The source code for the full toolset would reveal how they analyze their data, what they find relevant (even merely based on which types of tools exist and which don't), how access is defined for various categories of employees to access that data, differences between what they claim about those capabilities and the actual infrastructure, problems they've had which they've attempted to fix in changes to the code, how they set prices to sell access to advertisers, how their frameworks to respond to lawful requests for user data from government agencies work (hell, even inferences about which government agencies they respond to), whether or not they've made serious attempts to curb the fake news problem, a full understanding of the ways in which they track people who don't have a facebook account across the web, and probably a whole host of other enlightening details about their entire operation.
I'm sure there are people who can make quite accurate guesses about how all of that probably works without looking directly at the code. But if the Snowden leaks tell us anything it's that a handful of security specialists being able to deduce something is completely different that a critical mass of programmers being unable to deny that a problem exists. Access to that code would certainly give developers of FLOSS privacy/security software a better idea of how to protect their users' privacy.
Are you kidding?
The source code for the full toolset would reveal how they analyze their data, what they find relevant (even merely based on which types of tools exist and which don't), how access is defined for various categories of employees to access that data, differences between what they claim about those capabilities and the actual infrastructure, problems they've had which they've attempted to fix in changes to the code, how they set prices to sell access to advertisers, how their frameworks to respond to lawful requests for user data from government agencies work (hell, even inferences about which government agencies they respond to), whether or not they've made serious attempts to curb the fake news problem, a full understanding of the ways in which they track people who don't have a facebook account across the web, and probably a whole host of other enlightening details about their entire operation.
I'm sure there are people who can make quite accurate guesses about how all of that probably works without looking directly at the code. But if the Snowden leaks tell us anything it's that a handful of security specialists being able to deduce something is completely different that a critical mass of programmers being unable to deny that a problem exists. Access to that code would certainly give developers of FLOSS privacy/security software a better idea of how to protect their users' privacy.