With Personal Security, Mark Zuckerberg Thinks Like The Government
Facebook is at the center of the Social Networks right now. With that comes the scrutiny and opposition to the security practices it or does not do. Since its creation, Facebook has made subtle changes that open more and more of your information to the public realm. Depending on your point of view this is OK or a horrific violation of your privacy and how your data, statuses, photos are used by people you don't know in ways you don't approve of.
Mark Zuckerberg, the young CEO of Facebook, recently has made comments which has made it very clear he does not care one bit about protecting your information. He wants to control it all.
"People thought that, you know, it was just too much, right, they wanted to share stuff on the site but they didn't want it to be so much in people's face," said Zuckerberg. "You know now it's just part of the site that I think most people in a way would be like 'What's going on? How can there be Facebook without this?'"
He added that "one of the good things about the Internet is you can just kind of build something, and people will choose to use it or not, and that's how we win debates."
Zuckerberg's arrogance and clear lack of CEO communication training really shines here. He is basically saying Facebook will do what we want, when we want and if you don't like it you can leave. He is right, but his words could have been chose more strategically. He has to be very, very careful here. If he starts to taunt with this "If you don't like it, then leave" attitude, the next Facebook will be all about privacy and Facebook will fade away like MySpace.
But he is not incorrect. Facebook is a service of choice. You can choose to use it or not based on your needs, likes and how others use it. Like any service out there, you have no rights or say on how a service protects your data. There is this assumption that sites have to keep what you post private. Think again. There is no law, rule, governance around social networks on what they can and cannot share. Yes there are federal regulations around credit information, payment systems, etc... but that's not social information like photos from your kids birthday party. No matter what service you choose to use, the information that is contained within is 100% in your control on getting on there in the first place. If you don't want embarrassing photos uploaded, don't upload it.
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