By Olaleke ASHAFA
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, is planning to unify the underlying messaging infrastructure of its WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger services and incorporate end-to-end encryption to these apps, the media reports.
The three services will, however, continue as stand-alone apps, New York Times reported on Friday, citing four people involved in the effort.
The company is still in the early stages of the work and plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020, the report said.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the changes, a Facebook user, for instance, will be able send an encrypted message to someone, who has only a WhatsApp account, according to the report.
End-to-end encryption protects messages from being viewed by anyone except the participants in the conversation.
However, Facebook Inc’s operations chief, Sheryl Sandberg, said on Wednesday that the world’s largest social network needed to win back public trust after facing scandals for violating its users’ privacy.
The social media platform is investing billions of dollars a year to improve the security of its network, Sandberg said.
“We did not anticipate all of the risks from connecting so many people,” Sandberg said.
Sandberg added that the site had added features that give users greater control over their personal information.
In 2018, the company was buffeted by revelations that UK consultancy Cambridge Analytica had improperly acquired data on millions of its U.S. users to target election advertising.
“We need to earn back trust,” Sandberg said.
Sandberg said that if Facebook had to change its business model and charge users a subscription fee instead of collecting advertising revenue, far fewer people would be able to use it.
“Fundamentally disallowing our business model would harm a lot of people all over the world.”
She said her grassroots women’s movement, spurred by the publication of “Lean In”, was still going strong.—Renters.
