‘We don’t sell people’s data,’ says Facebook’s Zuckerberg

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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Facebook co-founder and chief Mark
Zuckerberg on Thursday renewed his defense of the social network’s business,
arguing that targeting ads based on interests was different from selling
people’s data.

“If we’re committed to serving everyone, then we need a service that is
affordable to everyone,” Zuckerberg said in an opinion piece published in the
Wall Street Journal.

“The best way to do that is to offer services for free, which ads enable us
to do.”

2018 was a horrific year for Facebook, marked by a series of scandals over
data protection and privacy and concerns that the leading social network had
been manipulated by foreign interests for political purposes.

Despite the scandals, Facebook revenue and user numbers have continued to
grow.

Making ads relevant, and less annoying, involves understanding people’s
interests, according to Zuckerberg.

Facebook uses “signals” such as pages users “like” and what they share
about themselves to target advertising.

“Sometimes this means people assume we do things that we don’t do,”
Zuckerberg said of the business of supporting the social network with
targeted ads.

“For example, we don’t sell people’s data, even though it’s often reported
that we do.”

Selling user data would not only undermine essential trust in the social
network, it would go against Facebook’s business interests because rivals
could use it to compete for advertising, he reasoned.

Facebook also provides users with controls regarding information used for
ad targeting and lets them block advertisers, Zuckerberg pointed out.

Criticism of Facebook has included the social network being used as a
platform to spread divisive or misleading information, as was the case during
the 2016 election that put US President Donald Trump in the White House.

“Clickbait and other junk may drive engagement in the near term, but it
would be foolish for us to show this intentionally, because it’s not what
people want,” Zuckerberg wrote.

“Another question is whether we leave harmful or divisive content up
because it drives engagement. We don’t.”

Facebook has been investing in artificial intelligence and adding employees
devoted to ferreting out content that violates the social network’s rules.

The expense could weigh on its quarterly earnings, due for release next
week.

“The only reason bad content remains is because the people and artificial-
intelligence systems we use to review it are not perfect — not because we
have an incentive to ignore it,” he said.