Mark Zuckerberg, in a blog post on Facebook:
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. This is the future I hope we will help bring about.
The post lays out a vision for the future of a privacy-focused Facebook platform built around the following principles:
-
Private interactions
-
Encryption
-
Reducing permanence
-
Interoperability
-
Secure data storage
Ultimately, these principles will enable “the digital equivalent of the living room,” in contrast to today’s “digital equivalent of a town square.”
Interesting and laudable. Alas, there’s no mention in the post of changes to Facebook’s business model. As long as the company’s revenues are tied to selling our attention, the goal of serving as our digital equivalents to physical meeting places — be they town squares or living rooms — remains suspect.