Facebook is recruiting an AI team to explore techniques for analyzing data without decryption.
Facebook is looking for new ways to analyze encrypted data, such as WhatsApp messages, without actually decrypting it.
According to The Information, Facebook has confirmed that it is recruiting a team of specialists in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which will be engaged in “studying methods of analyzing data without decrypting it.” So far, the project is at an early stage. Thanks to him, Facebook will be able to use messages on WhatsApp for targeted advertising.
This field of research is called “homomorphic encryption”. With its help, companies will be able to obtain information from encrypted data sets, while maintaining their privacy and protecting them from cyber threats.
Facebook continues to invite researchers with a background in privacy technologies, including homomorphic encryption, secure computing, and data anonymization, The Information reports. The company posted several job openings on its website and noted that it needs specialists to work on privacy-preserving technologies that “will at the same time enhance the effectiveness of Facebook’s leading ad systems.”
Thanks to homomorphic encryption, Facebook will be able to continue to profit from targeted ads generated based on user preferences while complying with legislation to enhance privacy and prevent misuse of user data.
Among other things, homomorphic encryption will allow the company to make money on WhatsApp, which encrypts users’ messages. However, according to a Facebook spokesman, it is too early to talk about the use of homomorphic encryption for WhatsApp. According to WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart, the messenger is not exploring ways to use homomorphic encryption. Cathcart also said that one should be sceptical about “technical claims that applications like ours can only view messages in ‘good’ cases.”
Homomorphic encryption is a form of encryption that allows you to perform certain mathematical operations with ciphertext and obtain an encrypted result that corresponds to the result of operations performed with the plain text. For example, one person could add two encrypted numbers without knowing the decrypted numbers, and then another person could decrypt the encrypted amount and get the decrypted amount without having the decrypted numbers. Homomorphic encryption would allow the provision of various services without exposing public user data for each service.
Catch up on more stories here
Follow us on Facebook here