At first glance, Mark Zuckerbergsa国际传媒檚 new sa国际传媒減rivacy-focused vision sa国际传媒� for Facebook looks like a transformative mission statement from a CEO under pressure to reverse years of battering over its surveillance practices and privacy failures.
But critics say the announcement obscures Facebooksa国际传媒檚 deeper motivations: To expand lucrative new commercial services, continue monopolizing the attention of users, develop new data sources to track people and frustrate regulators who might be eyeing a breakup of the social-media behemoth.
Facebook sa国际传媒渨ants to be the operating system of our lives,sa国际传媒� said Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of media studies at the University of Virginia.
Zuckerbergsa国际传媒檚 plan, outlined Wednesday, expands Facebooksa国际传媒檚 commitment to private messaging, in sharp contrast with his traditional focus on public sharing. Facebook would combine its instant-messaging services WhatsApp and Instagram Direct with its core Messenger app so that users of one could message people on the others, and would expand the use of encrypted messaging to keep outsiders sa国际传媒� including Facebook sa国际传媒� from reading the messages.
The plan also calls for using those messaging services to expand Facebooksa国际传媒檚 role in e-commerce and payments. A Facebook spokesperson later said it was too early to answer detailed questions about the companysa国际传媒檚 messaging plans.
Vaidhyanathan said Zuckerberg wants people to abandon competing, person-to-person forms of communication such as email, texting and Applesa国际传媒檚 iMessage in order to sa国际传媒渄o everything through a Facebook product.sa国际传媒� The end goal could be transform Facebook into a service like the Chinese app WeChat , which has 1.1 billion users and includes the worldsa国际传媒檚 most popular person-to-person online payment system.
In some respects, Facebook was already headed in this direction. It has dabbled with shopping features in its Messenger app for a few years, although without much effect. And WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for $22 billion in 2014, embraced a strong privacy technology known as sa国际传媒渆nd-to-end encryptionsa国际传媒� nearly three years ago. Messages protected this way are shielded from snooping, even by the services who deliver them.
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But Zuckerberg said nothing in the Wednesday blog post about reforming privacy practices in its core business, which remains hungry for data. A recent Wall Street Journal report found that Facebook was still collecting personal information from apps such as user heart rates and when women ovulate .
Facebook, which perfected what critics call sa国际传媒渟urveillance capitalism,sa国际传媒� knows it has serious credibility issues. Those go beyond repeated privacy lapses to include serious abuses by Russian agents, hate groups and disinformation mongers, which Zuckerberg acknowledged only belatedly.
sa国际传媒淯ntil Facebook actually fixes its core privacy issues sa国际传媒� and especially given their history sa国际传媒� itsa国际传媒檚 difficult to take the pivot to privacy seriously,sa国际传媒� said Justin Brookman, who was a research director at the Federal Trade Commission before joining Consumers Union as privacy and technology chief in 2017.
Combining the three messaging services could allow Facebook sa国际传媒� which today has 15 million fewer U.S. users than in 2017, according to Edison Research sa国际传媒� build more complete data profiles on all its users.
The merged messaging services should generate new profits from the metadata they collect, including information on who you message, when you do it, from where and for how long, said Frederike Kaltheuner of the advocacy group Privacy International. That is the information that users leave behind when they message each other or conduct retail, travel or financial business, she added.
And Facebook doesnsa国际传媒檛 just use peoplesa国际传媒檚 information and activity on its platform, dissecting it to target people with tailored ads. It also tracks people who donsa国际传媒檛 even use the platform via small pieces of software embedded in third-party apps.
Privacy International published research in December showing that popular Android apps including KAYAK and Yelp were automatically sending user data directly to Facebook the moment they were opened. KAYAK, which was sending flight search results, halted the practice and said the transmission was inadvertent. Yelp continues to send unique identifiers known as sa国际传媒渁dvertising IDssa国际传媒� that link to specific smartphones.
Facebook also has trackers that harvest data on peoplesa国际传媒檚 online behaviour on about 30 per cent of the worldsa国际传媒檚 websites , said Jeremy Tillman of Ghostery, a popular ad-blocker and anti-tracking software.
sa国际传媒淲hen they say they are building a private messaging platform there is nothing in there that suggests they are going to stop their data collection and ad-targeting business model,sa国际传媒� he said.
In a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press, Zuckerberg offered no specifics on new revenue sources. But sa国际传媒渢he overall opportunity here is a lot larger than what we have built in terms of Facebook and Instagram,sa国际传媒� he said.
Privacy advocates, however, do admire one key element of Zuckerbergsa国际传媒檚 announcement.
sa国际传媒淚n the last year, Isa国际传媒檝e spoken with dissidents whosa国际传媒檝e told me encryption is the reason they are free, or even alive,sa国际传媒� Zuckerberg wrote.
AP technology writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this article from San Francisco.
Frank Bajak, The Associated Press
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