Facebook distributes hot chocolate and safety tips after its worst year

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If the pop-up had a really significant impact, it might have been on the psyche of hot chocolate vendors nearby. The trampling of big tech by local small businesses is normally more of an Amazon affair, after all. But they did not need to worry too much: the pop-up and hot chocolate topped with marshmallows in the shape of "F" in the Facebook logo that he was serving were available only one day.

One day, when Facebook introduced the time spent helping users understand their privacy settings, there was still plenty of time for the company to invite reporters from many media to show how it advocated users benefit from its security and functionality. privacy tools.

Erin Egan, head of Facebook's privacy protection, said inside the pop-up window, located in a temporary wooden and plastic container-size container, that this effort was also a way for society to know more. users in person.

Egan said the dozen employees present would even show visitors how to delete their Facebook accounts, if asked. (A Facebook staff member later said that they were not sure how to do it.)

"We will help people to do everything they need," he said. Egan. "Our goal is that people feel good about their experience on Facebook and that if it means that they want to take their data elsewhere, that's fine too."

2018 has certainly been the most difficult year of the 15 years of Facebook's existence. Still under the shock of Russian interference on its platform during the 2016 election, the social network was hit in March by the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Facebook also suffered the biggest collapse in its stock market history and was the victim of the most serious security breach so far. and has been accused of peddling a theory of antisemitic conspiracy – something that he denies.

Perhaps something better than hot chocolate should have been dispensed.

The company said it made this appearance more than once. He plans to open his ephemeral security post in other US cities next year, he said. And similar events have already taken place in Europe and Dubai, which have attracted thousands of visitors, the company told CNN.

And although such things are only done for one day and with the invited press some people, including at least one congressman, can find a useful visit. Last Tuesday, Congressman Steve Cohen asked Google President and CEO Sundar Pichai whether the firm had considered using technical support agents to help them adjust their privacy settings.

At least some people who visited the pop-up felt the same way. A 20-year-old couple visiting New York from Houston, who asked that their names not be used, told CNN Business that they found the tips they had received from Facebook helpful – and stated that hot chocolate was a bonus.

The extension of the Facebook community recalls the mission of Mark Zuckerberg to visit the 50 states in 2017.

To the question of whether Mr. Zuckerberg would soon make another tour, a Facebook employee to Bryant Park said, "I think he's busy."