Encryption: How can we solve for both safety and privacy in communities?

​We’ve talked a lot at Sphere about both freedom of speech and safety in communities. One of the key areas this debate focuses on is in the level of privacy we have in the communication platforms we use like Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram.

​Many of these tech companies have leveraged encryption to win the favour of consumers who value privacy highly in the past decade or so. We’ve also seen numerous data leaks, which additionally fuel our deep human desire to make sure that certain things we share with others are private and safe.

​But over time, we’ve also seen the dangers of completely private communications emerge and gain more press attention, resulting in increasing public pressure for the tech giants to take on more accountability for what is discussed on their platforms - even in so-called “private” conversations.

​Recently, Facebook and WhatsApp announced they would dial back on their encryption, meaning conversations that couldn’t be read by those platforms previously could now be viewed, monitored and taken action on if needed. As a result, there was a huge surge in new users for platforms like Telegram and Signal that still maintain a strong position on being encrypted.

​What do we think are the challenges here? Clearly there are privacy needs we all have, as well as broader safety needs within communities. How we can solve for both?

​How do we think this landscape is going to evolve in terms of consumer attitudes, tech platform features, and broader tech and government regulation around this?

​As always, join us for a safe, productive and hopefully fun discussion around these issues. All are welcome and our product manager Charlie (who is leading on our product thinking around this topic) will be co-hosting with me.