Facebook as a company is not all that well known for valuing the privacy of its users. However, after mounting public pressure on the company, it seems like upper level management at the social media platform’s headquarters is trying to shift company policy and aim it in a far more favorable direction all in all. This is based on an internal memo that went around Facebook’s offices recently, a memo that indicated that more emphasis is going to be placed on user privacy, so much so that this was explicitly stated in the memo itself.
This memo came from Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth, and it blatantly and openly referred to Facebook’s shady practices in the past whilst also recognizing that all of this needed to change in the future. The name of the memo was “The Big Shift”, and this might just be the single biggest indicator that Facebook is trying to change its ways. Perhaps most pertinently, the memo referred to how Facebook initially put the product first but now user privacy is going to be the main focus of the company moving forward.
The past year has not been kind to Facebook. With constant legal troubles as well as an ever increasing public outcry against Facebook’s practices, company executives have long realized that the situation was fast becoming untenable. Bosworth has been with Facebook for 15 years, meaning that he has seen this social media platform grow into what it is today. This means that he is one of the only people that might just be capable of figuring out how Facebook’s future can be made a bit more sustainable with regards to the level of trust people might be willing to place in the company in the first place.
Now, a top level Facebook executive saying something like this, while certainly significant, is by no means an indication that Facebook’s trajectory is actually going to change. Bosworth has been speaking up against his company’s practices privately for quite some time now, and this has not managed to change Facebook’s ways just yet.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this is the most public message that Bosworth has sent out on the matter. This makes it more significant because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up showing Mark Zuckerberg just how important something like this could be. We might see a more privacy friendly Facebook in the near future, and if you think about it such a company would be unstoppable since the only thing currently getting in Facebook’s way is itself.
This memo came from Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth, and it blatantly and openly referred to Facebook’s shady practices in the past whilst also recognizing that all of this needed to change in the future. The name of the memo was “The Big Shift”, and this might just be the single biggest indicator that Facebook is trying to change its ways. Perhaps most pertinently, the memo referred to how Facebook initially put the product first but now user privacy is going to be the main focus of the company moving forward.
The past year has not been kind to Facebook. With constant legal troubles as well as an ever increasing public outcry against Facebook’s practices, company executives have long realized that the situation was fast becoming untenable. Bosworth has been with Facebook for 15 years, meaning that he has seen this social media platform grow into what it is today. This means that he is one of the only people that might just be capable of figuring out how Facebook’s future can be made a bit more sustainable with regards to the level of trust people might be willing to place in the company in the first place.
Now, a top level Facebook executive saying something like this, while certainly significant, is by no means an indication that Facebook’s trajectory is actually going to change. Bosworth has been speaking up against his company’s practices privately for quite some time now, and this has not managed to change Facebook’s ways just yet.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this is the most public message that Bosworth has sent out on the matter. This makes it more significant because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up showing Mark Zuckerberg just how important something like this could be. We might see a more privacy friendly Facebook in the near future, and if you think about it such a company would be unstoppable since the only thing currently getting in Facebook’s way is itself.
