Two months ago, Facebook ($FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised a more "privacy focused" vision for the company in a lengthy post. Nested in that language was a heavy handed mention of "privacy-focused" messaging.
In the post, Zuckerberg pointed to the company's WhatsApp messaging platform as a model to move forward when it comes to privacy:
We plan to build this the way we've developed WhatsApp: focus on the most fundamental and private use case -- messaging -- make it as secure as possible, and then build more ways for people to interact on top of that, including calls, video chats, groups, stories, businesses, payments, commerce, and ultimately a platform for many other kinds of private services.
Since then, hiring data shows that while the number of open positions at Facebook have been on a decline, but openings for its WhatsApp team have been on a steady incline.
In April, Facebook listed 3,680 openings on its careers site. As of this week, that number is down to 3,500.
Meanwhile, the number of openings at the company's WhatsApp group have grown from 111 at the beginning of the year to 176 as of last week.
Taken as a percentage of overall openings at the company, WhatsApp open headcount now accounts for more than 5% of all jobs, up from 3.4% at the beginning of the year.
The openings for WhatsApp are perhaps even more revealing. Jobs like "Public Policy Manager" and "Anti-Abuse Specialist, WhatsApp Trust & Safety" have shown up relatively recently.
On May 21, 2019 alone, Facebook has 13 openings for Public and Content Policy Managers listed in 6 cities.
|
City |
Title |
Title (Count) |
|---|---|---|
|
Menlo Park |
Content Policy Manager |
1 |
|
São Paulo |
Head of Private Messaging Policy, LATAM |
1 |
|
San Francisco |
Public Policy Manager |
1 |
|
New York |
Public Policy Manager (WhatsApp) |
1 |
|
Menlo Park |
Public Policy Manager (WhatsApp) |
2 |
|
Menlo Park |
Public Policy Manager |
1 |
|
New Delhi |
Public Policy Manager, WhatsApp (India & SA) |
1 |
|
San Francisco |
Public Policy Manager (WhatsApp) |
1 |
|
New Delhi |
Director of WhatsApp Public Policy, India |
1 |
|
Washington |
Public Policy Manager |
1 |
|
Washington |
Public Policy Manager (WhatsApp) |
1 |
|
São Paulo |
Public Policy Manager - Private Messaging |
1 |
In the past 24 hours, Facebook also posted a position for a "Marketing Director, Data & Privacy" whose main role will be to "lead [Facebook's] Corporate Marketing [sic] efforts around Data" in order to develop a "Compelling, coherent and integrated Data narrative across the family of apps."
If this all adds up as it looks like it will, Facebook will focus on its WhatsApp messaging service as a way to test-run data privacy technology, efforts, and marketing in order to find its best foot forward as it continues to navigate murky waters when it comes not just to its users' privacy, but to how the company is perceived via marketing.
