Mark Zuckerberg Has a ‘Privacy-Focused Vision’ for Facebook and the Future of Social Networks

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg released a memo this week sharing his ‘privacy-focused vision‘ for the future of messaging and social networking platforms. 

“Facebook and Instagram have helped people connect with friends, communities, and interests in the digital equivalent of a town square. But people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room. 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. Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks,” Zuckerberg wrote.

The privacy-focused platform will be built on six principles, private interactions, encryption, reducing permanence, safety, interoperability and secure data storage. “We plan to re-build more of our services around these ideas,” says the CEO.

Zuckerberg spoke with Wired about his vision, “…given that private messages and stories and small groups are the fastest-growing way that people are interacting online—much faster than any of the more public ways that people interact, so when I sat down to write this thing, my biggest takeaway was, “Wow, in a lot of ways, this is a completely new platform that needs to get built.” People clearly really want this because of what they’re doing and what we’re seeing people do in our products.”

The lengthy manifesto left us with unanswered questions, only time will tell if Zuckerberg’s ‘privacy-focused vision’ is the answer.