Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#71

Post by DataJunkie » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

I used to be a fan of Facebook, but I was never obsessed with it. I even used to work there.

I'm over it.

It's useful for groups, some of the ads really are useful, it's nice to sometimes keep up with people that are far away, but the news feed has had done way more harm than good for our society, including my own life.

After the 2016 Election, Facebook posts lead to so much drama in my family that certain "branches" of the tree have unfriended and blocked each other and we haven't spoken since. My dad and I constantly argue because he will see some comment I made on someone else's post and have to give his own opinion, or read to me what the other person said back. There is no way to turn this part of the feed off.

Overall, it is a totally unpleasant product to use now. The only reason I want it to succeed is because I own stock from when I worked there.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#72

Post by zecg » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #37

They just spent the last 5 years drilling into their employees a culture where online privacy doesn't exist, I think it's going to be pretty steep turn of the ship. Nevertheless I hope the announcement is not merely lip-service. I'd love to see the same commitment out of Google.

Google+ was good privacy-wise.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#73

Post by bilbo0s » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

ordinaryradical wrote: post #24

I just don't understand how anyone can believe his vision for "a privacy-focused social network" is even possible this late in the game. There is too much money riding precisely on the reductions of privacy Facebook has enabled for this to be realistic anymore. The ad dollars come from knowing you, not concealing you. Plus, once you're a public company, the rules change—you have shareholders to honor—and if you got t…

>I just don't understand how anyone can believe his vision for "a privacy-focused social network"...

People need to understand, ANYTHING you use on the internet opens you up wide to privacy violations. Anything you use on the internet can end up in the hands of law enforcement. And certainly any SOCIAL network is, by its very nature, NOT private.

There is no way to be on the internet, and be completely opaque to the larger world at the same time. Zuckerberg is lying to you. So are Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, and Wire. If you're worth it, the US can track you. (Not just the US, several other nations and organizations can as well.)

Your buddy who told you that they couldn't find you behind that pseudonym as long as you were using a VPN? Yeah... he lied.

But here's the real problem, no one cares.

No one cares about privacy, because they all feel that they have nothing to hide. I know the feeling, I understand the feeling. But this is bigger than us as individuals.

The internet needs to be rearchitected, bit by bit. In concert with that effort, we need to agitate for some laws that prevent data sharing. Some laws that have real teeth.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#74

Post by debt » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:19 PM UTC

mindgam3 wrote: post #61

I've known Chris Cox since freshman year of college and he was an informal advisor to my first startup. The NYT article referenced in hashberry's earlier comment includes a key quote: “For over a decade, I’ve been sharing the same message that Mark and I have always believed: Social media’s history is not yet written, and its effects are not neutral,” Mr. Cox said in a note to employees on Thursday. “As its builders…

"hemorrhaging its best people"

I don't consider people that oversaw one of the biggest cases of user data misuse in history which, by the way, could've been easily prevented, as the "best people". Sounds like Facebook is making the changes necessary to rectify the mess they oversaw.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#75

Post by floatrock » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:20 PM UTC

smrq wrote: post #66

floatrock wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person, maybe if I squint very very very hard. Legally, he has a duty to maximize value for his board and investors. And there hasn't been a business model that provides a free consumer web product without monetizing user data.

Why does this shareholder value meme keep getting perpetuated?

Because that's who a CEO reports to and that's how a CEO gets fired.

Some CEO's like Elon and Jobs can spin a great story and hold on by sheer force of personality, but pension funds aren't buying FB in bulk to get more green cars on the road.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#76

Post by bitxbit » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

ordinaryradical wrote: post #24

I just don't understand how anyone can believe his vision for "a privacy-focused social network" is even possible this late in the game. There is too much money riding precisely on the reductions of privacy Facebook has enabled for this to be realistic anymore. The ad dollars come from knowing you, not concealing you. Plus, once you're a public company, the rules change—you have shareholders to honor—and if you got t…

It’s exactly why he/she is pushing for it. Because they can now hide behind the wall that is privacy. People can do whatever they want behind that wall and Facebook can and will not care to monitor any activity. This is their way of copping out.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#77

Post by bilbo0s » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

dontbenebby wrote: post #64

ordinaryradical wrote: post #24

I just don't understand how anyone can believe his vision for "a privacy-focused social network" is even possible this late in the game. There is too much money riding precisely on the reductions of privacy Facebook has enabled for this to be realistic anymore. The ad dollars come from knowing you, not concealing you. Plus, once you're a public company, the rules change—you have shareholders to honor—and if you got t…

It's perfectly possibly they'll increase privacy, in the sense that instead of blasting updates to everyone you send them to specific people, with an autodelete. This doesn't interfere with tracking. Most people, when they think about privacy, think about the disclosure of specific posts to unintended audiences. They often don't think about the tracking beacons silently categorizing everything. So in short, it's perf…

This is another issue, everyone's definition of "privacy" is different. I want total privacy, which I can't have. That said, you're correct to say that there are some people out there who just want a little privacy.

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#78

Post by o10449366 » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

hashberry wrote: post #16

Interesting spin from the NYTimes ("Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox"[0]): "The departures follow two years of scandals for Facebook around data privacy and disinformation. The issues have buffeted the Silicon Valley company, causing internal turmoil and a redirection in strategy." [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/technology/facebook-chris...

Both WAPO and NYT have a clear editorial and political agenda against Facebook.

To add two datapoints to your observation above:

"Facebook’s top executive in charge of all products, Chris Cox, the longtime confidant of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is leaving the company, the highest-level departure at the social media giant amid nearly two years of sustained crises." (WAPO) [1]

"Two Facebook Inc. senior executives said Thursday that they would leave the company—surprise departures that come days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a major shift in direction for the company." (WSJ) [2]

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/14/faceboo...

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-top-facebook-executives-lea...

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#79

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

tyre wrote: post #53

arunv wrote: post #27

Chris Cox is a huge loss for Facebook. His first day speech is still the reason Facebook has the strongest culture in the valley.

> Facebook has the strongest culture in the valley For a company so regularly beset by scandal, this feels like a bold assertion. Culture of what?

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Loses Top Executives, Including Chris Cox

#80

Post by lph » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

chc wrote: post #30

annadane wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what pisses me off. I'm more than willing to criticize Facebook when they deserve it but IMO the media blitzkrieg has said more about the media than Facebook. Not that FB hasn't done scummy things but my faith in the whole attack angle has been reduced

They leaked tens of millions of people's personal information to third parties without so much as notifying them. There were congressional hearings about their privacy violations. Facebook is very publicly pivoting to emphasize personal privacy much more than they have before. It seems like a pretty legitimate bit of context more than an attack.

They’re very publicly pivoting to /claiming/ to take privacy seriously. I don’t know why anyone would believe them, given their track record, continued willful ignorance about the actual definition of privacy, and vested interest in mining every detail about their users to achieve better ad targeting.