Some Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Asking To Switch Departments Over Ethical Concerns (businessinsider.com)

Some dissatisfied Facebook engineers are reportedly attempting to switch divisions to work on Instagram or WhatsApp, rather than continue work on the platform responsible for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to a recent report from the New York Times. An anonymous reader writes: Many believe Facebook should have done more to handle the data responsibly, and the events that followed increased scrutiny against Facebook, reportedly taking a toll on employees working on the platform. Since the news came out, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have spoken to the media on a few occasions, but it was days before the company commented on the scandal, which it now estimates around 87 million total users affected. Then, a leaked memo from Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth written in 2016 revealed a "growth at all costs" mentality that put Facebook in a position to be held responsible for the situation it's found itself in. As it became evident that Facebook's core product might be to blame, engineers working on it reportedly found it increasingly difficult to stand by what it built.

Comments

Is it really ethical or CYA

[sqorbit]

Is this really a move because of ethical reasons. I can't imagine that anyone working at Facebook is surprised by this. I'd tend to believe the a over is more to cover your own ass. At best employees had a clue that something like this was possible, at worst they had direct knowledge of it. I don't think anyone working at Facebook suddenly had a moral epiphany.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[HornWumpus]

They're catching shit from their SJW 'friends'.

I'm sure there are many thoughtless morons working for Facebook that _were_ surprised by this. They shouldn't have been, but what can you say, morons.

They still don't get it, they think: It's not that what they were doing was bad, it's that the evil 'Drumpf' people came in and 'used them' and their data for bad things.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[Anonymous Coward]

No - I think it's ethical/moral reasons. They now feel like they got Trump elected and feel terrible about it. Of course they had no problem with this when their work got their political idols elected that was all fun and games and heroic.
It's infantile.
They had NO problem with this data collection and probably bought Zuckerberg's kool-aid ideology hook, line and sinker that they were making the world a better place with proper data analysis. Now they feel that this has become a weaponized technology and they want no part of it. If they REALLY cared about the abuses of data collection and misuse - they would be the ones to most know how to PREVENT and STOP it. They're leaving instead because they're disgusted with what they created.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[sinij]

In Silicon Valley, being the most SJW-infested place on Eath, anything that touches Trump is toxic. When FB is now seen as being directly responsible for the election of Trump, these people found themselves in danger of "never work in this town" by association. They are probably better off putting prison time on their resume that admitting they worked on FB.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this really a move because of ethical reasons. I can't imagine that anyone working at Facebook is surprised by this.

And they were cool with it when it was the Obama campaign scraping the data.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[Train0987]

And it didn't even help Trump. It wasn't even used by the campaign.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[CaptainDork]

Both of you miss the point:

These employees are mid-career and they know full well that lifetime employment is not a thing.

As they grow their vocation, they may have opportunities to move into security or finance or places that just like to have ethical ranks.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[adosch]

ABSOLUTELY correct. Some things look really 'good' on resumes for an amount of time, and some things are going to appear sour. How do you think some employees during the 90's Enron felt? "Oh, you worked... there? Um, we'll call you in a few weeks!" even if they worked in the damn mail room. I know I'd be doing the same exact move if I was in that situation, especially when there's going to be a stigma attached. This isn't the era your Grandpa or Dad worked in; there is no work and employment loyalty. People do not have 40-year employment stints anymore, except in state/federal government or small, cushy companies. And anyone who does software engineering or development, sys-admin, DBA, network engineer role on a serious and professional level knows that all your experience works against you --- and you get too expensive and at the end of the day, most places just won't pay that and take the 2nd or 3rd level person unless you have someone really gunning for your talent.

How is this any different than leaving your job on par-for-the-course reasons and taking a new job? Everyone leaves for a reason. Maybe you were tired of the grind, the work culture, the work itself, who the fuck knows. You never tell them (your employer that) because there are bridges to be preserved (if you're smart) but we all have our reasons, and all have an employment livelihood and that nice-to-us paycheck and living to preserve too.

No one is naive in all of this; people are going to say what they need to say to detatch themselves from this to get a new job or appear to be the stifled do-gooder who was opposed to it but had food to put on the table and squatter box rent to pay for in Silicon Valley. Anyone working at Facebook knows very well what the business model was/is and will be, even in light of all this fake congress BS with Zuckerberg: you

.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[JackieBrown]

Users will not be leaving facebook at any notable impact. You overestimate how much the average user cares about this stuff or even knows about it

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[Train0987]

Tell that to James Damore.

Re:Is it really ethical or CYA

[gnunick]

Yeah it's pretty disingenuous to suddenly pretend you have moral or ethical qualms. It has to have been clear to _anyone_ in the industry for years how fucked up Facebook is, and how amoral their behavior is. The only difference is now that the general public is getting concerned.

I've been rebuffing recruiters from Facebook (among other corporate assholes) for years. Acting ethically (and insisting on working only for companies which don't offend my moral sensibilities), isn't a new concept to me. It does greatly limit one's employment prospects, but on the other hand I've never had trouble finding a job.

Auschwitz guards

[sinij]

I am sure these FB employees were just following the orders, but why act only now? FB practices were well-known even outside of FB, this couldn't possibly be the first time they found out what is happening in the showers.

Re:Auschwitz guards

[freeze128]

Perhaps the engineers succumbed to pressure from their friends or family. Or maybe they were outright threatened by activists.

Re:Auschwitz guards

[sinij]

Considering HQ is in Silicon Valley, it is likely anti-Trump activists, and not newly found moral fortitude or rediscovered respect for privacy that motivates these engineers.

These people do realize...

[forkfail]

... that Facebook's entire business model is based on collecting, using, and selling data and metadata about people?

This sudden appearance of embracing moral behavior and ethics would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetically self serving and so hypocritically self righteous as to be nauseating.

It's very telling

[Train0987]

How Slashdot and others keep referring to this as the "Cambridge Analytics scandal" as if Facebook's business model is only wrong when one side takes advantage of it.

How did they not know this?

[damn_registrars]

The very reason why facebook existed from the beginning was to sell personal information. Why did they take a job with them if they were concerned about the ethics of doing that?

Re:"Hacking" the Election

[Oswald McWeany]

Facebook had ZERO to do with the outcome of the election. Not one Trump voter in the country is now thinking to themselves "wow, Facebook tricked me into voting for Trump!". All of these BS excuses are nothing but delusions to avoid facing the reality of being rejected.

Not one person in the US thinks, wow that Pepsi commercial made me want to drink a Pepsi. Yet people do drink Pepsi, and Pepsi continues to advertise.

No one thinks they're being influenced by ads, or political propaganda. Everyone thinks they're above that, but here's a secret: you are influenced by ads. You're at a store all it has is Pepsi, Coke, or Smith's off-brand cola and you want a cola... odds are very high you pick a Pepsi or a Coke because you're familiar with them- or if you do buy a Smith's it is because it is cheaper. Brand familiarity has made Pepsi or Coke more appealing.

Same happens with these political BS stories. Trump is kinda like Pepsi- he's always throwing his name out there to get publicity. This facebook campaign was like an expensive ad campaign (and ignored by financing laws). No-one, not one person, thinks they were influenced by the fake stories... but they probably think that whilst drinking a Coke or a Pepsi.