Facebook CEO: People Who Trust Me Are "Dumb F*cks"

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Facebook CEO: People Who Trust Me Are "Dumb F*cks"


An old and awkwardly-honest exchange of IMs between Mark Zuckerberg and a college friend has the Facebook [http://www.facebook.com] founder and CEO taking new heat about his famously dismissive attitude toward privacy.

We all say stupid things when we're young. And we're all very glad when, years later, everybody's forgotten about them and moved on to more immediate concerns. But we don't all grow up to be Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook while in college and presided over its growth into a multi-billion-dollar operation. So while most of us can rely on the tender mercies of time to blunt our youthful missteps, Zuckerberg isn't so lucky.

Zuckerberg is famous for his cavalier attitude toward privacy. He said earlier this year that the conventional concept of privacy is no longer a "doesn't believe in [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/11/facebooks-zuckerberg-the_n_417969.html]" it. It's not an entirely unreasonable attitude to take in this day and age, but an exchange of instant messages between Zuckerberg and a college friend from back in the earliest days of Facebook may be a bit more telling and a lot harder to rationalize.

Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuckerberg: Just ask.

Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuckerberg: People just submitted it.

Zuckerberg: I don't know why.

Zuckerberg: They "trust me"

Zuckerberg: Dumb f*cks.

Oh, the bitter sting of irony. It burns! It's an old conversation, sure, but not that old: Zuckerberg is only 25, after all. And even though this should probably be filed under "youthful indiscretion," appearances matter and this looks like nothing so much as an affirmation of Zuckerberg's complete indifference toward the personal privacy of other people. With Facebook increasingly coming under fire [http://www.betanews.com/article/Facebook-to-fight-privacy-complaint-with-help-of-former-FTC-chairman/1273509726] for its "inconsistent" approach to users' privacy, this sort of public relations debacle, fair or not, is the last thing Zuckerberg needs.

Source: Business Insider [http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5]


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Sir Kemper

New member
Jan 21, 2010
2,248
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Ladies and gentlmen of facebook, this is the man your trusting with your personal information.


Please think about that for a while.
 

Frank_Sinatra_

Digs Giant Robots
Dec 30, 2008
2,306
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Is this guy an idiot, or what?
This shit is going to come back and bite him in the ass, and I'll be there to laugh at him when it does.
 

TheDoctor455

Friendly Neighborhood Time Lord
Apr 1, 2009
12,257
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Sir Kemper said:
Ladies and gentlmen of facebook, this is the man your trusting with your personal information.


Please think about that for a while.
Yeah... I knew about this sort of bullshit when I signed up... but... its still a good way to keep in touch with friends (met them in real life long before I ever got a facebook account) that live thousands of miles away now.

Good thing I never really post that much info on my profile anyway.
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
4,190
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Ah HA! Now who's the Idiot for not liking Facebook! I only joined so i could go on Duke's Facebook.

Calumon: So... Formspring is next?
 

Matt_LRR

Unequivocal Fan Favorite
Nov 30, 2009
1,260
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And with that, so is all my information deleted from facebook.

-m
 

thenumberthirteen

Unlucky for some
Dec 19, 2007
4,794
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Damn. Why didn't I hear about this earlier today. I had an exam about trusting companies like Facebook with personal information. "Dumb Fucks" would be an excellent quote to use.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
17,032
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I like him.

That's what I'd do. I'd sell info for money.

[sub]That's what the Escapist does, too, isn't it?[/sub]
 

Danpascooch

Zombie Specialist
Apr 16, 2009
5,231
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If anyone makes a Facebook, they'd be idiots if they expected privacy.

What's an SNS number?
 

Gxas

New member
Sep 4, 2008
3,187
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Furburt said:
Thankfully, I don't have any private information that could be used against me on there
Same here. I don't post anything but a few pics of me and some song lyrics as my status.
 

2fish

New member
Sep 10, 2008
1,930
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Well if there is ever an issue at harvard about security or blackmail we now have a suspect. That was a very dumb move for him, do you think we can pin any ID theft on him? That statment could be proof that he has or will endanger people's identity, ID theft is a big thing. A small investigation on the whole organization would be fun, think of what we could find!

-2fish
 

Altorin

Jack of No Trades
May 16, 2008
6,976
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lol, that's actually hilarious.. While I think that anything you submit to Facebook is fairgame (really, I'm not that naive to think that they won't sell my information to people), but the fact that the CEO will personally go through facebook entries on a personal request of a friend is kind of shitty.

Don't really care anyway though, but it's still funny.
 

Altorin

Jack of No Trades
May 16, 2008
6,976
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danpascooch said:
If anyone makes a Facebook, they'd be idiots if they expected privacy.

What's an SNS number?
text-messaging is generally done through SNS.

not sure what it stands for, or even what it means
 
May 1, 2010
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To be completely honest; this will have no bearing on the core of the Facebook consumers.

He could put a banner on each person's page stating that any information in their profiles he can and will submit to Cometomyhouseandburnmerepeatedly.com and he'd only lose 5% attachment.

And 3% would come crawling back within a week.