Perfect timing: Facebook hires top privacy law activists
It seems like almost everyday there’s a new story about how Facebook betrayed the public trust on a new, unforeseen user privacy issue. Now, Facebook looks to finally reckon with this growing problem by bringing onboard three of the top names in privacy law.
Facebook confirmed on Tuesday that it had hired Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Nate Cardozo, Open Technology Institute attorney Robyn Greene, and Access Now’s Senior Legislative Manager Nathan White. The three new hires are veteran privacy law activists.
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Cardozo’s hiring is especially interesting as the former EFF attorney has been extremely critical of Facebook. In a 2015 op-ed, Cardozo wrote that “[Facebook’s] business model depends on our collective confusion and apathy about privacy.”
In a Facebook post, Cardozo announced he will be working as the Privacy Policy Manager for the company’s popular messaging application, WhatsApp. Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in 2014 for $16 billion.
“If you know me at all, you’ll know this isn’t a move I’d make lightly. After the privacy beating Facebook’s taken over the last year, I was skeptical too,” wrote Cardozo. “But the privacy team I’ll be joining knows me well, and knows exactly how I feel about tech policy, privacy, and encrypted messaging. And that’s who they want at managing privacy at WhatsApp. I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.”
The hiring of Cardozo, one of its harshest privacy critics, is even more notable when considering what Brian Acton, one of WhatsApp’s co-founders, has said regarding Facebook and privacy.
"I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day," Acton said in an interview with Forbes last year. The WhatsApp co-founder had butted heads with Facebook concerning issues like privacy and advertising before leaving the company in 2017.
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The other new hires, Greene and White, will be working with the privacy policy team at Facebook.
Facebook has made an important move by bringing these three policy activists aboard. It’s a necessary step, especially on the same day as a new Facebook privacy scandal broke involving paying teens to spy on their mobile internet usage.
