Apple co-founder bashes Facebook over privacy

🎥 Apr 10, 2018 📺 AP Archive ⏱ 3m 👁 155 views

(10 Apr 2018) Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he isn't sure Facebook can fix its privacy issues and he expects it will be decades before it changes its policies. Wozniak announced he's shutting down his Facebook account amid the worst privacy crisis the social media company has faced. In an interview Monday in Philadelphia with The Associated Press, Wozniak called Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's failure to look after his users' privacy hypocritical. He notes Zuckerberg bought lots and houses around his home to ensure his privacy. Wozniak says he closed his Facebook account after several...

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About Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, appeared at the A3F 2026 conference in Zurich for a fireside chat, where he reflected on the early days of Apple and his engineering philosophy. He described his design approach for the Apple II as "bottom up," focusing on the simplest, most parts-saving solution, and contrasted it with Steve Jobs' lack of hardware knowledge. Wozniak stated that he initially gave away his designs for free, describing himself as a "fan" of open-source and public-domain distribution, and said his motivation was to help others start a revolution. He also expressed skepticism about artificial intelligence, saying he does not believe it will replace human workers because humans must still verify outputs, and he criticized the use of AI in deepfakes and scams. In a separate interview for the Floppy Days podcast, recorded as part of the Byte Shop 50th anniversary event, Wozniak discussed the Apple I and Apple II, noting that the Apple II was the only product that made money for Apple during its first ten years. He credited Byte Shop founder Paul Terrell with believing in the future of low-cost computers and arranging a $50,000 order for 100 Apple I computers. Wozniak also described entrepreneurship as "the most important thing in the world," arguing that it generates new industries and wealth rather than simply replacing old ones.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Steve Wozniak's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (4 segments)

✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution

Steve Wozniak0:15

Some of my close friends in this recent scandal, it was politically motivated. I don't know what we would have found out except that Facebook's getting rid of all my data. I have a profile. I might share it with friends, and friends can see what schools I went to. It shouldn't be handed off to advertisers when I don't think so. Facebook keeps things secret, bigoted, not expecting my privacy. When Zuckerberg buys all the houses around his and all the lots around his in Hawaii for his own privacy, he knows the value of it, but he's not looking after mine. And then last week, some of my most trusted, ethical, and high integrity friends dropped Facebook, and I thought, you know what, that's a sign, and I'm dropping it. And I know that I won't care. Yeah, I'll do some good things, but I went once three weeks with no phone and no computer on a cruise. When I got home, I thought, oh my gosh, I've been missing everything while I was gone. Get back, it didn't matter a bit. You still have the same life.

When I'm chatting like it's between me and you, we'll post it something. I answer you and give you a little comment back. That is great. I don't think that it's being sold to advertisers. I think it should be private, and privacy is not respected by that company the way it is at Apple.

I'm sure that they get aggregates of things, but I don't see direct targeted marketing coming from me for things I do on Apple. Not only that, I share photographs on Apple with family and friends. They've got this great outing system on iCloud, and it doesn't have all these word problems of Facebook. Share a picture on Facebook, they own it, they can sell it, they can make money off of it, and I don't get any of it. No, I'd rather be able to buy and own my stuff, and I have that feeling much more with Apple products and Apple services.

Now the people are on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has almost total voting control, okay, so one person sort of stands out. But he and his executives gave themselves a special privilege of being able to delete old posts. They didn't give it to you and me. Like they're privileged, they're above us. No, you should treat you, so you should act like all your customers are equals. And this comes from a personality disorder, not a disorder but a personality type. And personalities don't change after the age of 23. They're gonna keep doing the same things for the same reasons that you've always considered right in your life. So I don't think Facebook's gonna change its policies, you know, not for a while.