Post by TomLine on Apr 9, 2018 3:30:13 GMT -5
DEFENDING MARK ZUCKERBERG
by Tom Lineaweaver
People who know me, and saw my many articles about my problems with Facebook will probably be shocked that I am now going to defend Mark Zuckerberg. He is going to be facing questions from Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday (April 10-11) this week.
At issue is the privacy of Facebook users. New York Times reported, "But last month, the latest Facebook scandal turned up the heat on Mr. Zuckerberg, when it was disclosed that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm connected to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, improperly obtained the personal data of what Facebook now estimates to be up to 87 million of its users." www.nytimes.com/2018/04/08/technology/zuckerberg-gets-a-crash-course-in-charm-will-congress-care.html
Let me explain it this way. Someone breaks into your home and then your safe, and steals the contents of your safe, are you to blame? Should the cops grill you about the kind of locks on your door, and the kind of safe you have, and is it a state of the art safe, to dertermine if you've done all you can to protect the contents of your safe? Well, that is essentially what is going to happen to Mark Zuckerberg this week. Congress is trying to hold Facebook accountable for what another company, Cambridge Analytica who was connected to the Trump campaign, stole. And that's not right. The real criminals here are Cambridge Analytica and maybe the Trump campaign. So Congress should grill those people, not Mark Zuckerberg. He should be used as a witness against Cambridge Analytica and perhaps the Trump campaign.
Mark Zuckerberg has his problems, but from what I can see, this is not one of them.
About privacy. Who is responsible for your privacy? YOU ARE! Facebook, like all social and forum sites are public platforms. If there is something you don't want people to know about you, don't put it anywhere on the internet.
People are creating there own privacy problems on the internet. When you buy something on the internet, you have to give financial information such as banking numbers and credit card numbers. The more you give those numbers away, the easier it will be for someone else to get them.
I'm an old fashioned guy. When I want to buy something, I will go to a store and buy it. I am protected from identity theft because I don't do those things that leads to it. I am taking responsibility for my own privacy.
What Facebook has about me is info that's already public. My name, where I live, my birthday, etc. No big deal for me. As far as what I post, I understand it's a public platform and anyone could see it. It's like writing a Letter To The Editor of a Newspaper. When it's published, it's public. It doesn't make sense to go to that Newspaper after it's published and tell them you want your privacy protected.
So, yes, I am defending Mark Zuckerberg in this issue. It is your responsibility to protect your privacy, not his.