Do consider leaving if you think it is warranted (personally, I do), but do not rush. Write a short note to yourself on what you want to do and why, then think hard about this at least once a week, but keep going for a month. If in a month this still seems like the way to go, leave (and if not, stay; there is no shame it that).

That way you also build up resolve to stick to your guns if you get a last minute appeal to stay -- this is a lot easier if you thought about your decision for a long time and decided that what you are doing is right for you. My 2c.

If you work at Facebook, I'm reasonably certain you (including family) won't starve. By delaying you will also risk losing the courage of conviction. Because anger dulls over time.

Delaying also diminishes the effect of leaving, because the causality is no longer obvious. Imagine the power a mass exodus would have! With the significance the workforce has in this sector, it would instantly become the most significant motivation to behave ethically beyond the minimum required by law.

And you can put whatever you want in your resume. Doesn’t need to say protest quit

It's about the bigger picture.

Hold on a sec... what do you mean by this?

How is using WhatsApp or Instagram not essentially the same thing as continuing to use Facebook?

It would still be truthful: all messages are encrypted e2e, but the app on your device parses decrypted messages to "deliver relevant ads".

Also:

>kinda scary since some people I know keep Social Security numbers in their contacts.

That is absolutely terrifying.

That's now how this works. That's not how any of this works!

I too have deleted FB account long ago but I use Whatsapp. I realize it is much harder to quit Whatsapp than Facebook because I really 'need' whatsapp. But as of now I don't see any strong reason to quit Whatsapp because Facebook isn't using it to show ads in creepy ways.

If only I could persuade my family members and few friends to ditch Whatsapp...

Just to add: I also don't use Whatsapp.

I refuse to touch any property, which is connected in any way with this evil, slimy carbuncle of a company. No matter if I'm slightly inconvenienced in the process.

It sounds so easy, but unfortunately it's not feasible in a lot of cases. As an example, my entire social group organizes just about everything through Facebook events.

Monthly music quiz, including signup and updates about subjects and prizes, Christmas/Easter/others lunchs, pre-concert meetups, festival line-up "study group", and all the other various get-togethers. All discussion about these subjects happens in FB groups.

FB Messenger is the IM platform here in Denmark. WhatsApp is a very distant second.

Quitting FB cold turkey would cut me off from a lot of social interaction. Not with my closest friends of course, but with everyone else. And all of my closest friends use FB Messenger exclusively. I've tried getting people to adopt Signal or Slack or just something other than FB, but so far haven't had any success. There's too much friction, and FB has the userbase and appropriate lineup of features.

If all the `ethically conscious' engineers leave FB (which will not happen), what FB will do is that it just recruit engineers who are less aware of the wrongdoing of FB, who are less likely to challenge a company policy that people consider unethical.

Think of Google and DoD. If those Google employees who opposed the deal all walk away, then Google will just carry on working with DoD and let engineers who don't care if their work will be used to kill people to work on it.

(Using a green account because I don't want the above rant to appear in my main account's posting history.)

If you just leave, nothing changes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/technology/google-pentago...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/technology/google-employe...

The solution for Facebook employees is not to leave, it's to organize. If Facebook employees were organized they'd have power, and then they could use that power to force management to stop running the company in ways that make them ashamed to tell people they work there.

Which, alas, may not be the best and the brightest.

The argument about others just replacing you is, of course, best known from chess, where it's called the "German Defense" and consists of everyone pretending they are just pawns.

Practically, there is also the almost tautological fact that whatever replacement can be found is second-best (if that). With these tech giants essentially hiring everyone that meets requirements, 20% of tech workers taking a stand will effectively mean a reduction of their workforce by the same amount, unless they are willing to lower standards.

If employers publicized such questions now, it could discount the future value of having worked at fb.

If you were to evaluate each of the big companies, most of them have done some really shady stuff to get a leg up.

(Many of the websites out there I’ve created are legacy or not longer maintained by me.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials

If you read it carefully you can see each one of them never truly felt they are at any blame till their last breadth. If as humanity some of us could be put in charge of putting fellow humans through gas chambers and treat it as "just another job", then I doubt some engineer at Facebook coding all day would have a guilty conscience.

Edit: I stand corrected - only FEW of these felt like they were at any fault at all.

That's not accurate, even based on the link that you provided. That page explicitly states that 5 of the 24 in that table "expressed repentance" in the notes.

EDIT: you certainly can look down on people for whatever, i just don't think it's justified in this case.

in a similar vein, i wouldn't condemn someone who works at Exxon building analytics software, or engineering some rig valve, but i WOULD condemn someone who works there with the responsibility of absolving oil & gas from any responsibility for climate change.

is my position wrong? honestly im a bit unsure if it makes any sense.