Embroiled in too many data scandals to count, Facebook now says it’s shifting toward a ‘privacy-focused’ future.
In lengthy blog post on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailed a plan to bring end-to-end encryption to Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram messaging services – confirming previous reports that the firm planned to stitch the three together.
The Facebook boss acknowledged the site’s reputation, which has been tarnished in recent years as a result of its lax-approach to the protection of its users’ information, and promised to rebuild its services on the principle of privacy.
Zuckerberg also said he’s working to ensure your online activity won’t come back to haunt you later in life.
Ultimately, the CEO says the firm is striving to make interactions across Facebook ‘a fundamentally more private experience.’
‘I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever,’ Zuckerberg wrote in the March 6 post.
‘This is the future I hope we will help bring about.’
The Facebook CEO’s post detailing his ‘privacy-focused vision’ comes just days after a tweet from Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge revealed the site allows users to search for specific profiles using phone numbers provided for two-factor authentication.
And, just a week prior, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed Facebook has been collecting ‘highly sensitive information’ from at least a dozen apps without users’ consent.
In perhaps its best-known privacy scandal, Facebook came under fire in 2018 when it was revealed political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica was given access to the data of 87 million users.
Zuckerberg is now promising to apply the same privacy principles it used in WhatsApp to all of its services moving forward.
In a multi-year plan, Zuckerberg says Facebook will merge its messaging services – WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, and Facebook Messenger – in a way that allows users to communicate across all three apps.
All will be equipped with end-to-end encryption to keep out anyone who isn’t the intended reader, including ‘hackers, criminals, over-reaching governments, or even the people operating the services they’re using,’ Zuckerberg said.
While WhatsApp already has end-to-end encryption, Facebook’s other messaging platforms do not.
Facebook and Instagram will still operate like ‘the digital equivalent of a town square,’ allowing users to openly share content as they choose, the CEO said.
HOW DOES ZUCK PLAN TO IMPROVE PRIVACY?
In a March 6 blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to rebuild based on six ‘privacy-focused’ principles:
- Private interactions
- Encryption
- Reducing permanence
- Safety
- Interoperability
- Secure data storage
Zuckerberg promised end-to-end encryption for all of its messaging services, which will be combined in a way that allows users to communicate across WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, and Facebook Messenger.
This he refers to as ‘interoperability.’
He also said moving forward, the firm won’t hold onto messages or stories for ‘longer than necessary’ or ‘longer than people want them.’
This could mean, for example, that users set messages to auto-delete after a month or even a few minutes.
‘Interoperability’ will ensure messages remain encrypted even when jumping from one messaging service, such as WhatsApp, to another, like Instagram, Zuckerberg says.
Facebook also hopes to improve users’ trust in how it stores their data.
Zuckerberg promised the site ‘won’t store sensitive data in countries with weak records on human rights like privacy and freedom of expression in order to protect data from being improperly accessed.’
‘I understand that many people don’t think Facebook can or would even want to build this kind of privacy-focused platform — because frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services, and we’ve historically focused on tools for more open sharing,’ Zuckerberg said.
‘But we’ve repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want, including in private messaging and stories.’
Moving forward, Facebook is also hoping to regain users’ trust in how it stores their data.
Zuckerberg promised the site ‘won’t store sensitive data in countries with weak records on human rights like privacy and freedom of expression in order to protect data from being improperly accessed.’
The CEO predicts messaging will soon overtake other forms of social communication, outweighing more public-facing options as emphasis on privacy continues to grow.
Putting the focus on private interactions, however, essentially flips Facebook’s current model on its head.
‘As I think about the future of the internet, I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today’s open platforms,’ Zuckerberg wrote.
‘Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks.’
Zuckerberg says he will start with messaging, being the ‘most fundamental and private use case,’ and work up from that to include calls video chats, groups, stories, businesses, payments, commerce, and other platforms.
Source: Dailym
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