I did not feel that this is what people want done to them," he said. "I was surprised to see how many categories for ads and how many advertisers I had to get rid of, one at a time.
In an email to USA TODAY, Wozniak said he was taken aback by the extent of Facebook's data collection when he changed and deleted some of his information before deactivating his account.
More: How to delete all those Facebook apps you probably have More: Here's how to protect your personal info on Facebook I can still deal with old school email and text messages." Apple has more secure ways to share things about yourself. It's brought me more negatives than positives. On Sunday, he deactivated his Facebook account after posting the following message: "I am in the process of leaving Facebook. Wozniak is one of the prominent users who have called it quits. Internet users, Facebook and Instagram are still tops, Thill found, with 93% using Facebook and about 50% using Instagram. "We analyzed Facebook's traffic over the course of March and believe that recent headlines around Facebook's data policies have not meaningfully impacted engagement on the platform," Thill wrote in a research note.Īccording to a survey of 750 U.S. The Cambridge Analytica affair hasn't dented user engagement, according to Jefferies analyst Brent Thill. In an update last week, Facebook estimated as many as 87 million people, mostly in the United States, may have had their data improperly shared. His surprise announcement marks the latest development in back-and-forth corporate sniping by tech leaders as Facebook copes with a scandal over the potential misuse of user data by political targeting firm Cambridge Analytica. "As they say, with Facebook, you are the product." "Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you," Wozniak said. And he heaped praise on Apple for respecting people's privacy. Wozniak said he'd rather pay for Facebook than have his personal information exploited for advertising. "The profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back." Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this," he said in an email to USA TODAY. "Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and. If Apple can provide that service for $2 per month, Wozniak argued, then Facebook should be able to create similarly inexpensive ways to allow friends to communicate with each other privately.SAN FRANCISCO - Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told USA TODAY he's leaving Facebook out of growing concern for the carelessness with which Facebook and other Internet companies treat the private information of users. Nobody can take the data and find out everything you're doing." "It costs $2 a month, right? You share photos with albums, and other friends of the families can be in on it, and it's protected. "We share photos in our families on iCloud," Wozniak said. To stay connected with friends and family, Wozniak - perhaps predictably - said he primarily relies on Apple services. Recent studies have shown that TikTok is heavily patrolled by third-party trackers that collect user data for generally unclear purposes, as CNBC Make It noted last month. Wozniak said he tends to avoid social media in general, but added that he was still on TikTok, largely to watch more dog videos. between connecting with those you love online and your personal privacy," Haugen stated. In October, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager for civic misinformation, testified to Congress that the platform actively prioritizes user engagement over safety and mental health.
Wozniak isn't the only one wary of Facebook's privacy standards. and I don't like habits, because that's addiction." and the dogs being saved by people," he said. "I started looking at Facebook because I kind of like little videos of dogs. Instead, it came from months of habitual, mindless scrolling on social media. Wozniak seems to have been aware of Facebook's privacy standards for some time, but the tipping point that led him to deactivate his account wasn't sparked by personalized ads on his feed. "I read how it can still grab data and to Facebook, even when you're not using the ," Wozniak said. "I don't believe this is right, because you should honest, that every person who uses it knows what they're doing." (Facebook did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.) 1 that I don't like."ĭefending his decision, Wozniak seemed to reference a 2018 blog post written by Facebook's then-product management director David Baser, who explained how Facebook and its partners collect and share personal information – even for people without accounts. That's enough to keep him off the platform for the foreseeable future, he said, noting that he's "scared a bit" about the amount of access Facebook had to his life: "Of all Big Tech, Facebook is probably No.