Interview About Facebook's New Privacy Initiatives

Matt talks with CNBC Closing Bell About Mark Zuckerberg’s New Privacy Stance

Interview Transcription

CNBC:
Matt, what is this going to mean in terms of a change for Facebook's business?

Matt Britton:
I think it's going to be an evolution not a revolution. I think it going to be a slow change in features and functionality. I think from a consumer perspective, you're not going to see much right away. Consumers are already using Messenger, they're already using WhatsApp to do one-on-one communications.

CNBC:
The question that many users have is, "Is this secure?" You know, is this information going to somehow become leaked after all the media coverage about the Russian hacking and them sharing data.

Matt Britton:
But, I think, this to me doesn't change the business model in a substantive way for Facebook. They're still going to get a majority of their revenues from advertising. Consumers are still going to spend a lot of their time through the mobile newsfeed. But I think Facebook's really going to ramp up that one-to-one communication versus just the one-to-many that most people know of Facebook as.

CNBC:
But Matt, to that point, what is the change here? This is for individual private messages will no longer be read for advertising and information purposes.

Matt Britton:
Yeah, so-

CNBC:
But a public post will still be.

Matt Britton:
We really don't know exactly what it means but, Facebook does scan your messages to see if you're mentioning Toyota and then all of the sudden, you'll see a message in Toyota. Consumers don't like that because they could be talking about very personal things to another person and they don't want Facebook to be looking at it, even if it is just artificial intelligence looking at it.

Matt Britton:
So what I think Mark Zuckerberg's saying is they were no longer gonna conduct that practice anymore. That they will no longer mine one-to-one communication data for the purposes of mining consumer and segmentation data for advertisers.

Matt Britton:
But Gen Z, you talk to a young kid age 11, 12, 13 years-old, they're all over Snapchat. And that is the next generation, and Snapchat originally gained popularity due to their ephemeral messaging. Due to the fact that people could share information and know it's not gonna stick with them forever.

Matt Britton:
Facebook tried to catch up with Instagram stories and other platforms, but this is them really going even further in that direction while maintaining their stronghold on more traditional social media networking.

CNBC:
The big question I'm trying to figure out is, can they redefine the way people use social media or are they going to open up a space for a competitor?

Matt Britton:
See, I don't think one-to-one messaging is social media. I think this is replacing text messaging. So you look at iMessage, I'm texting you it's a one-on-one piece of communication just like if I'm using Facebook Messenger or if I'm using WhatsApp. It's just another tentacle to their business.

Matt Britton:
Social networking is a one-to-many communication, which is still going to stay prominent. That's why I don't think it's going to have a substantive impact to Facebook's business.