Now, as others have pointed out - there is no way, absolutely no way fb is *not* building back doors into their "encrypted" communications. They *have to* see what users are doing. Selling demographic and advertising info is just far too lucrative a deal for them to pass up. They'll have to be careful and subtle about it, but if they continue to get revenue by selling information...well that info has to come from somewhere - it comes from monitoring what users are doing/saying/reading/etc.
EXACTLY.
Facebook's entire premise is fundamentally dishonest, and they're certainly not going to suddenly become honest. They misrepresent who and what they are, what they do and why they do it, and they push a social/political agenda that is full of lies. It's what they do.
I'm not worried about Open Source and Linux. They will do just fine. They exist primarily in a different environment of serious computing.
If Facebook becomes a platform for some sort of "mini-apps", it will be a much bigger threat to Windows, than to Open Source and LInux. Windows is struggling, and has no grip on the mobile market. Windows is subject to Fudd's First Law of Opposition: "If you push something hard enough, it WILL fall over." **
Good Lord. Facebook as the New Windows. What a freakin' horror-show that would be.
** Firesign Theatre
yeah, this article is just a bucket of disconnected tripe with respect to the open source title. From the title I expected to read an essay regarding the trap in FaceBook open source licensing, or how FaceBook is undermining open source projects by keeping forks closed, or some other sensible topic.
The Meta-data probably won’t be encrypted: just the content. One can learn a lot from the meta-data. Need parts of the content for advertisers? Just incorporate it into the meta-data that isn’t encrypted...