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Against that backdrop it is not likely to accelerate its plans for Messenger, provoking more of a lawmaker backlash, especially when its ownership and integration of WhatsApp-the driver behind encrypting Messenger-is potentially at risk.Įarlier this year, before the latest legal escalation, Facebook told me that it remains “very committed to making Messenger end-to-end encrypted by default,” and that any delay “is consistent with what we’ve said since the launch-that it’s going to take time and we’re committed to doing this right.” But a lot has happened since then. Facebook has become the biggest defender of such security, somewhat ironically. government and key allies, which argue that it provides a hiding place for serious criminals, sex offenders and terrorists. įacebook knows that expanding end-to-end encryption has become a major provocation to the U.S. But you can fix these by changing some of the settings. And, yes, there are weakness is how WhatsApp is set-up be default. Yes, Facebook’s moves to commercialize the app are irritating, but they don’t compromise its fundamental security. Messenger and Instagram have now been integrated, to an extent, but WhatsApp is different. The idea being that all Facebook’s messaging technologies would become interoperable, expanding the user base and, clearly, the opportunities to mine all that metadata and monetize all those eyeballs. When Facebook first announced that Messenger would become end-to-end encrypted by default, it was part of that plan to integrate the back-end platforms underpinning Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
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But any such update was already delayed, with no launch date in site, and that just got much worse. End-to-end encryption would stop those behaviors dead in their tracks. Facebook has said that “privacy is at the heart of Messenger,” but it has also admitted to “ spying ” on user content to enforce its rules and even downloading private files.