bob10
5th February 2021, 11:14 AM
Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Lost Notebook
In the early days of Facebook, Zuck kept his plans for world domination in handwritten journals. He destroyed them. But a few revealing pages survived.
And then came the 2016 election. Suddenly, simmering complaints about the service boiled over into anger. Facebook's most cherished accomplishments became liabilities. The enormous numbers of people who connected, “We Are the World”-style, on the service now became alarming evidence of its excessive power. A platform that allowed the voiceless to be heard also allowed trolls to broadcast bilious provocation at ear-splitting decibel levels. It was a tool for deadly oppressors and liberation movements alike. And above all, it was an egregious privacy offender: Facebook's long-held ethic of sharing was now viewed as a honey trap to snare user data. And that data—information provided wittingly and unwittingly by all of us—was the substance on which Facebook grew fat and prospered.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in his now-famous Senate hearings, he admitted that Facebook can, in fact, track its users. That’s across the entire internet. Across multiple platforms. Across multiple accounts. And that's no mistake. It’s part of a master plan Mark Zuckerberg originally outlined in a “lost” notebook from the spring of 2006—a notebook he thought he destroyed. But our own Steven Levy found a 17-page chunk from it.
Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Lost Notebook | WIRED (https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-lost-notebook/?bxid=5cc9e26e3f92a477a0ea0693&bxid=5cc9e26e3f92a477a0ea0693&cndid=52475003&cndid=52475003&esrc=subscribe-page&esrc=subscribe-page&hasha=38b653f59d8a788d2b8029d349fb05f1&hasha=38b653f59d8a788d2b8029d349fb05f1&hashb=acd4725d670d172aa9d05ce7f671dc63250efce1&hashb=acd4725d670d172aa9d05ce7f671dc63250efce1&hashc=c17365ab07572ed90614d245ada5ad675f6bc00189fa 766123c70d76d1d7cddf&hashc=c17365ab07572ed90614d245ada5ad675f6bc00189fa 766123c70d76d1d7cddf&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_ENGAGEMENT_ZZ&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_ENGAGEMENT_ZZ&utm_brand=wired&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=WIR_Classics_020421&utm_mailing=WIR_Classics_020421&utm_medium=email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl&utm_source=nl&utm_term=WIR_Daily_TopClickers&utm_term=WIR_Daily_TopClickers)
In the early days of Facebook, Zuck kept his plans for world domination in handwritten journals. He destroyed them. But a few revealing pages survived.
And then came the 2016 election. Suddenly, simmering complaints about the service boiled over into anger. Facebook's most cherished accomplishments became liabilities. The enormous numbers of people who connected, “We Are the World”-style, on the service now became alarming evidence of its excessive power. A platform that allowed the voiceless to be heard also allowed trolls to broadcast bilious provocation at ear-splitting decibel levels. It was a tool for deadly oppressors and liberation movements alike. And above all, it was an egregious privacy offender: Facebook's long-held ethic of sharing was now viewed as a honey trap to snare user data. And that data—information provided wittingly and unwittingly by all of us—was the substance on which Facebook grew fat and prospered.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in his now-famous Senate hearings, he admitted that Facebook can, in fact, track its users. That’s across the entire internet. Across multiple platforms. Across multiple accounts. And that's no mistake. It’s part of a master plan Mark Zuckerberg originally outlined in a “lost” notebook from the spring of 2006—a notebook he thought he destroyed. But our own Steven Levy found a 17-page chunk from it.
Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Lost Notebook | WIRED (https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-lost-notebook/?bxid=5cc9e26e3f92a477a0ea0693&bxid=5cc9e26e3f92a477a0ea0693&cndid=52475003&cndid=52475003&esrc=subscribe-page&esrc=subscribe-page&hasha=38b653f59d8a788d2b8029d349fb05f1&hasha=38b653f59d8a788d2b8029d349fb05f1&hashb=acd4725d670d172aa9d05ce7f671dc63250efce1&hashb=acd4725d670d172aa9d05ce7f671dc63250efce1&hashc=c17365ab07572ed90614d245ada5ad675f6bc00189fa 766123c70d76d1d7cddf&hashc=c17365ab07572ed90614d245ada5ad675f6bc00189fa 766123c70d76d1d7cddf&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_ENGAGEMENT_ZZ&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_ENGAGEMENT_ZZ&utm_brand=wired&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=WIR_Classics_020421&utm_mailing=WIR_Classics_020421&utm_medium=email&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl&utm_source=nl&utm_term=WIR_Daily_TopClickers&utm_term=WIR_Daily_TopClickers)