Facebook chief executive and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg may earn "Likes" while others may see his move as hypocritical as the founder of the biggest social network today disclosed that he has called U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg shared through his official Facebook Page that he phoned Obama to express his worries about the safety and security of the Internet.
"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," wrote Zuckerberg.
"I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform," he added.
While not directly mentioning the National Security Agency (NSA) on his post, the move is seen by many as a response to a report on Wednesday by the blog The Intercept. Based on the classified documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, The Intercept has disclosed that the agency has the tools and capacity to disguise itself as Facebook in order to infect the computer of the users and siphon information out of their hard drives.
Facebook has stated that it has no direct evidence about the allegations. The NSA has also issued a statement claiming that the media reports are inaccurate.
"NSA's authorities require that its foreign intelligence operations support valid national security requirements, protect the legitimate privacy interests of all persons, and be as tailored as feasible. NSA does not use its technical capabilities to impersonate U.S. company websites. Nor does NSA target any user of global Internet services without appropriate legal authority. Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false," NSA said in a statement. [PDF]
Technology giants such as Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Microsoft have been vocal about possible the effects of the Snowden leaks to their business and how consumers may lose trust in their brands if they are not allowed to disclose relevant data on information requests from authorities. They have also called on the Obama administration to stop snooping on their servers and their consumers while denying that they have done everything to protect Internet users.
In January, the president have ordered several changes to the surveillance program of the government and required intelligence agencies to seek permission from U.S. courts prior to accessing records of individuals.
Zuckerberg related that the company is doing everything to protect its users but is frustrated at how the government continues its massive intelligence gathering.
"The internet is our shared space. It helps us connect. It spreads opportunity. It enables us to learn. It gives us a voice. It makes us stronger and safer together. To keep the internet strong, we need to keep it secure. That's why at Facebook we spend a lot of our energy making our services and the whole internet safer and more secure," stated Zuckerberg.
"This is why 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," he added.
Amid all concerns on privacy and security, one cannot discount the fact that Facebook as a social network also feeds and nurtures its coffers using its users data. Something that it is not so transparent about.
