"It's been an intense year," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday morning. "I can not believe we only have four months."
Zuckerberg chuckled when he uttered these words to begin F8 2018, a self-destructive recognition of the fire Facebook suffered as a result of massive Cambridge. The Analytica data scandal, one that saw Zuckerberg testify before Congress and a wave of changes in Facebook's policy, arose on his awakening.
"I know it has not been easy to be a developer in recent months, and that's probably an understatement," Zuckerberg told the large crowd of developers gathered in San Jose, California. "But, what I can assure you is that we work hard to make sure that people do not misuse this platform so that everyone keeps creating things that people love."
Misuse turned out to be a common theme in this year's F8. The position of Facebook seems to be that its platform is fundamentally good, but there are bad actors who want to exploit their users.
"It is not enough to build powerful tools," said Zuckerberg. "We have to make sure they are used forever."
"What happened with Cambridge Analytica was a great breach of trust"
Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook has had a series of scandals high profile rockers rely on the platform in recent months, including disclosures of Russian interference in the US presidential election of 2016 and Cambridge Analytica incorrectly obtaining the data of up to 87 million Facebook users.
"What happened with Cambridge Analytica was a big breach of confidence," Zuckerberg said on stage. "An application developer took data that people had shared with them and sold it, so we have to make sure this never happens again."
Cambridge Analytica, which worked for President Donald Trump's campaign during the election, announced on Wednesday that it is closing.
The new reality of Facebook
The instructive reality for Facebook is that it is more powerful than ever in terms of the number of people using its platform and the influence, good or bad, that it gives.
The challenge faced by Facebook in the conference and one that will continue Looking forward is how to combine your optimism about people's connection with the reality that people have discovered how to use their platform for their own achievements.
During a separate talk on Facebook security, Alex Stamos, director of security for the company, acknowledged that there may be instances of people using Facebook products in a technically correct manner, but with the objective of carrying out the bad Will. [19659002] Facebook has realized this fact and has taken a series of measures to address its security and privacy flaws, including restricting data to which developers have access and providing users with an easier way to control your privacy settings
A new tool in the works that Facebook announced in F8 is a Clear History feature that will allow users to erase their Facebook browsing history. When it develops in a few months, you can see which websites and applications send your browsing history to the social network.
You can then delete this information from your account and make sure that no data related to your account is stored in the future.
However, this is not a complete removal of your browsing history; their data will continue to be collected in aggregate form and sent to developers and websites, Facebook said. When announcing the function, Zuckerberg was quick to point out that "Facebook will not be as good as it will relearn your preferences".
Still, something like Clear History is a widely requested feature, and one that is likely to get a lot of use.
Where is Facebook going from here?
Facebook did not refrain from addressing the many elephants in the room at this year's F8, it's the biggest conference of the year.
He took some of the blame, particularly in terms of not acting more quickly in certain cases and not anticipating how his platform could be used by nefarious actors.
This was, in a way, a more adult version of Facebook than we're used to seeing in F8, a conference that in the past has been more of a celebration, with a lot of time spent talking about Internet drones and selfie sticks in virtual reality.
Undoubtedly, the enthusiasm still existed, but it also recognized the responsibility that Facebook has with its users and society in general, one that can not be ignored. In addition, it was recognized that mistakes will happen again.
"I think we should design technology that helps bring people together," said Zuckerberg. "There is no guarantee that we will do well." This is hard. We will make mistakes, and they will have consequences, and we will have to fix them. But, what I can guarantee is that if we do not work on this, the world does not move in this direction by itself. "
Can Facebook balance the optimism it generates by connecting people to the reality that it is in an "arms race" of security (words of Zuckerberg) with "adversaries" (again, his word) that defy the platform every day? [IfFacebookquotesonhererealitiestohavetodoit
