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Internet.org Traffic to be Unencrypted; Privacy and Security Take Backseat

Internet.org Traffic to be Unencrypted; Privacy and Security Take Backseat 4w5728

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 5 May 2015 17:22 IST

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New information has come to light about Facebook's Internet.org initiative following the company's announcement of an open platform for Web develpers. Internet.org, which gives s the ability to use specific approved Web services without incurring cellular data charges, will impose a number of restrictions on what exactly developers will be allowed to do, and Facebook will retain the power to approve and reject services. Most notably, SSL/TLS/HTTPS encryption, which is the backbone of Internet security, is explicitly disallowed at present.

Internet.org functions by ing all traffic through a proxy service, which the company says allows it to "create a standard traffic flow so that operators can properly identify and zero rate" traffic. HTTPS traffic cannot be detected and routed this way. This means unencrypted traffic will through Facebook-controlled servers, raising potential privacy and security concerns.

As first spotted by Medianama, the and conditions listed by Facebook for developers who want to participate in the platform specify that traffic will be subject to Facebook's data retention policies. The and conditions that s and developers must agree to also allow the company to analyse usage and even share that information with mobile operators. The Verge points out that banking, private messaging and other applications that depend on encryption would have to steer clear of Internet.org.

Additionally, anything that pushes bandwidth requirements, including video and able files, will be rejected. Photos must be low-resolution and not larger than 1MB. JavaScript, Flash and Java applets, iframes and certain file types are also disallowed.

Facebook's Net neutrality concerns remain, as developers and content providers would be forced to sign on in order not to lose customers. Medianama also raises the issue of Facebook becoming more powerful as the source of all content that s see, since there will effectively be a penalty in moving from the Internet.org ecosystem to the open Web.

In February this year, Facebook announced denied that Internet.org is a threat to net neutrality.

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Further reading: Net neutrality