Announcement shows privacy is no longer lost on Facebook

By: Jonathan T.

Mark Zuckerberg just admitted on Wednesday that people value their privacy quite a bit.

After Facebook put itself in a public relations pickle over privacy — a nightmare that had Zuckerberg hauled in front of Congress last April — he has finally decided to lead the social networking juggernaut in a new and different direction when it comes to messaging across all of his platforms.

It’s an “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach. Facebook has finally conceded that people don’t like being spied on, and is now promising to offer private conversations.

Zuckerberg said he is looking to encrypt data across all of the company’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger — to provide privacy in conversations, which essentially amount to texting that passes through those platforms.

In the past, I have been critical of Facebook’s business model, which seemed out of touch with the realities of its product offerings. I now believe it’s time for Facebook to start charging a modest user fee, because privacy protection is a trade-off most people would pay for.

Folks seem to feel better when they pay for something — particularly if it deals with personal information.