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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 17 February 2020
Insider Q&A: Facebook VP of Messenger discusses privacy

By BARBARA ORTUTAY that conversation between
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — people should be private.
At Facebook, Stan Chud- We don't make a differ-
novsky oversees the Mes- ence between the conver-
senger chat app that's sations that are happening
used by well over 1 billion in the living room or on the
people each month. He's phone and conversations
playing a key role in help- that are happening in a pri-
ing Facebook integrate vate chat.
that app with its other chat Q: What if you try to sell a
tools, WhatsApp and Insta- gun, despite Facebook's
gram Direct. ban?
The massive project has A: If you're trying to sell a
already gotten pushback gun, you are probably try-
from regulators worried ing to sell a gun to many
about Facebook's size people. When someone
and power. Government reports that and someone
officials also worry about provides the messages
Facebook's plans to extend that from the point of that
end-to-end encryption to person are illegal, then
Messenger. Once that hap- definitely we will be able to
pens, Facebook wouldn't look at that.
be able to respond to law Q: What are the biggest
enforcement subpoenas things that you have to fig-
because it wouldn't have ure out before interoper-
a way to unscramble mes- ability becomes reality?
sages. A: Generally, just a fea-
Chudnovsky, who moved tures compatibility in the
to the U.S. from Russia in sense that, if I "like" some
1994, joined Facebook in message on one app, how
2015. He spoke with The does it manifest itself in an-
Associated Press recently other? Or will I be able to
about his work and views In this undated image provided by Facebook Stan Chudnovsky, the vice president of Messenger also call people, not only
on privacy. Questions and at Facebook, poses for a photo. send messages?
answers have been edited the leaders on privacy. We encryption. I don't want to go into de- Q: Do you think scrutiny of
for length and clarity. are trying to go through Q: How do you ensure that tails on how we are thinking Facebook will ease any
Q: What are the biggest that process slowly and people are safe when you about approaching that time soon?
roadblocks in bringing very responsibly while talk- can't see bad things peo- stuff. But we're just going to A: We have a lot of respon-
end-to-end encryption? ing to everyone. ple are doing? invest heavily in identifying sibility. And the criticism,
A: It's technologically hard Most messages in the U.S., A: We are going to con- threats earlier, sometimes it's accurate.
to move from the system where (Apple's) iMessage tinue to work very closely Q: You can send things in a Sometimes it's not accu-
that is alive and functioning is leading, are already with law enforcement on private message that you rate. At the end of the day,
and has billions of messag- end-to-end encrypted. We whatever we can provide. can't post on Facebook, what it means if everyone's
es being sent every day to want to make sure that we We also have connectivity right? talking about you positive-
where it's done completely get to the point when we to social networks. Whoev- A: Definitely. You should be ly or negatively or both, is
differently architecturally. lead very strongly and we er is a bad player on social able to send whatever you that you're important. We
We also need to figure out do as much on safety as networks, we will be able to want to send in a private just need to continue to de-
how to do as much as we we possibly can given the see if those bad players ex- message. liver value to people. And
can on safety, while being constraints of end-to-end ist on messaging services. Q: What if it's illegal or hurt- as long as we are building
ing someone? products that people like. I
A: Generally we believe think it's going to be fine.q