There’s no secret that Facebook loves ads. It has stuffed the blue app and different features ofInstagram with them. And the company hascontemplatedmany timesinserting ads in WhatsApp.
Now the company is trying to make a match of an odd pair: encryption and ads. According to a report fromThe Information, the tech giant is building a team of AI researchers to explore possibilities to analyze data without breaking encryption.
This will allow Facebook to insert targeted adson WhatsApp, and let me highlight here that end-to-end encryption is one of the app’s most marketed features. And that’s the basis of Facebook’s fight againsttraceabilityworldwide.
But the company also wants to make money out of WhatsApp. It madea controversial privacy policy changeearlier this year to lay the WhatsApp interaction with businesses and other Facebook apps. However, if it can make solve the puzzle of inserting ads without breaking encryption, it can earn a lot of money from more than 2 billion folks who use the app for free.
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The field of research is called Homomorphic Encryption, which allows you to extract meaningful information without breaking encryption. Companies likeIBMandGoogleare already working on it and exploring its usage in sectors such as health and finance.
As per the Information’s report, there’s no timeline on when Facebook wants to achieve this. But Zuck & co. would want to get this out of the gates as soon as possible to start minting money.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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