Privacy-focused social network
In a recent note by Mark Zuckerberg (https://facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/a-privacy-focused-vision-for-social-networking/10156700570096634/), he speaks about his vision on creating a privacy-focused social network, what it means and the steps that Facebook is going to make in that regard. In this post the implications of privacy, and the trade-off between it and comfort in most social media platforms will be explored.
The majority of companies behind social media products are for-profit, which means they need to be profitable in order to continue operations. Platforms such as Facebook, YouTube or Twitter are built to make money first, and then whatever goes after, which is not bad at all, the opposite: more profit usually equals more budget for improving the user experience, which is something desirable.
Other defining quality of social media services is that, at least the base, is free, which gives people the opportunity to connect without spending anything. It means at the same time that companies need other profit model, such as premium options or advertisements, which seems to be the way to go for most.
Advertisements are the predominant profit-generating activity on social media, and they are more effective when targeted, which leads to the need of gathering data. Data collection helps targeting users directly, as well as improving certain parts of the products (think for example Google Maps and positional tracking).
The Internet helped connect almost the whole world and opened the gates to new forms of products and services, but at the same time it created a culture of instant gratification and instant information. For social media, it means that creating a paid social network didn’t make any sense, because nothing beats free when it comes to accessing information & communicating. The situation then were social platforms where, as Zuckerberg puts it, you could connect with friends, communities, and interests, instantly, without paying anything. That sounds good, right? Well, it was, and a lot of people signed for those platforms.
Swiftly, some social media companies had millions if not billions of users, willingly giving their information away in exchange for a free service. That is a goldmine of data! Imagine the possibilities, the opportunities… Data scientist suddenly had mountains of servers with people’s information, such as age, sex or political beliefs.
The possibilities were so broad that companies, willingly or unwillingly, started experimenting as much as they could before asking themselves where the limits should be set, and even before countries & governments set those limits. It is not that the law develops slowly, it is that the cyberspace is so difficult to regulate that no one really knows what to restrict and how. Still, at the moment we are now, after countless scandals, people are starting to realize the power some social media platforms hold, and governments are starting to think on ways to regulate them.
Now, coming back to the point of privacy on social networks, it is true that it’s a movement that is gaining influence, and it will continue to grow, as the reach of public social media is limited, and people want to connect more privately, without the scrutiny that sometimes comes with those type of platforms, but it seems that, at least for Facebook, privacy is more oriented to security, with strong encryption and policies, that don’t allow anyone (not even the company) to access the data. The problem is, social media companies don’t profit from the actual content that you publish on the sites, but rather everything else, from interactions to metadata, that is, the data that comes associated with every file you upload, or in other words, data about other data. We must ask ourselves, what is more private, a photo, or the data that can identify where that photo was taken or who appears in it?
Privacy goes beyond encryption. It seems Mark Zuckerberg is simplifying the notion to “strong encryption” because it is in the interest of Facebook to present itself as a platform that cares about the privacy of messages, building “what people really want”, without addressing the real concerns.
What we have in our hands is not black or white. Full privacy would mean Facebook’s profit model wouldn’t work, screwing the company, and a total lack of privacy would mean everyone’s information exposed, screwing the users. The real concern is the lack of transparency.
A real privacy-focused platform would enter in talks with its users, to see the acceptance of certain features, to set the limits, and to discuss the trade-offs the users would be willing to accept for using the platform.
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Excited for what’s coming,
Nacho.
About Skrumble
Skrumble Network is a completely new, innovative blockchain and application that centers on creating the most secure connections for communication possible. It will be a blockchain uniquely optimized for secure communication-centric connections and transactions, a decentralized social media communication application, and a communication layer for developers to build into any application. With no middle entity or centralized server host in between to censor, block or manipulate any data, Skrumble Network’s blockchain and application will be a catalyst for data privacy and help to truly democratize communication on a global scale.
Learn more about Skrumble Network by visiting Skrumble.network.
