Messenger Policy Workshop: Future of Private Messaging

• Privacy expectations are important.People want to know how their data is being used and what data is accessible by us or others when messaging. In addition, people may have different privacy expectations based on the size or nature of a group chat or audience. Ultimately, privacy is personal and comes with different expectations depending on their situation. So transparency and controls are key.
• Marginalized and vulnerable communities rely on private spaces as outlets for support and assistance. People need to trust that private spaces are secure from unwanted intrusion when they need to reach out and share sensitive, personal information. For many, a private space is a safe space. That should be a critical component for our broader strategy.
• Consumers want more privacy and safety controls. We should consider ways to give people more privacy settings and features within our messaging apps. This also requires thoughtful product design and user education to make the features easy to find and easy to use. For example, while we'veintroduced a number of toolsin response to harassment and bullying, more can be done to find ways to highlight tools to people at the times they need them most, such as when they are experiencing abuse.
• People want messaging that's free from unwanted intrusions. The ability to find and message other people on our platforms is an important part of helping people stay connected, but people also want controls to manage unwanted interactions. We already filter messages into request folders and we take steps to restrict adult-to-minor messaging on Messenger and Instagram. Last year, weintroduced safety features like blocking images or links in message requests and messaging settings. This will give people more control over who can message them and who can't. We continue to explore other ways to help protect people.
  
• People want more protection from scams and hacking. While we've taken steps to address this ongoing challenge throughnew tools and user educationon Facebook and Messenger, experts encouraged us to continue our efforts and do more to combat scams and protect people's information.
• Human rights concerns should be a priority. Human rights were a consistent theme across most of the issues we discussed in the workshop. In particular, stakeholders focused on the important role our products play in helping people to freely connect with others while also recognizing some of the tensions this creates with people's right to privacy from unwanted intrusion. They urged us to continue considering the human rights impact of our products.
• We need to find a balance of safety, privacy, and security. There is a clear need to balance the privacy and security of people's messages with maintaining a safe environment and providing data to law enforcement in response to potential real world harms. We discussed tools that can protect people's privacy while also preventing harm from happening in the first place, using behavioural signals, traffic data or user reports rather than access to the content of all messages. There was no consensus on a recommended approach, but experts encouraged more consultation to help strike an appropriate balance.