WhatsApp—Co-founder Brian Acton left and forfeited $850M over privacy disagreements with Facebook
WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton departed Facebook in September 2017, forfeiting $850 million in unvested stock by leaving before his four-year vesting period. Disagreed with Mark Zuckerberg over monetization plans including ads and data sharing. Later revealed he was 'coached' to mislead EU regulators about data merging capabilities during acquisition approval. Stated 'I sold my users' privacy to a larger benefit. I live with that every day.' Tweeted #deletefacebook during Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018. Invested $50M in privacy-focused Signal app.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| User Privacy | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| Whistleblower Protection | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.664 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton left Facebook on September 13, 2017, forfeiting $850M over privacy and monetization disagreements
Brian Acton voluntarily departed Facebook/WhatsApp on September 13, 2017, leaving $850 million in unvested stock options on the table by exiting months before vesting. Later court testimony (May 2025) revealed the forfeited shares would eventually have been worth approximately $4 billion ($2B after taxes). Acton told Forbes he left over disputes with Zuckerberg and Sandberg regarding WhatsApp's monetization through business-oriented messaging tools and backend analytics that would undermine user privacy and end-to-end encryption. He later revealed Facebook executives coached him to mislead EU regulators about data merging plans. On February 21, 2018, Acton founded Signal Foundation with $50M to promote private communication. On March 20, 2018, he publicly tweeted '#deletefacebook' during Cambridge Analytica scandal, stating 'I sold my users' privacy to a larger benefit. I live with that every day.'