The company is recruiting AI researchers to study how to analyze the content of encrypted data without having to decrypt it. This area of research is called "homomorphic encryption" and Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are also working on the same approach. The goal is to allow companies to analyze encrypted data while preserving privacy to protect from cybersecurity threats and to maintain privacy. Protecting data without impacting the effectiveness of ad targeting could allow Facebook to both meet its business goals and satisfy regulators who have expressed concern about how the company handles user information. Link
