Slate - "Zuckerberg's Five Most Dishonest Answers"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/the-5-most-dishonest-answers-mark-zuckerberg-gave-to-congress.html

“I’m Not Familiar With That”
The five most dishonest answers Mark Zuckerberg gave to Congress.
By WILL OREMUS

Mark Zuckerberg’s tactics to survive 10 hours of questioning by members of Congress included diversions, technical quibbles, and filibusters designed to run out each lawmaker’s four-minute clock. His overall strategy for the hearings, which focused on Facebook’s privacy and data security practices, was to say as little as possible beyond a handful of scripted talking points. Still, there were times when he had no choice but to say something. And on at least a few of those occasions, he said things that strained the credulity of anyone who follows Zuckerberg and his company closely. Here are five of the least plausible claims he made to Congress this week.

1. Facebook users “consented” to letting their friends share their personal information with the likes of Cambridge Analytica.

A 2011 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission required Facebook to obtain users’ “express consent” via “clear and prominent notice” before sharing their data in new ways. Yet the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that as many as 87 million Facebook users could have had their profile data scraped via an app that only 270,000 signed up for. That’s because Facebook allowed such apps to obtain data not only from their users, but from their unwitting friends. And it emerged this week that some users even had their private messages harvested.

Multiple lawmakers this week pressed Zuckerberg on whether that apparently nonconsensual data harvesting amounted to a violation of the FTC agreement. Each time, Zuckerberg repeated the company’s official stance that it does not believe it violated the agreement. But on one occasion—under persistent questioning from Kansas Republican Jerry Moran on Tuesday—Zuckerberg went further, suggesting that Facebook users did in fact consent to having their data scraped by third parties anytime their friends signed up for an app. “We explained, and they consented to it working that way,” Zuckerberg said. He later added, “We made it clear this is how it worked. When people signed up for Facebook, they signed up for that as well.”

We’ll soon find out whether the FTC agrees: Some observers are expecting it to levy record fines on the company. Regardless, Zuckerberg’s claim that Facebook users understood that their friends could give away their data seems pretty disingenuous.

2. Facebook users prefer targeted ads to nontargeted ones.

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, asked on Tuesday what happens if a user doesn’t want to receive targeted ads based on their online behavior. Specifically, he asked if Facebook is really considering letting users pay to opt out of ad targeting. But Zuckerberg rejected the question’s premise:


snip - more to read at the link above

[Bucky]

1. This article is important. I have the same impression when I watched the hearing

When it comes to social media, I'm barely smarter than a senator. But even at that, it really felt like is that kirberg was getting the benefit of the doubt, or at least the benefit of the ignorance of the question is.

[RandomAccess]

2. No. 5 - Palantir

5. He’s “not that familiar with what Palantir does.”

Palantir is a major Silicon Valley data analysis firm with connections to law enforcement, the military, and the NSA. Its co-founder, Peter Thiel, was an early Facebook investor and a mentor to Zuckerberg, and he sits on Facebook’s board. Palantir’s headquarters in Palo Alto are in the same building that used to be Facebook’s headquarters. Yet when Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, asked Zuckerberg about Palantir, the Facebook CEO said, “I’m not really that familiar with what Palantir does.” Odd that it has never come up in any of his conversations with Thiel!

If you haven't heard of Palantir, it's something you really should know about if Privacy and Government surveillance is anything you've ever cared a whit about. The best thing, IMO, is to watch one or two of their videos that explain what they do to receptive audiences (customers or would-be customers). It farkin' curled my hair. I ran across these during the height of the Snowdon revelations a few years ago.

Palantir 101

GovCon7: Introduction to Palantir

This may be of interest also, but I have't (yet) watched it --

Palantir Technologies ~ Enter The Matrix?

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. thanks for posting this