happened anywhere? We've already seen absence of privacy in tribal societies, and those are exceptionally bad places to fail to conform. Only cities are large and anonymous enough to allow eccentrics to go unnoticed and thrive, which is what makes cities the wellsprings of prosperous liberal societies. > It is rather analogous to gay people 'coming out of the closet' Some of whom were murdered for it. There are still only a few areas (large cities, of course) where they are relatively safe. And it took them two generations just to achieve that!
    - dejb 16y ago
      > Has this ever happened anywhere? Probably whenever significant technological/social change occurs. > We've already seen absence of privacy in tribal societies, and those are exceptionally bad places to fail to conform. Only cities are large and anonymous enough to allow eccentrics to go unnoticed and thrive, which is what makes cities the wellsprings of prosperous liberal societies. I think you could argue this in many ways. Are you arguing that increased privacy played a role in the development of civilisation? It's in interesting idea but I don't see much supporting evidence. > Some of whom were murdered for it. There are still only a few areas (large cities, of course) where they are relatively safe. And it took them two generations just to achieve that! Should we go back and stop it?
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Sure, and if we all walked around naked all the time we'd rapidly grow accustomed to not being able to hide our nakedness. But I still don't wanna walk around seeing penises everywhere. Not knowing stuff is vital to professional relationships. If I go to see a surgeon I don't want to see a compete record of all the stupid things he did while drunk at university. For that matter I don't want my children someday to see all the stupid things I did while drunk at university.
- astrec 16y ago
  Isn't this how people in the public eye have historically managed their privacy — the public/performer persona and the private individual?
- rwhitman 16y ago
  First off I doubt Mark Zuckerberg believes that load of crap for a second. Its a red herring. He's trying to sell people on some sort of 'integrity' revolution because profile openness encourages more pageviews, better targeting on ads, increased opportunities for partnerships etc etc. He's trying to create a debate around the topic as if there's some fundamental change to human behavior occurring here, when in fact nothing has changed, in fact the necessity for privacy has been nothing but reinforced. The irony is he probably has one of the most guarded public vs private personas on facebook. Total BS
Super74 16y ago
Have you heard of the phrase, "When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck." Well even from the beginning of Facebook, within the Harvard campus, Mark Zuckerberg has been surrounded with allegations ranging from questionable personality traits, unethical behaviors and outright illegal activities. Now with the release of a new "biography" detailing the early days of Facebook in Silicon Valley, these instances continue to highlight character flaws that seem to some to be quite disturbing. So why are we so surprised to witness continued actions of betrayal and lack of customer-focused decisions on behalf of a company that he runs and guides on a daily basis? "Zuck IS a duck!" Personally, I totally agree with the concept of a more open society and the need for a platform in which to exchange personal ideas and personal media with friends and family. What I don't agree with are the blatant decisions that manipulate that information in ways contrary to the users' choices. Many times in the past year, I have been literally offended and personally shocked at the amount of attacks to this information of mine and have contemplated closing my account for those reasons. Instead, I have controlled my privacy options as best as I can and have held on to see where this all leads, in the hope that Facebook will finally get their act together and re-focus their energy on connecting people, not causing anguish those people who make them the billion dollar company that they are, their customers. With Zuck the duck in charge, I'm not so sure that this will happen.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- dejb 16y ago
  > Mark Zuckerberg has been surrounded with allegations ranging from questionable personality traits, unethical behaviors and outright illegal activities. It certainly seems he wouldn't fair well if he applied the concept of ‘radical transparency’ to himself.
  - c1sc0 16y ago
    Now that would be an interesting distributed effort to see: try to build a timeline of all of Zuck's questionable behaviour on a single site, we could call it something like zucksucks.com ;-)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
wdewind 16y ago
"He believes that people should have a single identity: “You have one identity,” he emphasized three times in a single interview with David Kirkpatrick in his book, “The Facebook Effect.” “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly.” He adds: “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”" I think this is a pretty good example of zuck's both arrogance and privilege. He's so insistent that people have "one identity" because he's a person who CAN have one identity. When he projects who he is to everyone he takes zero risk: he's a white, male, American, who has already made all his money: the pinnacle of the upper class. Having your head in your asshole is an example of lack of integrity.
alttab 16y ago
The chesshere lies through a smile you can't immediately refuse.

