WhatsApp Co-founder Jan Koum Quits Over Privacy Scandal with Facebook – Market Value Plunged 1%
The co-founder and head of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, left the company. Presumably, due to disagreements with Facebook data privacy issue, Washington Post reports.
Source: CNBC.com
Why Jan Koum quits
The reason for disagreement with Facebook regarding the further development of its service and the requirements for privacy is the following: the social network allegedly wanted to use some of the personal data to improve the quality of the targeted advertising, and Koum was against it.
Koum confirmed he left WhatsApp by publishing a post on Facebook, but without specifying any details about the reasons for leaving.
“I’m leaving at a time when people are using WhatsApp in more ways than I could have imagined. The team is stronger than ever and it’ll continue to do amazing things. I’m taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology, such as collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate frisbee. And I’ll still be cheering WhatsApp on – just from the outside. Thanks to everyone who has made this journey possible.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thanked Koum for his work in the comments:
“I will miss working so closely with you. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done to help connect the world, and for everything you’ve taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralized systems and put it back in people’s hands. Those values will always be at the heart of WhatsApp.”
Dut to this fact, Facebook market value plunged 1%. More to come:
It happened just before the FB conference. It’s two-day annual event held by Facebook is set on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 2018. F8 is Facebook’s developer conference, which is an event organized to show off all the cool-tech things Facebook has been working on for the whole year.
Facebook scandal history
Recently, Facebook lost its value after the Cambridge Analitica biggest scandal. According to Verdict, Facebook has now lost $100 billion in value since February.
A day before, Mark Zuckerberg agreed to take a trip to Washington to testify about privacy issues before Congress. His decision put pressure on Google and Twitter CEOs – they will have to do the same as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley invited all three CEOs to meet him on April 15.
Also, as it turned out, Facebook uses free labor – our working hours to keep the platform running. If one spends one hour per day using Facebook, it makes 365 hours per year – 15 working days. And you get nothing for it, while Mark Zuckerberg earns millions of dollars on ads.
Two weeks ago, Facebook was about to face a class action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition used in photo-tagging in US.
In case you want to follow #DeleteFacebook, here is how to do it.
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