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Apple hires prominent Facebook privacy critic whose privacy warnings were ignored

Sandy Parakilas warned Facebook execs that the company’s data-sharing policies could have potentially damaging consequences–but his warnings were downplayed.

Apple hires prominent Facebook privacy critic whose privacy warnings were ignored

[Photo: Kartikey Das/Pexels]

BY Michael Grothaus1 minute read

The iPhone maker has hired Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook employee who testified before the United Kingdom’s Parliament as to how lacking the social media giant’s data-sharing policies were in the years before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, reports the Financial Times.

Parakilas worked for Facebook for 18 months before leaving the company in 2012. It was his job to monitor the privacy and policy compliance of Facebook developers. During his time there he warned senior Facebook executives that the company’s data-sharing policies could have potentially damaging consequences. However, Parakilas felt his concerns were being downplayed and eventually left the company for a job at Uber before moving on to a position at the Center for Humane Technology–a campaign group that advocates for stricter regulations on tech companies.

Last March, Parakilas gave evidence to the U.K.’s Parliament after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, stating that Facebook’s data protection practices were “far outside the bounds of what should have been allowed.” And now, he’s been snapped up by Apple to work as privacy manager on its product team.

Apple has increasingly been using its stance on privacy as a tactic to distinguish itself from competitors like Amazon and Google. Parakilas’s role at the company will see him work with internal teams all over Apple to make sure that its new products in development will keep data collection to a minimum and protect users’ privacy.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. He has written for Fast Company since 2013, where he's interviewed some of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders and writes about everything from Apple and artificial intelligence to the effects of technology on individuals and society. Michael’s current tech-focused areas of interest include AI, quantum computing, and the ways tech can improve the quality of life for the elderly and individuals with disabilities More


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