Edward Snowden: Facebook is a surveillance company collecting personal data, rebranded as ‘social media’

Edward Snowden, former National Security Agency contractor criticized Facebook in a tweet Saturday after the social media giant suspended Cambridge Analytica in response to a private information theft has been reported that may have reached 50 million Facebook profiles.

Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica for violating its privacy policy after reports said it obtained data harvested by a third party from more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission. Cambridge Analytica  denied any wrongdoing and issued a statement that said the firm “fully complies” with Facebook’s terms of service.

“Facebook makes their money by exploiting and selling intimate details about the private lives of millions, far beyond the scant details you voluntarily post. They are not victims. They are accomplices,” Edward Snowden said.

Facebook makes their money by exploiting and selling intimate details about the private lives of millions, far beyond the scant details you voluntarily post. They are not victims. They are accomplices. https://t.co/mRkRKxsBcw

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 17, 2018

In a separate tweet, Snowden ripped Facebook as a businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives. He went to call Facebook as “surveillance companies that is masquerading as a social media.

Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as "surveillance companies." Their rebranding as "social media" is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 17, 2018

Edward Joseph Snowden is former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 without authorization. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments. He was later granted asylum in Russia and has been there ever since.