At Harvard Law, Zittrain and Zuckerberg discuss encryption, ‘information fiduciaries’ and targeted advertisements | Harvard Law Today

Also see this Facebook Newsroom post for the interview video (and full transcript) and Mark Zuckerberg is ‘potentially interested’ in putting Facebook login on the blockchain | The Verge; tangentially, see Google failed to notify customers it put microphones in Nest security systems | Washington Post

"The conversation segued into another topic area involving competing sets of interests: the use of end-to-end message encryption to make private communications inaccessible to eavesdroppers. End-to-end encryption has come under criticism for making it difficult in some cases for law enforcement agents (with the proper warrants) to access evidence locked up on devices. Zittrain raised the possibility that governments not embracing the rule of law might use their legal and technical capabilities to peek into unencrypted private communications at will. “The modern surveillance states of note in the world have a lot of arrows in their quivers… they’ve got a plan B, a plan C, and a plan D,” he said.

Zuckerberg said he is inclined to implement more end-to-end encryption. “I basically think that if you want to talk in metaphors, messaging is like people’s living room, and we definitely don’t want a society where there’s a camera in everyone’s living room,” he said.

Zittrain pointed out that people are happily installing Facebook’s own smart camera–the Portal–in their living rooms. Zuckerberg laughed. “That is I guess… yeah. Though that would be encrypted.”"

At Harvard Law, Zittrain and Zuckerberg discuss encryption, ‘information fiduciaries’ and targeted advertisements | Harvard Law Today