Facebook’s top security exec urges company to collect less user data

Image: Getty Images/justin sullivan

Facebook’s outgoing top security executive has urged others at the company to do some soul searching about practices that have led to a number of privacy and security scandals.

Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who is set to depart the company next month, sent a wide-ranging note to Facebook staffers in March, when his upcoming departure was revealed. That note, which was published by BuzzFeed Tuesday, contains some remarkably candid advice on how the company needs to make more of an effort to not collect data.

“We need to build a user experience that conveys honesty and respect, not one optimized to get people to click yes to giving us more access,” Stamos, who has a reputation as one of the company’s top privacy advocates internally, wrote in the note. “We need to intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we are using it to serve people.”

He also said Facebook should listen to critics when they call a new feature “creepy.”

From Stamos’ memo (emphasis ours):

We need to build a user experience that conveys honesty and respect, not one optimized to get people to click yes to giving us more access. We need to intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we are using it to serve people. We need to find and stop adversaries who will be copying the playbook they saw in 2016. We need to listen to people (including internally) when they tell us a feature is creepy or point out a negative impact we are having in the world. We need to deprioritze short-term growth and revenue and to explain to Wall Street why that is ok. We need to be willing to pick sides when there are clear moral or humanitarian issues. And we need to be open, honest and transparent about challenges and what we are doing to fix them.

Stamos has been widely viewed by those outside the company as a staunch defender of users’ privacy and security, even when other executives have opted to put other business interests first. The New York Times reported in March that Stamos and COO Sheryl Sandberg had disagreed on how to handle security issues in the past.

In his memo, Stamos disagreed with that characterization, saying that “at least one person seems to be trying specifically to hurt Sheryl.” 

He did, however, acknowledge that it had been an “uncomfortable transition” for Facebook as the company becomes an increasingly “visible participant in the battle between cyberwarfare titans.” 

You can read Stamos’ full memo on BuzzFeed News.