I wrote this to the author of this piece on the NYT:

Facebook’s Surveillance Machine

Howdy Zeynep,

My name is Paul Kulas, I live in Eagle, CO.

I’ve been a tech entrepreneur since 1989. I’ve invented stuff, including the world’s first private network in 2007.

I saw all this (social media) coming, I couldn’t believe people would fall for the scam. And yes, social media was then and is now, a scam. I was there. I built a private network that protected and encrypted customers data:
www.zeldab.com

No one cared.

I’ve been telling people for years, that social media is a social disease. I started my blog in 2012, wrote a lot about it.

In your last piece for the Times, you did a pretty good job of glossing over what happens when someone logs onto social. Where you completely missed it, where you couldn’t be any more wrong, where you lost any credibility with anyone who knows, was when you wrote:

“Should we all just leave Facebook? That may should attractive but it is not a viable solution”.

People need to understand that the networks are poisoned, that Facebook and the rest were built for all the wrong reasons. To get that one answer, is to stop logging onto them. Because when people stop logging on, they’re helping to tear down the wall. They’re sending a message to entrepreneurs that people are ready for networks such as zeldab.

Stop spreading lies, that the networks are too big fail. Or, that the networks will somehow gain a moral compass and do the right thing. Because when you do, all you’re doing, is putting another brick in the wall.

If what you wrote is true, it’s not, then how did Microsoft lose its way? How did two guys in a Stanford dorm room (Serge and Larry) change search? How did Apple come back from near bankruptcy?

Facebook and the like aren’t inventions, they’ve brought nothing good to the world. They’ve killed jobs, stifled innovation, made the gap between the haves and have nots wider. They’re the reason why privacy, and therefore freedoms, are all but gone. They’re the reason our government has been toppled and taken over by thugs.

People like you need to understand this — instead of defending the Acien Regime.

As bad as things are, people need to get they still have the power for change. That all they need to do is vote and stop using Facebook and Twitter.

You’re a young person. You think you understand but you don’t – because you weren’t there. Start listening to older people like myself, who were there. Learn from them. Then, get that young people are the future and go do something to make a difference. Your generation has power, use it.

This isn’t about me or my blog that no one reads. This is about tearing down the walls.

Each time you or anyone logs onto social, you’re endorsing their model. You’re making things worse, you’re putting another brick in the wall. You want change? Vote and stop using social networks.

I’m pleading with you and everyone to have the courage to “think differently”. To listen to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and read the lyrics. Please. Then, live it — no matter the cost.

Thanks in advance.

Eat a peach,
Paul