Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Dumps Facebook

The Silicon Valley icon says he’s deactivating his account following massive data leak

Steve Wozniak
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Another day, another tech icon slamming Facebook.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, says he’s no longer using the social network due to its sloppy handling of user privacy.

“Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and … Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this,” Woz told USA Today in an email on Sunday. “The profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back.”

Woz’s criticism comes on the heels of the Cambridge Analytica data leak, where millions of customers unknowingly had their information accessed by the data firm. Facebook bumped up its estimate of users hit by the leak last week, saying up to 87 million people had their accounts accessed.

Apple, of course, isn’t without sin; the Chinese factories where iPhone parts are manufactured have been criticized for years for dire working conditions. But for Woz, there’s a key difference between Apple and Facebook.

“Apple makes its money off of good products, not off of you,” said Wozniak. “As they say, with Facebook, you are the product.”

Woz has become the latest heavy hitter to critique Facebook in recent weeks. Elon Musk deleted both the SpaceX and Tesla Facebook accounts following the Cambridge Analytica revelation. And Apple chief Tim Cook needled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as well, saying he “wouldn’t be” in a similar situation.

But Woz isn’t fully joining the #DeleteFacebook movement, it turns out. Instead, he’s just deactivating his account. The reason? He doesn’t want to lose is “stevewoz” screen name.

“I don’t want someone else grabbing it, even another Steve Wozniak,” said Woz.

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