"Dumb F--ks": Julian Assange Reminds Us What Mark Zuckerberg Thinks Of Facebook Users

Julian Assange fired off a tweet Friday afternoon reminding people of the time Mark Zuckerberg called his users "Dumb fucks" because they trusted him with their private information. 

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb fucks.

The exchange, originally published by Business Insider's editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson in 2010, was an early instant messenger conversation then 19-year-old Zuckerberg had with a college friend shortly after he launched "The Facebook" in his dorm room.

At the time Business Insider published the exchange, Facebook had "faced one privacy flap after another, usually following changes to the privacy policy or new product releases." 

But the company's attitude toward privacy, as reflected in Mark's early emails and IMs, features like Beacon and Instant Personalization, and the frequent changes to the privacy policy, has been consistently aggressive: Do something first, then see how people react.

And this does appear to reflect Mark's own views of privacy, which seem to be that people shouldn't care about it as much as they do -- an attitude that very much reflects the attitude of his generation.

After all, here's what early Facebook engineering boss, Harvard alum, and Zuckerberg confidant Charlie Cheever said in David Kirkpatrick's brilliantly-reported upcoming book The Facebook Effect.

"I feel Mark doesn't believe in privacy that much, or at least believes in privacy as a stepping stone. Maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong."

Kirkpatrick had this to say about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in his book:

"Mark really does believe very much in transparency and the vision of an open society and open world, and so he wants to push people that way. I think he also understands that the way to get there is to give people granular control and comfort. He hopes you'll get more open, and he's kind of happy to help you get there. So for him, it's more of a means to an end. For me, I'm not as sure." 

Zuckerberg reportedly hacked into people's email using their TheFacebook passwords...

At one point early on on Facebook history, Zuckerberg - nervous about an upcoming report in the Harvard Crimson, used "TheFacebook" login data of Crimson staff to crack into their Harvard email accounts to see if the paper was going to include a claim that he had stolen an idea for a TheFacebook feature called "Visualize Your Buddy." 

Tim and Elisabeth decided to drop John's claims from the story. But, this time, they decided to go ahead and publish a story on ConnectU's claims against Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg was not content to wait until the morning to find out if the Crimson would include John's accusations in its story.

Instead, he decided to access the email accounts of Crimson editors and review their emails. How did he do this? Here's how Mark described his hack to a friend:

Mark used his site, TheFacebook.com, to look up members of the site who identified themselves as members of the Crimson. Then he examined a log of failed logins to see if any of the Crimson members had ever entered an incorrect password into TheFacebook.com. If the cases in which they had entered failed logins, Mark tried to use them to access the Crimson members' Harvard email accounts. He successfully accessed two of them.

In other words, Mark appears to have used private login data from TheFacebook to hack into the separate email accounts of some TheFacebook users.

In one account he accessed, Mark saw an email from Crimson writer Tim McGinn to Cameron, Tyler, and Divya. Another email Mark read was this one, from Crimson managing editor Elisabeth Theodore to Tim McGinn:

From: Elisabeth Susan Theodore
To: Timothy John McGinn
Subject: Re: Follow-up

OK, he did seem very sleazy. And I thought that some of his answers to the questions were not very direct or open. I also thought that his reaction to the website was very very weird. But, even if it's true so what? It's an [redacted] thing to do but it's not illegal, right? -Business Insider

Lo and behold, Mark's cavalier attitude towards Facebook user data is costing him billions at a time he's actively shedding shares as part of a $12 billion liquidation which started last September

Comments

peopledontwanttruth saldulilem Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:10 Permalink

I hate the whole idea of Fecebook.  Either narcissistic people or others who suffer from extremely low self esteem all crying "someone pay attention to me"!

People letting others know their business.  It's called your business for a reason.  Then want to get dramatic when people talk about you behind your back.  

 

Stop posting your life for others to see whether a fake one you don't have and go get one. 

 

The brainless of society giving the government to employees to robbers the scoop on your life.  

 

What idiots.   

In reply to by saldulilem

Heroic Couplet Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:02 Permalink

This has nothing to do with Steve Bannon. I've heard Republican crackheads, the rank and file Republican voters, stating "Obama used Facebook." Okay, so who was Obama's Steve Bannon, and where are the Photoshopped pictures of Mitt Romney?

Kidbuck Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:06 Permalink

Liberals are each convinced they are the center of the universe, their views matter to others, their lives matter to others, and without absorbing any of the wisdom of the ages, they are naturally smarter than everyone else, and thus they deserve all the attention they can get.

rccalhoun Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:07 Permalink

but google, facebook and amazon are so cool.  they let you ride your skateboard at work, have organic in their cafeteria and paint the office walls pink.  they really care.

DillyDilly Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:11 Permalink

Fucking lava lamp on the desk ~ lol

 

For crying out loud, I was never ON, or even INTERESTED in Facebook... The very thought of seeing this jew milquetoast face on half the threads turns me from into something that is usually somewhat calm, into someone who wants to go out and beat the shit out of the next person that even looks at me in the same smarmy way...

Jam Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:11 Permalink

Judging from from President Trumps actions, especially lately. It makes me wonder if behind the scenes he says the same thing about the people that voted for him.    

Avichi Sun, 03/25/2018 - 13:14 Permalink

WE THE PEOPLE OF WORLD! - Use the POWER OF SOCIAL NETWORKING (It is a double edge sword) to HURT mother fucker Mark Suckerberg and his COHORTS where it hurts in their STOCK PRICE and in their wallet

AMERICA Tell you friends,relatives,coworkers, in INDIA ,CHINA,SOUTH EAST ASIA ,CENTRAL ASIA and rest of the world including AFRICA , where #FACEBOOK enables of this evil act https://archive.fo/hz5Dp ,

Let your SOCIAL NETWORK SPREAD THE WORD to #DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook#DeleteFaceBook

They are the enablers Children Traffic and Sex Slaves of this evil act https://archive.fo/hz5Dp

MARK SUCKERBERG AND FACEBOOK and COHORTS are THREAT TO OUR SOCIETY