Facebook has emailed us regarding the latest statement from the company on secretly deleting messages sent on Messenger by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
[UPDATE]: “We have discussed this feature several times. And people using our secret message feature in the encrypted version of Messenger have the ability to set a timer — and have their messages automatically deleted. We will now be making a broader delete message feature available. This may take some time. And until this feature is ready, we will no longer be deleting any executives’ messages. We should have done this sooner — and we’re sorry that we did not.” – Messenger spokesperson.
Facebook admitted that it had been secretly deleting messages on Messenger sent by CEO Mark Zuckerberg since 2014. A company spokesperson stated: “After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications.”
These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages. – Spokesperson of Facebook
It has been noticed that not all messages Zuckerberg have since 2014 were deleted. This could imply that the boss has some special treatment from his company in an attempt to prevent certain potential embarrassments. But Cassey Newton, via Twitter, points out the more practical point that establishes Facebook’s high ground of seriousness in their iterative talks of commitments about privacy.
The company policies do not entail content removal unless community standards are violated. This ensures that they came up with a two-way privacy measurement, one for the users and another for the executives. Users cannot delete messages from their recipients’ inboxes, but this has been made possible continuously for Zuckerberg Messenger texts.
This comes out at a shaky time for social media, the CEO himself, the Cambridge Analytica issue, and several others. Zuckerberg will need to testify before Congress in the coming week regarding user data protection.
Recently, Facebook has made user data protection from third-party apps stricter. They have as well reduced Android call history and SMS data collection as a part of the broader initiative.
Things are still not going smoothly for the company, with the Indonesian investigation and Brazilian allegation in the mix. Social media fans and marketers around the world will want that things go well for Zuckerberg in court next week.
Stay put into getting more updates on the matter.
