The Man Turning The Privacy Tables On Mark Zuckerberg

A Q&A with Michael Zimmer, an assistant professor in the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

For almost 10 years, Facebook has used the information we've shared in the social network's pseudo public sphere for its own (usually advertising-related) purposes. Now, Zimmer wants to turn those tables with his just-launched project, The Zuckerberg Files, which compiles all of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s public statements into a digital, searchable archive. "It's kind of playful to let him see what it's like to have all of your stuff data mined and used for some purpose you might not have originally intended," Zimmer told Fast Company. "Just like the stuff we put on Facebook." When asked why he chose Facebook and Zuckerberg for this venture, Zimmer replied that he chose Facebook because the company has such power to make changes to privacy settings, profiles and more, affecting millions of users.