QOTD: The Uphill Battle

The New York Times:

One central tension at Facebook has been that of the legal and policy teams versus the security team. The security team generally pushed for more disclosure about how nation states had misused the site, but the legal and policy teams have prioritized business imperatives, said the people briefed on the matter.

“The people whose job is to protect the user always are fighting an uphill battle against the people whose job is to make money for the company,” said Sandy Parakilas, who worked at Facebook enforcing privacy and other rules until 2012…

Every company in every industry has to fight this battle, especially if they’re publicly traded.

I think about the incentives inherent in the investing industry and see a lot of parallels. What will be best for the clients of a firm is often at odds with what will be best for profits, employees or outside shareholders. Which is why traditional Wall Street firms and asset managers are so rife with conflicts of interest and advisors at large banks and brokerages struggle to act as fiduciaries.

In building a wealth management firm from scratch, the idea should be to eliminate virtually every potential client conflict and to severely minimize and disclose those that cannot be completely wiped out.

This is simpler to do in the RIA space than it is in most corners of our industry. Simple, but not easy – and not everyone tries so hard.

Source:

Alex Stamos, Facebook Data Security Chief, To Leave Amid Outcry (NYT)