Facebook secretly deleted some of Mark Zuckerberg’s private messages over fears the company could be hacked
Facebook said it made the decision after the 2014 Sony hack, indicating the company was concerned it could be the target of a data breach that could compromise user data
By Tara Francis Chan
Want to delete that embarrassing message you just sent? WhatsApp will let you, and so will Instagram — but if you’re using Facebook, then you’re out of luck.
Unless you’re Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and co-founder of Facebook.
TechCrunch reported Thursday that some old messages sent by Zuckerberg and senior executives have disappeared from recipients’ Facebook Messenger inboxes, proven by the original email receipts sent at the time.
The company appeared to confirm the unique arrangement, telling TechCrunch the change was made in response to an uptick in hacking.
“After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages,” the company said.
The Sony hack targeted the emails of Sony film executives, which revealed a side of Hollywood rarely seen by outsiders, and the decision to name the event as a catalyst for Facebook’s message purge indicates how troubling the incident was in Silicon Valley — and that Facebook was concerned about being hacked.