"If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it."
I have two comments . . .
First, from what I know of Koum (not much) he seems like a good bloke, focussed and committed. BUT. The calculations I have seen have him at ~$7bn thanks to this 'partnership'. Maybe he is the second-coming and maybe I am much the opposite but I can't think of any value I hold so dear that I wouldn't sell it for seven billion dollars. Can't judge him based on my own failings but damn, that's a lot of beer money.
Second, how would he stop Facebook doing exactly what he claims will never happen? I understand he will be on the FB board once this is done but even if he is as staunch a supporter of privacy in the board room as he claims in the media, he may still find himself 8-v-1 and is thus in no position to assure his customers of anything.
No offence to the guy - he seems nice enough, but if he's promising no changes, I'm not sure he is in a position to deliver - no matter how strong his resolve or good his intentions.
From what I see, this 'partnership', even if it collects no other information than phone numbers can help FB build a strong picture of which FB friends actually communicate with each other in the 'real world'. In the never-ending search for more 'relevance' in online advertising, this information is not trivial when matched up to Facebook profiles.