A former privacy manager at Facebook has made some damaging claims about the company’s priorities, saying that the social media giant cared more for collecting data from its users than protecting them from abuse. The revelation comes as part of a sharply critical opinion piece published in the New York Times on Monday where Sandy Parakilas, former operations manager for Facebook’s privacy efforts, said the company had no interest in restricting collection or use of data from its users, given that it thrives on online ads.
Parakilas, who worked as operations manager at Facebook between 2011 and 2012, wrote in a New York Times article, “I led Facebook’s efforts to fix privacy problems on its developer platform in advance of its 2012 initial public offering. What I saw from the inside was a company that prioritized data collection from its users overprotecting them from abuse. The fact that Facebook prioritized data collection over user protection and regulatory compliance is precisely what made it so attractive.”
There is little room to contend Parakilas claim that the social networking platform has grown and continues to thrive on revenue generated via online ads. As per the figures projected by Thomson Reuters, Facebook’s revenue from ad sales is expected to grow by a whopping 45 percent this year alone, reaching $27.6 billion. Forbes claims it is this increase in revenue that has pushed the company’s share value by 50 percent in 2017, making founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg the fifth richest man in the world.
Parakilas also goes on to imply that the company seems to care about protecting user data only when doing so helps in curbing negative press. According to the former employee, Facebook doesn’t really care about how user data is used as long as its own public image isn’t affected. Parakilas also went to the extent of saying that lawmakers should take a serious view Facebook’s data collection and usage policy, as self-regulation wouldn’t suffice in case of the social media giant.
It is interesting to note, that Facebook came up with a privacy program only in 2012, eight years after it was founded that too after coming under fire from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which in 2011 charged the company with deceiving consumers by claiming that the information shared by them on the site was private when, in fact, it was repeatedly being shared and made public.
Facebook, on its part, addressed Parakilas’ allegation via a post by Justin Osofsky, vice-president, global operations, that reads: “While it’s fair to criticize how we enforced our developer policies more than five years ago, it’s untrue to suggest we didn’t or don’t care about privacy… Our privacy program, created in 2012, includes hundreds of people from a variety of teams across the company. This group works with product managers and engineers to protect people’s data, to give people information about how our features work, and to provide people control over how their data is used.”
