Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said that he would delete his Facebook account in the wake of recent data security scandals. Wozniak said that the social networking giant has brought more negatives to him rather than positives. “Apple has more secure ways to share things about yourself. I can still deal with old school email and text messages,” Apple co-founder said in a Facebook post, revealing his intentions to sign off from Facebook.
A few hours after the post, Woz’s official Facebook page was not accessible and appeared to have been deleted. To know if it was a final departure message from Wozniak, certain agencies tried to contact him but in vain. But, Wozniak confirmed the same in an email to USA Today.
Wozniak is the latest tech leader to join the Delete Facebook campaign. The Apple co-founder also criticized the social platform over the handling of user data. According to SlashGear, Woz has not severed all ties with his Facebook, rather he only deactivated it. He is looking to retain the stevewoz handle and does not want anyone else to start using it.
Prior to this, Apple co-founder and CEO Tim Cook publicly sneered the social networking giant during a joint interview with Recode and MSNBC. During the interview, Cook was asked about how he would have handled the situation if he was in Zuckerberg’s shoes. To this Cook said, “I wouldn’t be in the situation.” Further, Cook backed his candid response with Apple’s privacy policies, which requires the company to review apps if they are in line with the privacy standards that Apple has set in place.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Cook’s comment “extremely glib.” Zuckerberg said, “If you want to build a service which is not just serving rich people, then you need to have something that people can afford.” The CEO, who is scheduled to present his case before the congressional committees in Washington, said that Facebook is among the companies that works hard to charge less and provide a free service to everyone.
In an email to USA Today, Steve Wozniak suggested that although Apple earns revenue from good products, those products are not the users. Steve Wozniak suggested that he is even ready to pay a fee in order to protect his personal data from ads while still using Facebook. Recently, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, said that Facebook users should pay for the option to not have their data tracked by ads.
This is not the first time that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has expressed discontent towards the tech firms. During the international business conference in Montreal last year, Wozniak said that he is looking to “avoid Google and Facebook.” According to Wozniak, such firms use the widescale data collection operations to ace ad targeting.
Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke, many high-profile users joined the Delete Facebook campaign. Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk deleted Facebook pages for Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX. WhatsApp Co-founder Brian Acton also asked people to delete Facebook. Playboy also deleted their Facebook page. Several other well-known personalities also have deleted Facebook including comedians like Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey.
Carrey, in a statement to CNBC in February, said, “We must encourage more oversight by the owners of these social media platforms.” Carry, who also said that he would dump the stocks in the company, stated that user data should be handled more responsibly, and that activist investors should send a message asking the company to have responsible conduct.
Zuckerberg, meanwhile, will reportedly present his side of the story during the meeting with US lawmakers on Monday. The meetings with different committees will be held throughout Monday afternoon, notes Reuters. On Tuesday, the Facebook CEO will appear before a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees and the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
During the testimony, Zuckerberg is expected to acknowledge the fact that Facebook got the number of users affected by the data scandal wrong initially. Last week, Zuckerberg admitted to the responsibility of the data leak, and this angered the users, advertisers and lawmakers. However, the CEO also claimed that he was still the right person to head the company he founded. Last week, the social networking giant supported legislation demanding the social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads and launch a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads.
