Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Will Shift To Emphasize Encrypted Ephemeral Messages (theverge.com) 99
Facebook will increasingly shift its focus away from public posts to encrypted, ephemeral communications on its trio of messaging apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today in a significant new blog post. From a report: In a 3,200-word missive, Zuckerberg says that encryption will be one of the keys to Facebook's future -- and that the company is willing to be banned in countries that refuse to let it operate as a result. "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 writes. "Today we already see that private messaging, ephemeral stories, and small groups are by far the fastest growing areas of online communication." [...] "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 says. "This is the future I hope we will help bring about."
Yeah right (Score:1)
I'll believe it when I see it
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It will happen, but mostly because this way, only facebook will be able to decrypt the data, and that will fetch a premium value on it with the data brokers.
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I believe it.
Without encryption, anyone could siphon the information and sell it. And information is most valuable if not everyone has it, information that everyone has is, money-wise, worthless, since nobody would pay for it. So FB has a very good reason to demand encryption between them and their user (of course THEY reserve the right to eavesdrop).
Being banned in countries that disallow that is logical. Why bother wasting resources on worthless data you cannot monetize because someone else is doing it al
Does Facebook scan conversations? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always assumed that Facebook reads all messages to improve its ad targeting. If so, isn't that fundamentally incompatible with the concept of encrypted messages? Or do they just mean 'encrypted to and from Facebook.'
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I've always assumed that Facebook reads all messages
I suppose it depends what you mean by "reads."
Scans electronically? Probably.
Has a human following along? Highly unlikely.
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In the very near future, this distinction will be meaningless. I don't want human or non-human persons reading my shit.
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Yes, they scan what is in Facebook Messenger. They are even starting to censor images in Facebook Messenger Group Chat.
Re:Does Facebook scan conversations? (Score:5, Insightful)
Notice the article didn't say "end to end" encryption. Just ephemeral... and even then, it's only ephemeral to you and the recipient... not the middle man.
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Facebook gets criticized for allowing the spread of misinformation and hate speech, responds by creating an environment where terrorists and crackpots can organize in private.
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You're nuts to use Zuckerbook for anything at all anymore.
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TFA *did* say "end to end"...
To achieve his goal, Zuckerberg says Facebook’s messaging platforms will evolve to more closely resemble WhatsApp. End-to-end encryption will become standard across Facebook’s suite of messaging apps
Re:Does Facebook scan conversations? (Score:4, Insightful)
They record every keystroke. Even what you type and delete is kept for eternity.
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They record every keystroke. Even what you type and delete is kept for eternity.
I dislike facebook as much as the next nerd (and no I don't use it), but this sounds a bit like tinfoil hattery.
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I dislike facebook as much as the next nerd (and no I don't use it), but this sounds a bit like tinfoil hattery.
Appears to be true. According to CBS [cbsnews.com], if you delete your Facebook account then your data is deleted but not the logs or any data connected with you generated by others. According to Daily Mail [dailymail.co.uk], Facebook once did a study on who self censors using what people went to post but then didn't.
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#2 and #3 are the same thing, because if the company can read it, the government can put a gun to their head and make them read it to the government.
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In China, India, the UK, they don't need to threaten. It's just required that FB hands it over to them, literally written into the charter of business.
This is true to a lesser extent in the US, Canada, and the EU, where there is a theoretical right of privacy, in whole or in part, but the net result is they still hand it over. Originally they recorded the whole thing, but it's harder to process; now they record the metadata and if you use certain phrases or keywords or communicate with individuals N+2 from
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You're assuming that by "emphasize," he means emphasizing encryption that Facebook can't decrypt, rather than emphasizing being able to read them anyway.
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Nobody said end-to-end encryption. And even if they did, did they specify the "ends"?
Rest assured that FB will be able to decrypt and snoop.
Paid Services (Score:2)
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Signal is still free.... And still encrypted.
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Absolutely. Like the iChat, BBM, text and voice services that you pay for by purchasing a phone and paying for service.
The Internet only ones, like e-mail, are supported by ISP fees.
It's *weird* that certain text messaging systems that have become popular need to support themselves via advertising.
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WeChat is free because they want you to use the mobile payment features. Any balance in your account is like an interest-free loan for them, and it adds up over a large number of users.
