Thread by @AlecMuffett

1/ Looking at the press, I strongly believe that if @Facebook wants its envisioned end-to-end unification of the #Messenger, #WhatsApp and #Instagram platforms to work, that it needs to dump #Onavo and kick it to the kerb.

2/ That said: I believe there's nuance — if competent people want to sign up for a service, even get paid for it, and it involves them being watched like lab rats and they are informed of this, then fine, go for it, knock yourselves out, enjoy the free service or the income.

3/ Mentally I put this sort of observation/monitoring stuff in much the same space as "Nielsen", and the primary disgust that people exhibit here is because "it's Facebook" — feel free to change my mind?

4/ However, having been outside of Facebook for more than 2 years now, my sense that the #Onavo brand is toxic and the data/value-it-provides is probably better and more charmingly accessed by more transparent, more publicly acceptable means.

5/ More damningly, though: I suspect that shutting down the #Onavo mindset at #Facebook will require changes in staff, because my experiences with the Onavo actual team at FB were that they were very much not aligned with my civil society beliefs.

6/ I found the #Onavo team (and leadership) to be feral and (to borrow from Steve Jobs) both "hungry" and "foolish".

I would be surprised if that has entirely changed.

I suspect that they need to go.

7/ Elsewhere, unsurprisingly: theverge.com/facebook/2019/…

8/ Background: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo