They made mistakes. Like toddlers building castles out of sand, they molded a resource — your information — giving shape to a predictive algorithm. They felt high and mighty. They were proud, quite proud, of successfully piecing together your private, personal puzzles. And now they admit naivety. Greed subsumed righteousness. They just got sucked into something larger than themselves, you know? Ever hear that one? Well, they accept at least partial blame for Brexit and Trump. They knew your secrets and your fears. Facebook gave them permission. The internet is an open book, always and forever. Somebody surely told you that. It became a game, improving upon high scores, algorithmic predictability. And as more user likes were fed to this beast, it apparently grew ever more compelling. Bold scholarly claims got made. They were marketing a product that could also be a service, a way of knowing you without knowing you. Several influencers across our globe heard word of them and expressed interest. So who exactly is “they”? Well, they could be any number of people. None of them deserve your pity.

So many famous apologies throughout history and cinema ring to mind. But none more evocative than Charles Van Doren, a college professor turned game show celebrity whose candid admission of being fed answers to congressional investigators led congressmen to rapturous applause. Here is what Van Doren said:

I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. The fact that I, too, was very much deceived cannot keep me from being the principal victim of that deception, because I was its principal symbol. There may be a kind of justice in that. I don’t know. I do know, and I can say it proudly to this committee, that since Friday, October 16, when I finally came to a full understanding of what I had done and of what I must do, I have taken a number of steps toward trying to make up for it. I have a long way to go. I have deceived my friends, and I had millions of them.

Even if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, Swiss researcher Michal Kosinski or any other possible “they” delivered an admission of fault as frank as Van Doren’s, we oughtn’t be so quick to praise such fleeting gestures of good. In attempting to cover the Facebook data privacy deception, outlets like VICE and The Guardian extended olive branches to co-conspirators in exchange for truthful testimony. Bundles of further press attention followed. Lots of goodwill — Those soapy, “we messed up” ads published by Facebook during the NBA playoffs.

Our society rewards creation. And yet too often those most inventive among us fail to demonstrate foresight. In this case, the “theys” lack clarity. They neglected cognizance and awareness in favor of present pipedreams — spiffy algorithms, profit, notoriety. Bad actors “misused and abused.” It’ll happen again. They should’ve bet on that. And we should know better than to forgive them, these enablers of ill.