Facebook is expected to provide more details on its plans to increase privacy and encryption when its annual developer conference begins on Tuesday night.
The social networking giant has been at the centre of a number of data privacy scandals, including the Cambridge Analytica breach discovered last year.
Earlier this year, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he believed the “future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services”, and outlined plans to enable users to send secure messages between any of the firm’s apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram as well as Facebook and Messenger.
At the company’s annual F8 developer conference in California, Mr Zuckerberg is expected to be among the speakers outlining how the social network could implement such a service, and address fears about the idea – including suggestions that Facebook could use the connecting information to link identities across different platforms.
Facebook services currently use very little encryption by default – only WhatsApp secures messages automatically – but increasing security is part of the company’s plans to keep users on its platforms for longer.
The social network has more than 2.3 billion monthly active users.
The two-day conference is also likely to see announcements about new features across Facebook’s services, with news from Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp expected.
News around virtual reality platform Oculus could be among the announcements as well.
The social media giant may also use the event to discuss how it is increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor its platform for malicious content.
A recently published white paper by the UK Government around online harms called for the introduction of an independent regulator to oversee the enforcement of a duty of care on internet companies, as legislators look to crack down on the power and influence of social media.
Facebook has pledged to work with governments on increasing the regulation of the technology sector, and Mr Zuckerberg may choose to touch on the subject during his keynote speech.