41 points by mahipal 16y ago

I'm not sure what he needs to come clean about. His recent actions speak louder than any words he can come up with now. It's pretty clear where he stands on this.

falsestprophet 16y ago
Facebook's position on privacy will be whatever maximizes shareholder value. If jealously protecting user information will maximize shareholder value, then we can expect that. But, it probably doesn't so we probably can't.

knuckle_cake 16y ago

We know what his views are. It's more interesting whether he tells the truth about them publicly or not.

joecode 16y ago

“Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity." This strikes me as an extremist viewpoint. Portraying oneself more conservatively in less familiar company is often essential. Indeed, in some cases (private thoughts, for instance) the only appropriate company with which to share is oneself.

dejb 16y ago
> Portraying oneself more conservatively in less familiar company is often essential. People's reaction to the 'less conservative' aspects of each other would have to change if there was no way of hiding them. It is rather analogous to gay people 'coming out of the closet' and the whole gay rights movement but applied to a whole spectrum of preferences and proclivities. People's prejudices will eventually dissipate, especially when they are most likely 'coming out' in some way themselves. In fact those that genuinely are conservative in every area will probably find themselves in a minority. Of course if people have really bad secrets like they are a wife beater of something then this is unlikely to be accepted and there would rightly be moves to stop that behavior.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- prodigal_erik 16y ago
  > People's reaction to the 'less conservative' aspects of each other would have to change if there was no way of hiding them. Has this ever happened anywhere? We've already seen absence of privacy in tribal societies, and those are exceptionally bad places to fail to conform. Only cities are large and anonymous enough to allow eccentrics to go unnoticed and thrive, which is what makes cities the wellsprings of prosperous liberal societies. > It is rather analogous to gay people 'coming out of the closet' Some of whom were murdered for it. There are still only a few areas (large cities, of course) where they are relatively safe. And it took them two generations just to achieve that!
  - dejb 16y ago
    > Has this ever happened anywhere? Probably whenever significant technological/social change occurs. > We've already seen absence of privacy in tribal societies, and those are exceptionally bad places to fail to conform. Only cities are large and anonymous enough to allow eccentrics to go unnoticed and thrive, which is what makes cities the wellsprings of prosperous liberal societies. I think you could argue this in many ways. Are you arguing that increased privacy played a role in the development of civilisation? It's in interesting idea but I don't see much supporting evidence. > Some of whom were murdered for it. There are still only a few areas (large cities, of course) where they are relatively safe. And it took them two generations just to achieve that! Should we go back and stop it?
- hugh3 16y ago
  Sure, and if we all walked around naked all the time we'd rapidly grow accustomed to not being able to hide our nakedness. But I still don't wanna walk around seeing penises everywhere. Not knowing stuff is vital to professional relationships. If I go to see a surgeon I don't want to see a compete record of all the stupid things he did while drunk at university. For that matter I don't want my children someday to see all the stupid things I did while drunk at university.
astrec 16y ago
Isn't this how people in the public eye have historically managed their privacy — the public/performer persona and the private individual?
rwhitman 16y ago
First off I doubt Mark Zuckerberg believes that load of crap for a second. Its a red herring. He's trying to sell people on some sort of 'integrity' revolution because profile openness encourages more pageviews, better targeting on ads, increased opportunities for partnerships etc etc. He's trying to create a debate around the topic as if there's some fundamental change to human behavior occurring here, when in fact nothing has changed, in fact the necessity for privacy has been nothing but reinforced. The irony is he probably has one of the most guarded public vs private personas on facebook. Total BS

Super74 16y ago

Have you heard of the phrase, "When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck." Well even from the beginning of Facebook, within the Harvard campus, Mark Zuckerberg has been surrounded with allegations ranging from questionable personality traits, unethical behaviors and outright illegal activities. Now with the release of a new "biography" detailing the early days of Facebook in Silicon Valley, these instances continue to highlight character flaws that seem to some to be quite disturbing. So why are we so surprised to witness continued actions of betrayal and lack of customer-focused decisions on behalf of a company that he runs and guides on a daily basis? "Zuck IS a duck!" Personally, I totally agree with the concept of a more open society and the need for a platform in which to exchange personal ideas and personal media with friends and family. What I don't agree with are the blatant decisions that manipulate that information in ways contrary to the users' choices. Many times in the past year, I have been literally offended and personally shocked at the amount of attacks to this information of mine and have contemplated closing my account for those reasons. Instead, I have controlled my privacy options as best as I can and have held on to see where this all leads, in the hope that Facebook will finally get their act together and re-focus their energy on connecting people, not causing anguish those people who make them the billion dollar company that they are, their customers. With Zuck the duck in charge, I'm not so sure that this will happen.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
dejb 16y ago
> Mark Zuckerberg has been surrounded with allegations ranging from questionable personality traits, unethical behaviors and outright illegal activities. It certainly seems he wouldn't fair well if he applied the concept of ‘radical transparency’ to himself.
- c1sc0 16y ago
  Now that would be an interesting distributed effort to see: try to build a timeline of all of Zuck's questionable behaviour on a single site, we could call it something like zucksucks.com ;-)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

wdewind 16y ago

"He believes that people should have a single identity: “You have one identity,” he emphasized three times in a single interview with David Kirkpatrick in his book, “The Facebook Effect.” “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly.” He adds: “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”" I think this is a pretty good example of zuck's both arrogance and privilege. He's so insistent that people have "one identity" because he's a person who CAN have one identity. When he projects who he is to everyone he takes zero risk: he's a white, male, American, who has already made all his money: the pinnacle of the upper class. Having your head in your asshole is an example of lack of integrity.

alttab 16y ago

The chesshere lies through a smile you can't immediately refuse.