Facebook’s So-Called Pivot to Privacy Is a Diversion

In a 2,237-word manifesto published on Facebook on Wednesday, Zuckerberg wrote that his company would be pivoting toward a “privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform” more interested in being the “digital equivalent of the living room” than “the digital equivalent of a town square.” But, given Facebook’s growth-at-all-costs history, I also think Zuckerberg knows the narrow definition of privacy he’s advancing offers the company a convenient smokescreen for what is, essentially, a profit-minded business move. We wouldn’t see if Facebook stopped using Facebook and Instagram photos to feed its facial recognition A.I. Nor would many of us be able to explicitly detect the ways in which this integration and expansion of these messaging services might make it easier to piece together new kinds of data about us and make it harder to quit or break up the company when the inevitable scandal arises out of it.

Source: slate.com