Facebook’s so-called ‘pivot to privacy’ puts Apple in its crosshairs

“The big question after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s ‘pivot to privacy’ was whether the company was really sincere about guarding users’ personal data,” Will Oremus writes for Slate. “(The consensus among critics: probably not as serious as you might hope.)”
“What does seem sincere, however, is Zuckerberg’s newfound commitment to messaging. He wants Facebook to dominate private online communication to the same degree that it dominates what we call social networking today,” Oremus writes. “When people pull out their phone to text their mother, or plan a party with a group of friends, Zuckerberg wants them to do that on WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct — all of which will work with each other, and eventually with standard SMS systems, too. And in the long run, he wants them to use those platforms for much more than texting and chatting. The ultimate vision is something akin to WeChat, the Chinese super-app that people use for everything from messaging to sharing videos to making appointments, reviewing restaurants, and hailing rides.”
“To accomplish that, however, Facebook will have to accomplish something no one else has yet been able to do: pull iPhone users off of iMessage, Apple’s enormously popular and user-friendly messaging platform,” Oremus writes. “That goal puts Facebook, for the first time, in direct competition not only with Snapchat, Google, and Twitter, but with Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Facebook is as committed to privacy as to Steve Harvey is to shampoo.
This will be an interesting battle, but Apple has many advantages here, not the least of which is Facebook’s awful privacy record, regardless of how much they talk up their fake “pivot to privacy,” versus Apple’s demonstrated longtime commitment to user privacy.
As we wrote last May, “If you trust Mark Zuckerberg to be the keeper of your photos, contacts, political views, religious beliefs, etc., you’re batshit insane.”
Instant messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook’s early days, reported by Business Insider in May 2010:
Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuckerberg: Just ask
Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend’s Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuckerberg: People just submitted it.
Zuckerberg: I don’t know why.
Zuckerberg: They “trust me”
Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks
SEE ALSO:
New York investigating at least eleven iOS apps for transmitting personal data to Facebook, including ‘sexual activity’ – March 1, 2019
These apps are stealing your most private data and it should be a crime – February 25, 2019
You give apps your sensitive personal information, then they tell Facebook, even if you have no connection to Facebook – February 22, 2019
Apple blocks Facebook from running all of their internal iOS apps by revoking distribution certificate – January 30, 2019
Apple bans Facebook’s ‘research’ app that paid teens to install VPN that spies on them – January 30, 2019
Hidden documents reveal how Facebook made money by bamboozling children – January 18, 2019
Roger McNamee: I mentored Mark Zuckerberg. I loved Facebook. But I can’t stay silent about what’s happening. – January 17, 2019
Apple CEO Cook calls for U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation in TIME op-ed – January 17, 2019
Senator Marco Rubio introduces privacy bill to create federal regulations on data collection – January 16, 2019
Apple endorses comprehensive privacy legislation in U.S. Senate testimony – September 26, 2018
Trump administration working on federal data privacy policy – July 27, 2018