Facebook Is Opening Cafes With ‘Privacy Workshops’ Because It ‘Cares’

But they’re still gonna sell all your data to the highest bidder

Having realized that everyone hates it, Facebook is trying to curry favor with its two-billion-plus users by giving them free lattes. The social media behemoth is opening a series of pop-up coffee shops in the U.K. where customers can take part in a “privacy checkup,” wherein Facebook staff walks customers through its privacy settings. Then they’ll give you something from their “select menu.” The cafes will be open in late August and early September.

So it’s like a real-life workshop for Aunt Suzy to learn how to make her unhinged political commentaries visible to “friends only.” On the surface, it could almost seem like Facebook cares about privacy, but it’s really only for show. While they’re happy to teach you how to hide your photos from the world at large, Fast Company notes, Facebook was caught this week listening to audio messages sent by users (then there’s the whole Cambridge Analytica scandal), which sorta tells you how they really feel about your privacy. But: free coffee!

And in other news...

• New York state is considering putting a limit on the commission fees that restaurants pay to delivery services like Grubhub. [Restaurant Business Online]
• While you scrimp and save for retirement, the “Museum” of Ice Cream (not a museum, actually an Instagram trap) is reportedly worth $200 million. [Vice]
• Gramercy Tavern pastry chef Miro Uskokovic took to Instagram to defend Senator Elizabeth Warren’s strawberry shortcake — she’s a busy woman with more important things to tend to than glamorous food presentation. [Grub Street]
• Booze conglomerate Diageo (which owns Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, and much more) just purchased Seedlip, a prominent non-alcoholic spirit for the sober and sober-curious. [The Takeout]
• Vice zoomed in on some photos to try to figure out what Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged “fixer” Ghislaine Maxwell ate when she visited a Los Angeles In-N-Out. [Vice]
• A new policy from President Trump denying green cards to immigrants who use certain public services might be prompting immigrant parents to pull their kids out of school lunch programs. [Buzzfeed]
• What did you achieve by age 30 — a promotion, a couple of raises? Try “being CEO of Momofuku,” like Marguerite Zabar Mariscal, who the Times profiles today. [NYT]

• All AM Intel Coverage [E]