LINE is free because they apparently make a substantial amount of money selling vanity features like themes and animated emoji, "stickers", etc. kinda like TF2 hats.
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You could just go use Signal right now.
Ephermal to who? (Score:2)
The metadata from your ephermal messages will be stored and used to market you for FB's users, the marketing firms.
It will also be stored and used by various intel agencies in the countries FB does business in.
If even one member of your "small group" lives in one of those countries, they get your metadata too. All of it. Every drop.
Uh Hunh..... (Score:5, Insightful)
FB has already proven they will do ANYTHING for a Dolllar. Nothing willl change they will just hide it better.
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I might actually pay money to watch Zuck play "Climbing for Dollars" [youtube.com].
So empheral I miss it.. (Score:2)
So, Mr. "Dumb Fucks" is suddenly... (Score:5, Insightful)
...concerned about privacy?
That's almost as funny as trying to convince us to believe him.
Lots of weaselly language (Score:5, Interesting)
Have confidence, expect... weasel words:
And finally, the money quote:
Not so, Mr Z. FB is not an arm of law enforcement. FB has a responsibility to respond to judicial warrants only.
Checking calendar ... (Score:2)
Nope that is the stupidest thing I have read this week. Sure, I believe that, here's a bridge I can let you have for 59 easy payments...
Translation (Score:1)
Yeah right (Score:2)
They wouldn't do that unless they have code to data mine it before and after it's transmitted in encrypted form, and that mined data can be easily intercepted by the powers that be.
Of course! It's worked great for Snapchat (Score:2)
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But the ads and the NSA? (Score:2)
Trust Us Guys. This Time For Realsies! (Score:2)
The idea that Facebook would give its users anything which Facebook couldn't exploit by datamining is laughable; a fairytale for children and the feeble-minded.
Everything Facebook has ever done can attest to this. If you use their platform, you will have value extracted from your useage, your privacy will be breached and any and all assurances to the contrary will prove to be false.
Fuck the Zuck.
"privacy"? (Score:2)
Mark Zuckerberg? (Score:2)
Mark Suckerberg!
Ephemeral = cheaper operations (Score:3)
Ephemeral is cool, quirky, and fun. That is, it just saves money on storage in massive datacenters. Meanwhile, I don't want any service where I can't control how long I keep *my* data.
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Decent ephemeral systems just ensure that the data doesn't live longer then the user decides it should.
In most two-way communication systems so far, only one side gets to decide this.
This is a distraction (Score:2)
He could change the business model to something other than selling user data. Privacy is a much bigger issue that includes encryption.
Once a douchebucket, always a douchebucket.
Ephemeral Messaging? That horse has left the barn (Score:2)
Facebook does already have some ephemeral messaging capability, using the Signal network, if you use messenger.
However, and this is IMHO, of course, I personally wouldn't trust FB with messaging of any sort, because of all the news reports.
There are just better messenger apps out there. Signal, Telegram, or if you want to pack your own parachute, PGP/gpg and an existing messaging utility.
Idea! (Score:4, Funny)
Encrypt ALL of Facebook, every page, every picture, every word. And lose the key. This would be a great improvement to the site.
Plausible Deniability (Score:2)
Encrypted, so they can pretend they don't really know what we are saying or doing. Except for when they receive complaints, and then they will continue to decide if they wish to act or not, and how, and against whoever, at their whim. Even written policy will be sufficiently vague to permit action or inaction as they choose.
Ephemeral, so that they can pretend they didn't see never knew, can't be held responsible. Unless someone complains, and then they will continue to decide if they wish to act or not, an
A good test (Score:2)
Whenever they release this into the wild - see if they will allow 3rd party encryption external to their control on the platform
If they don't allow it, we will know what they are up to
Facebook is ridiculously evil. This is almost as bad as trusting McAfee for anti-virus
"They trust me - dumb fucks" (Score:2)
Direct quote from Zuckerberg. Anyone that believes this lying sack of shit deserves what they get.
ephemeral + camera = bullshit (Score:3)
Nobody ever has found any good way to implement ephemeral messaging. Facebook will do no better. You can always do screenshots. However the push for encryption and refusal to be present in countries that ban or backdoor it would be finally one good thing out of Facebook. That is if they mean it.