Hidden Paradise

This is a story about the depressingly large compound that Mark Zuckerberg is building in Kauai. But it’s also a story (one I’ve been covering since 2015) about the lengths to which social media CEOs will go to protect their own privacy, even as they introduce products that depend on you ceding yours. Wired: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Top-Secret Hawaii Compound. “A 6-foot wall blocks the view from a nearby road fronting the project, where cars slow to try to catch a glimpse of what’s behind it. Security guards stand watch at an entrance gate and patrol the surrounding beaches on ATVs. Pickup trucks roll in and out, hauling building materials and transporting hundreds of workers. Nobody working on this project is allowed to talk about what they’re building. Almost anyone who passes compound security—from carpenters to electricians to painters to security guards—is bound by a strict nondisclosure agreement, according to several workers involved in the project. And, they say, these agreements aren’t a formality. Multiple workers claim they saw or heard about colleagues removed from the project for posting about it on social media. Different construction crews within the site are assigned to separate projects and workers are forbidden from speaking with other crews about their work.”