Roger McNamee is one of the earliest investors of Facebook as well as one who personally backed Mark Zuckerberg when the company was still in its infancy. However, the same McNamee is now worried with the way Facebook has grown in the more than a decade ever since and has sounded the warning bell concerning the future prospect of the company.
And the one reason that McNamee seems to be miffed the most about Facebook is the tons of personal data that the company has been accumulating over the years. The fact that it happens to be the social media company’s core business model that the Silicon Valley investor seems to be particularly worried about.
That again has to do with the fact that Facebook is entirely ad-driven and for that to be successful, it needs to have access to the user’s personal details. That way, the company will be better poised to serve personalized ads that have the maximum chances of having an impact on the users.
It wouldn’t have been much of an issue if Facebook has had a brilliant record at upholding user’s privacy. Unfortunately, that is not how things have unfolded so far while there also is no denying the scores of privacy scandals that Facebook has found itself embroiled in so far.
Facebook, on its part, has time again reiterated its stance on privacy but has been found to be lacking on those so far. More recently, it said it is in the process of adopting a new encrypted messaging mechanism which it said will put to end all security issues that the company has been associated with so far. Unfortunately, the same has found no takers so far and is being considered as a desperate attempt to ward off FTC action. Roger even declared Zuckerberg privacy vision as publicity stunt.
McNamee also said Facebook would be better off as a standalone company while several of its subsidiaries like WhatsApp and Instagram separated from the parent company. In fact, McNamee also has a broader game plan for the entire tech industry and is envisioning something similar for several other tech firms as well. That includes splitting YouTube from Google and making the video-sharing site to operate as a separate company.
https://inferse.com/52710/facebook-found-using-phone-numbers-meant-for-2fa-for-targeted-advertising/
McNamee meanwhile has also taken upon himself on advising the future US presidential candidates about the challenges that the tech industry faces and how those needs to be shaped to make them better tuned to face the challenges of the future.
