Facebook only cares about privacy because it has to

Additionally, Zuckerberg said Facebook will start reducing permanent content and offering better safety and secure data storage, though it's unclear when these changes are going to take place.

While Zuckerberg has been hinting at this new strategy in recent earnings calls, it's now clear that it's no longer just an idea. For the past two years, Facebook has been under heavy scrutiny from governments and the public for a slew of data-privacy scandals, so it's easy to see why it wants to make a major shift.

Zuckerberg points to WhatsApp as the perfect example of how Facebook will rework its platform to private, encrypted services.

In Myanmar, pervasive hate speech and endless hoaxes have become quite common on WhatsApp, causing issues throughout the country.

It's a serious enough problem that Facebook's gone as far as to limit users' ability to forward messages to multiple chats at once, in hopes that it will reduce the amount of misinformation being shared.

What happened in India and Myanmar shows how dangerous even private messaging services can be, because they have the potential to create social bubbles that bad actors can tap into. That's going to present a challenge for Facebook as it looks to redefine itself, and it will need to be cautious about how it approaches its new strategy.

One of the areas Zuckerberg says Facebook will start focusing more on going forward, along with encrypted conversations, is small groups. Edgar's also deeply in love with tacos, sneakers and FIFA, in no particular order. He lives in New York City with his better half.

Original article
Author: Engadget

Engadget is the original home for technology news and reviews. Since its founding in 2004, we've grown from an exhaustive source for consumer tech news to a global multimedia organization covering the intersection of technology, gaming and entertainment.

Engadget has recently written 11 articles on similar topics including :
  1. "The change would place News Feed and Stories content side by side". (April 15, 2019)
  2. "The country's data watchdog also wants location-tracking turned off for teens". (April 15, 2019)
  3. "It's all part of Facebook's goal of interoperability". (April 30, 2019)
  4. "You'll soon be able to watch YouTube originals previously hidden behind a paywall for free". (May 3, 2019)
  5. "The News Feed will now prioritize your closest friends and links most relevant to you". (May 17, 2019)
  6. "Facebook previously asked some new users for their email passwords". (May 20, 2019)
  7. "According to 'The Wall Street Journal,' Facebook is developing a cryptocurrency payment system that will work across websites". (May 3, 2019)
  8. "Did you know there's a page in Gmail that likely lists anything you've been sent a receipt for in the past few years?". (May 18, 2019)
  9. "Many changes are coming to the Facebook experience". (May 1, 2019)
  10. "This morning's roundup covers Facebook's privacy push, Dyson's new $650 lamp and MIDI's first true overhaul since 1985". (January 29, 2020)
  11. "Facebook detailed its plan to build 'inclusive' artificial intelligence". (May 2, 2019)
Posted on  , , , , , , , , , , ,