In an interview with Today airing Friday morning, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg insisted that Facebook does not sell or give away user information, but made clear that Facebook’s entire model is based on being able to share user data with advertisers. If Facebook users don’t like its ad-based model, the only other option would be to have users pay for the service so they could keep their data to themselves. As Sandberg told Today: “Our service depends on your data, [so] we don’t have an opt-out at the highest level. That would be a paid product.”
Sadly, Sandberg isn’t suggesting that Facebook will give users the option of paying a subscription to access a Facebook where all your data isn’t shared with a single advertiser. We’re betting after the Cambridge Analytica scandal there are many people who would see that as an attractive alternative for accessing the service.
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