Facebook Develops Ways To Target Chat Based Ads On WhatsApp

Facebook to target ads based on encrypted messages on the messaging service WhatsApp. (photo: unsplash)

JAKARTA - Facebook is gathering a team of artificial intelligence researchers, including recruiting experts from Microsoft, to learn how to analyze encrypted data without decrypting it.

This research could allow Facebook to target ads based on encrypted messages on its WhatsApp messaging service, or to encrypt the data it collects from billions of users without breaking its ad-targeting capabilities.

The Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media is one of several tech giants including cloud computing providers Microsoft, Amazon and Google, which are now researching a new field, known as homomorphic encryption.

According to the researchers, this technology will allow companies to analyze personal information, including medical records and financial data, while keeping the information encrypted and protected from cybersecurity threats or, in the case of Facebook, leaked to advertisers or other parties.

However, Facebook could still be years away from taking advantage of homomorphic encryption and explained in detail, "It's too early for us to consider homomorphic encryption for WhatsApp at this time," Facebook said as reported by The Information via Slashgear, Wednesday, August 4.

Of course, Facebook could benefit from the technology in a number of ways. Protecting data without affecting the effectiveness of ad targeting could enable Facebook to meet its business objectives and satisfy regulators who have expressed concerns about the way the company handles user information.

The idea of homomorphic encryption is not new, it was first introduced in 1978, and the demo was launched in 2009. One of the challenges is the computational load involved, which is significantly higher than when working with unencrypted data.