Page 24 - aruba-today-20190309

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 9 March 2019

How Facebook stands to profit from its ‘privacy’ push

By FRANK BAJAK known as “end-to-end en-
AP Technology Writer cryption” nearly three years
At first glance, Mark Zuck- ago. Messages protected
erberg’s new “privacy-fo- this way are shielded from
cused vision “ for Facebook snooping, even by the ser-
looks like a transformative vices who deliver them.
mission statement from a But Zuckerberg said noth-
CEO under pressure to re- ing in the Wednesday blog
verse years of battering post about reforming priva-
over its surveillance prac- cy practices in its core busi-
tices and privacy failures. ness, which remains hun-
But critics say the an- gry for data. A recent Wall
nouncement obscures Street Journal report found
Facebook’s deeper moti- that Facebook was still
vations: To expand lucra- collecting personal infor-
tive new commercial ser- mation from apps such as
vices, continue monopoliz- user heart rates and when
ing the attention of users, women ovulate .
develop new data sources Facebook, which perfect-
to track people and frus- ed what critics call “surveil-
trate regulators who might lance capitalism,” knows it
be eyeing a breakup of the has serious credibility issues.
social-media behemoth. Those go beyond repeated
Facebook “wants to be privacy lapses to include
the operating system of our In this April 11, 2018, file photo Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a House serious abuses by Russian
lives,” said Siva Vaidhya- Energy and Commerce hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. agents, hate groups and
nathan, director of media Associated Press disinformation mongers,
studies at the University of and would expand the use Vaidhyanathan said Zuck- world’s most popular per- which Zuckerberg acknowl-
Virginia. Zuckerberg’s plan, of encrypted messaging to erberg wants people to son-to-person online pay- edged only belatedly.
outlined Wednesday, ex- keep outsiders — including abandon competing, ment system. “Until Facebook actually
pands Facebook’s commit- Facebook — from reading person-to-person forms of In some respects, Face- fixes its core privacy issues
ment to private messaging, the messages. communication such as book was already headed — and especially given
in sharp contrast with his The plan also calls for using email, texting and Apple’s in this direction. It has dab- their history — it’s difficult
traditional focus on public those messaging services iMessage in order to “do bled with shopping fea- to take the pivot to privacy
sharing. Facebook would to expand Facebook’s role everything through a Face- tures in its Messenger app seriously,” said Justin Brook-
combine its instant-mes- in e-commerce and pay- book product.” The end for a few years, although man, who was a research
saging services WhatsApp ments. A Facebook spokes- goal could be transform without much effect. And director at the Federal
and Instagram Direct with person later said it was too Facebook into a service WhatsApp, which Face- Trade Commission before
its core Messenger app so early to answer detailed like the Chinese app We- book acquired for $22 bil- joining Consumers Union
that users of one could mes- questions about the com- Chat , which has 1.1 bil- lion in 2014, embraced a as privacy and technology
sage people on the others, pany’s messaging plans. lion users and includes the strong privacy technology chief in 2017.q

SpaceX crew capsule ends test flight with ocean splashdown

By MARCIA DUNN scent live, the dramatic lowing splashdown. All this
AP Aerospace Writer views coming from a plane. is “leading to a day where
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) The crowd went wild once we are launching Ameri-
— SpaceX’s swanky new the capsule splashed down can astronauts on Ameri-
crew capsule returned from and was seen floating up- can rockets from American
the International Space right. soil,” he said.
Station to an old-fashioned “Just amazing. I can’t be- A pair of recovery ships
splashdown in the Atlantic lieve how well the whole was stationed in the Atlan-
on Friday, successfully end- mission has gone” with all tic well before splashdown
ing a test flight that could major milestones met, said and quickly moved in, lift-
lead to astronaut rides later Benji Reed, SpaceX’s direc- ing the capsule from the
this year. tor of crew mission man- water within an hour.
The Dragon capsule un- agement. The capsule is expected at
docked from the orbiting In this image from video made available by NASA, the SpaceX Space station astronauts Port Canaveral on Satur-
lab early Friday. Six hours Crew Dragon capsule is hoisted onto a ship in the Atlantic have been stuck rid- day night. Splashdown will
later, the capsule carrying Ocean off the Florida coast after it returned from a mission to ing Russian rockets since occur much closer to shore
the International Space Station.
a test dummy parachuted NASA’s shuttles retired in once astronauts start flying.
into the ocean, a couple made, the company aims pendence on Russia for 2011. NASA is counting on Astronaut Shane Kim-
hundred miles off the Flori- to fly NASA astronauts Bob space station trips. SpaceX and Boeing to start brough, part of the re-
da coast. Behnken and Doug Hurley SpaceX employees launching astronauts this covery team, said it was
It was the final hurdle for on the next test flight. cheered and applauded year. SpaceX — which has incredible watching the
the six-day demo, a criti- Astronauts have not at company headquarters been delivering station car- splashdown up close.
cal prelude to SpaceX’s launched from Florida for near Los Angeles when the go for years — is shooting The capsule had brown
first flight with astronauts as eight years, and NASA is Dragon’s red and white for summer. scorch marks from top
early as summer. While im- eager to end the drought parachutes popped open. NASA Administrator Jim to bottom, but otherwise
provements still need to be and reduce its costly de- NASA televised the de- Bridenstine was ecstatic fol- looked fine.q