Mark wins the battle, loses face

Zuckerberg was being disingenuous when he said people control the privacy of what they post

What was the most damaging part of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to US congress last week?

Was it the admission that Facebook tracked its users’ browsing on the Web, even when they were logged out? Was it that Facebook even tracks people who aren’t users?

Was it his refusal to name the hotel he stayed in and who he messaged while expecting his 2.2bn users to be okay with such invasions of privacy?

Perhaps, as Internet memes have suggested, it was the booster cushion on his seat to make him appear taller?

On the first day he testified, Zuckerberg appeared nervous and pale but, as he did on both days, he stuck to his talking points. Only when pushed would he make concessions.

When asked last Wednesday whether Facebook tracks people who aren’t members of its network, Zuckerberg admitted: “We collect data on people who are not signed up for Facebook for security purposes.”

He couldn’t explain why this was necessary, nor how people who hadn’t agreed to Facebook’s terms and conditions could’ve acquiesced to this.

On Tuesday he was pushed to admit that Facebook tracks users even when they’re logged out, equivocating like a politician that “people use cookies on the Internet, and you can correlate activity between sessions. We do that for a number of reasons, including security, and including measuring ads to make sure that the ad experiences are the most effective”.

Zuckerberg made numerous appeals to the founder myth of Silicon Valley. “It’s pretty much impossible to start a company in your dorm room and grow it to the scale we are at now without making some mistakes,” he said. “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake. And I’m sorry.”

On the apology tour of the past two weeks, he’s frequently made these comments. It’s a sleight of hand that belies the fact that he has run the largest social network in the world for 14 years and has dominating control with 60% of voting rights (even though he only owns about 16% of the stock).

“After more than a decade of promises to do better, how is today’s apology different and why should we trust Facebook to make the necessary changes to ensure user privacy and give people a clearer picture of your privacy policies?” senator John Thune asked at the hearing.

Dodging questions, Zuckerberg said his “team” would “follow up” 19 times on Tuesday, and, though he used the word “team” only twice on Wednesday, he used “follow up” a further 13 times. Zuckerberg’s trick was to answer that his users have “complete control” of what they post online. He even attempted to deny knowing about the “shadow profiles” Facebook compiles about its users.

Facebook’s share price might have risen 5.7% after his testimony, but he may ultimately have lost the war, especially against regulation.

Zuckerberg made disingenuous appeals to the founder myth that is so beloved of Silicon Valley