Facebook Blames Government Spying for Lack of User Trust
Recent study found nearly half of Facebook quitters citing privacy as the reason
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg followed up comments he made last week on how the US government did a "bad job" balancing privacy and security and explaining it to Americans by suggesting that government spying did more to erode users trust in Facebook than the company's own sometimes controversial privacy policy changes. Zuckerberg also seems to believe that if the government were just more open about how and how much they ask for data Americans would be more trusting. Via Reuters:
"What I can tell from the data that I see at Facebook is that I think the more transparency and communication the government could do about how they're requesting the data from us, the better everyone would feel about it," he said.
"From reading in the media, you couldn't get a sense whether the number of requests that the government makes is closer to a thousand or closer to a 100 million. … I think the more transparency the government has, the better folks would feel."
Zuckerberg also pointed out that government assurances that the NSA is only targeting non-Americans is not helpful when US internet companies are interested in being competitive around the world. The cost of NSA surveillance to US businesses could reach upward of $11 billion a year in the cloud computing industry alone. A recent study of Facebook quitters found nearly half being led to "virtual identity suicide" over privacy concerns. A Reason-Rupe poll, meanwhile, found that three quarters of Americans didn't trust Facebook with their privacy. Watch the Reason TV video below: