The mobile and internet-provider, Cell C ,has partnered with Facebook to launch public access Wi-Fi hotspots at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest promise is that his social media conglomerate will become a “privacy-focused” one. By turns lauded and lambasted, this move does not quite address users’ primary problems with the company.
If ever Alanis Morrissette wanted a definition of “ironic” it was Mark Zuckerberg’s use last week of the word “privacy”. He says bizarre things like Robert Mugabe used to, oblivious to the reality on the ground, and how absurd his utterance sound.
Zuckerberg aims to make private messages private and ephemeral – meaning Facebook can’t read our messages, and the data doesn’t stick around on the company’s servers for longer than necessary. His vision involves merging Facebook and the company’s other digital platforms – Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger – into a super app, similar to China’s WeChat.
We’ve gotten used to Facebook being rather terrible at anything like protecting user privacy, being transparent about … most things, or keeping its promises. So we could be forgiven for being skeptical of Mark Zuckerburg’s newest note to the internet, which claims that Facebook is looking towards a “privacy-focused” future for the social network.
Turning 15 is a drag. Just ask any teenager about this most awkward age of life and the pain of living through it. Imagine then that you’re Facebook. Last week as the largest social media network reached this milestone it seemed every bit the gangly kid trying to look cool while being beset by angst and self-doubt. And being hated by the rest of the class.