Facebook's free basics or free base-shit?? Based on my technical evaluation of this service
Facebook's free basics is current buzz and getting opposed in India. As a tech expert in network, I really wanted to know if it’s right thing to promote and dig deep into technical part of it. Here are my observation based on all technical documentation from facebook found here.
Facebook’s proxy server - All network-data is routed through facebook servers !?!?
This is a serious privacy concern. Whatever you do on this platform will be known by facebook. All traffic is routed to facebook server using HTTPS and de-crypted on their secured servers before it gets forwarded to websites that integrate with this platform. Facebook can read your emails, userIds, passwords, messages, sites you browse, what you buy, what you read and every minute detail. This is big NO-NO!
Why is facebook taking control of user’s data ? Recording, storing and later using it for ads, selling products or promoting services? Facebook cannot own India’s Internet traffic - period.
Easy for mass surveillance: All users data will be going over to facebook servers. It becomes single point of integration for government to do mass surveillance. Even if you are not doing anything wrong, you are still going to be watched - all time.
No google search: Bing is the only option for search. Users miss out the best search engine that opens up world. As I understand, if facebook free basics only allow the websites that have been integrated, Bing search result will only show results from those websites. People will never ever will be able to search and get relevant content available widely. Instead of moving forward quickly, users may be locked 20 years back behind the world.
No video - No youtube: Video is one of the best learning medium as it breaks the language barrier. Blocking this is killer. Google has been doing great job here by allowing to save videos for later viewing. It’s a great tool that people will miss.
No large Images(>200kb): Facebook will chop off any images larger than 200kb!?!. Again, images/photos are great source of communication and its taking a bit hit here.
No Javascript: Free basics will be available on smartphones and feature phones which may lack javascript. Javascript has been a boon to the Internet and has provided a great user experience. Facebook is prompting websites developers to remove third-party Javascripts and make website work without Javascript. I clearly see that the websites will feel handicapped, on other hand users will have terrible user experience navigating websites.
Facebook’s approval for integration: Every website that needs to be part of free basics needs to submit their details to facebook. Facebook may deny websites on various grounds. Imagine every website in world needs to submit to facebook for approval ? Facebook will be the bottleneck for website developers and for users too. A big NO-NO.
Facebook can easily use free basics to create a false environment around you to believe in and trust that this is what Internet is. Building boundaries around Internet is like locking users in their house or town and believing it as world.
Here are limited set of websites available for free basics user.
No Bank website Integration: Indian government is promoting bank account for every Indian. People would like to transact and see check bank balance. Best medium to do this is using phone, however there is no bank or any secure service available on free basics. With Facebook-proxy service, I hope no bank will step to integrates with free basics and provide insecure access to bank account. Platform is so insecure to build any meaningful functionality use of it.
No other IM apart from facebook messenger: Only facebook messenger available for chat. Zero competition for facebook.
Tight Integration requirements for website developers: To comply with free basics, websites that integrates with facebook has to follow below norms. This limits any website to integrate with free basics easily. Huge set of modifications are required which in turn takes development and testing cycles for companies to provide free service to Indian users - I bet, small and medium level companies will even think of supporting and maintaining their websites for this.
- Javascript limitations - Local and third-party Javascripts has to be removed
- Image format and size restrictions - Max image size of 200kb will be allowed.
- Video restrictions - No videos
- No Flash and Java applet
- IP addresses availability - Websites will not directly see public IP address of users to provide localized content, but will have to use additional HTTP headers to get IP address.
Facebook's free basics is tool for acquiring users, their data and controlling Internet.
Some positive part: Yes people will be able to do lot of basic stuff over it which is great. Wikipedia, online news, know cricket scores, apply jobs, weather and most importantly use Facebook and chat with facebook :)
Single point of failure: With daily news on hacking and exposing users information online, facebook's free basics and its proxy server is prone to single point of failure. Huge amount of users data and accounts will be available at single place for anyone to crack.
No VPN or Tor to get privacy: All network data goes through Facebook's proxy which will block any VPN or Tor Traffic. User will not have any way to be private.
Freemium model: I see facebook free basics as freemium model. Provide free services for users and upgrade them to next level to do more by paying for Internet packages. Additionally, facebook plan to acquire the user in mean while so that they never go away from facebook. A good strategy for facebook, however a very poor option for masses.
Net Neutrality - No way: Looking at all the above technical details, there is no thought given to Net neutrality by facebook. It’s purely facebook centric strategy to gain users and own their data.
Better ways to provide Free basics:
- Limited or controlled bandwidth is better option instead of blocking everything and allowing few. Let Videos buffer, instead of totally blocking them.
- No facebook proxy required. Let people connect to the Internet directly. No integration required for website developers
- No promotion of specific websites to keep competitive advantage fair. Let people decide if they wish to use Bing or Google.
What you could do to stop free basics in India ?
- Do not sign up for free basics on facebook notification. It’s misleading users
- Vote against facebook’s free basics by visiting savetheinternet.in and email the government.
Thank you!