Tech and Privacy: Facebook’s Third Act

技术和隐私：Facebook的第三幕

A New Business Model Could Make the Company Harder to Break up

一种新的商业模式可能会使这家公司更难被分拆

　　The first big overhaul for Facebook came in 2012-14. Internet users were carrying out ever more tasks on smartphones rather than desktop or laptop computers. Mark Zuckerberg opted to follow them, concentrating on Facebook’s mobile app ahead of its website, and buying up two fast-growing communication apps, WhatsApp and Instagram. It worked. Facebook increased its market valuation from around $60bn at the end of 2012 to – for a brief period in 2018 – more than $600bn.

　　Facebook的第一次重大变革发生在2012至2014年间。那时互联网用户越来越多地在智能手机上执行任务，而不是在台式机或笔记本电脑上。马克·扎克伯格选择顺势而动，把注意力从网站转移到手机应用上，并收购了两个快速发展的通信应用WhatsApp和Instagram。这种做法成功了。Facebook的市值从2012年底的约600亿美元增加到2018年的6000多亿美元(尽管只维持了很短一段时间)。

　　On March 6th Mr Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s next pivot. As well as its existing moneymaking enterprise, selling targeted ads on its public social networks, it is building a “privacy-focused platform” around WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. The apps will be integrated, he said, and messages sent through them encrypted end-to-end, so that even Facebook cannot read them. While it was not made explicit, it is clear what the business model will be. Mr Zuckerberg wants all manner of businesses to use its messaging networks to provide services and accept payments. Facebook will take a cut.

　　本月6日，扎克伯格宣布了Facebook的下一个发展重点。除了在其公共社交网络上销售定向广告这项现有的盈利业务之外，公司正在围绕WhatsApp、Instagram和Messenger建立一个“专注隐私安全的平台”。扎克伯格说，Facebook将整合这三个应用，并为三方之间发送的消息提供端到端加密，就连Facebook自己也无法读取。虽然没有明确说明，但这个大平台将采用的商业模式显而易见。扎克伯格希望各类企业都能利用Facebook的消息传递网络来提供服务并接受付款，Facebook则从中抽成。

　　A big shift was overdue at Facebook given the privacy and political scandals that have battered the firm. Even Mr Zuckerberg, who often appears incapable of seeing the gravity of Facebook’s situation, seemed to grasp the irony of it putting privacy first. “Frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services,” he noted.

　　鉴于隐私和政治丑闻的沉重打击，Facebook早就该推动一场重大的转变了。即使是看似常常无法认识到Facebook严峻处境的扎克伯格，似乎也领会到公司将隐私放在第一位透出的讽刺意味。“坦率地说，目前我们在建立保护隐私的服务方面声望不高。”他指出。 Still, he intends to do it. Mr Zuckerberg claims that users will benefit from his plan to integrate its messaging apps into a single, encrypted network. The content of messages will be safe from prying eyes of authoritarian snoops and criminals, as well as from Facebook itself. It will make messaging more convenient, and make profitable new services possible. But caution is warranted for three reasons.

　　不过，他还是打算做出改变。扎克伯格称，把多个消息应用整合成单一加密网络的计划将让用户受益。威权政府的密探、犯罪分子以及Facebook本身都将无法窥探消息的内容。消息发送会变得更加方便，有利可图的新服务也将成为可能。但对此需持谨慎态度，理由有三。

　　The first is that Facebook has long been accused of misleading the public on privacy and security, so the potential benefits Mr Zuckerberg touts deserve to be treated sceptically. He is also probably underselling the benefits that running integrated messaging networks brings to his firm, even if they are encrypted so that Facebook cannot see the content. The metadata alone, ie, who is talking to whom, when and for how long, will still allow Facebook to target advertisements precisely, meaning its ad model will still function.

　　首先，鉴于Facebook长期被指斥在隐私和安全方面误导公众，对于扎克伯格大力宣扬的潜在益处我们理应抱持怀疑观望的态度。扎克伯格也有可能在淡化运营集成消息网络给他的公司带来的好处，即使Facebook无法看到加密的内容。单是谁和谁在何时交流了多久的元数据就能让Facebook精准地投放广告，这意味着其广告业务模式仍能正常运作。

　　End-to-end encryption will also make Facebook’s business cheaper to run. Because it will be mathematically impossible to moderate encrypted communications, the firm will have an excuse to take less responsibility for content running through its apps, limiting its moderation costs.

　　端到端加密还会降低Facebook的业务运营成本。确切来讲加密信息是无法审核的，公司也就会有借口对通过其应用发出的内容负更少的责任，从而控制其审核成本。

　　If it can make the changes, Facebook’s dominance over messaging would probably increase. The newfound user-benefits of a more integrated Facebook might make it harder for regulators to argue that Mr Zuckerberg’s firm should be broken up.

　　如果计划中的改变能够落实，Facebook在消息应用领域的主导地位可能会增强。一个更集成的Facebook新带来的用户利益可能会让监管机构更难主张将Facebook分拆。

　　Facebook’s plans in India provide some insight into the new model. It has built a payment system into WhatsApp, the country’s most-used messaging app. The system is waiting for regulatory approval. The market is huge. In the rest of the world, too, users are likely to be drawn in by the convenience of Facebook’s new networks. Mr Zuckerberg’s latest strategy is ingenious but may contain twists.

　　从Facebook在印度的计划可以一窥其新模式。它已在印度最流行的消息应用WhatsApp中创建了支付系统，正在等待监管部门批准。这个市场非常庞大。在世界其他地方，用户也可能被Facebook的新网络带来的便利所吸引。扎克伯格最新的策略很有创意，但也可能隐藏了花招。

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