Zuckerberg laughs at Facebook's bad privacy record at F8

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg awkwardly laughed at the company's poor privacy track record at the F8 2019 day one keynote.

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Facebook kicked off their F8 developer conference today with a keynote presentation featuring CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The company has been dealing with negative PR stemming from their handling of user data and other privacy snafus for over a year. Despite all the negative headlines, 2.38 billion people use Facebook each month. Those users were given a treat of a bunch of new features and functions being added to the website today. Zuckerberg stressed the importance of privacy at the keynote, but also had an awkward moment where he laughed at the company's exceedingly poor track record. Please take a look.

Facebook recently disclosed that they believe the company will be fined up to $5 billion by the F.T.C. for privacy issues, so this cavalier attitude screams of a company that has become too big for the good of its users. It was even more bizarre for the CEO of the company to preface an hour-long deep dive into new privacy features with an extremely weak joke about their terrible history of mismanaging data. Self-deprecation is fine for a stand-up comedian, but a more honest show of remorse would probably have been a better route for Zuckerberg to go at F8.

That smug billionaire feeling when you can pay a $5 billion privacy fine and not lose any monthly active users.
That smug billionaire feeling when you can pay a $5 billion privacy fine and not lose any monthly active users.

Last year, Facebook revealed that the company knew about massive data breach with third party applications. At the time, Zuckerberg went on an apology tour and was even dragged in front of Congress for a tongue lashing by a bunch of politicians who have no idea how to regulate the social media behemoth. The company has continued to have issues with data security and privacy violations, but today's announcements at F8 were centered around creating new private ways to interact on Facebook and Instagram. "As the world gets bigger and more connected, we need that sense of intimacy more than ever. So that's why I believe that the future is private," said Zuckerberg at the keynote presentation.

Do you care that Facebook continues to abuse their users with horrible security and data privacy management? Do you believe that they can actually turn this negative sentiment around with their pivot to privacy-focused features? Let us know in the comments section and be sure to check out our Oculus Rift S and Quest preorder FAQs in case you missed the release date announcements.

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.

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