Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg is lashing out at President Obama over revelations the NSA used Facebook to trick users into unknowingly planting spy software their computers.
“US should be the champion for the internet, not a threat”
“The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
As reported Wednesday in ValueWalk, the National Security Agency impersonates Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to inject malware on people’s computers, according to the latest article from Ryan Gallagher and Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept, who continue to release information from the classified files leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Frustration
“I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.”
Is the risk of NSA spying endangering Silicon Valley worth the reward?
Zuckerberg noted that trust in the Internet was a key component driving the US economy. The US government has gone to great lengths to protect the largest banks and their top executives from criminal charges, which they perceive would harm the economy, yet has failed to protect Silicon Valley, arguably one of the most significant job generators and economic drivers in the world. “Trust in the internet is more important today than ever,” Zuckerberg said. “To keep the internet strong, we need to keep it secure. We encrypt communications, we use secure protocols for traffic, we encourage people to use multiple factors for authentication and we go out of our way to help fix issues we find in other people’s services.”
The NSA spy program has come under harsh attack for endangering the business model in Silicon Valley. The NSA mass spying program has been criticized for being a high risk, low reward endeavor. The program has few successes yet it endangers the very foundations of the Silicon Valley economy. “I’ve been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.”
Zuckerberg has been accused of invading the privacy of its users. One comment below the post sarcastically said: “It’s cute when Facebook says they are concerned about your privacy”
