Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for personal messages and calls on Messenger and Facebook, finally delivering on a pledge it committed to some time ago.

Messenger encryption originally arrived in 2016 in the form of "secret conversations," and plans to extend the platform's cryptographic features have been floated ever since.

According to Loredana Crisan, Head of Messenger, Meta is only now turning on end-to-end encryption for all messages and calls between two people after years spent "rebuilding Messenger features from the ground up."

Since 2016, Messenger has had the option for people to turn on end-to-end encryption, but we're now changing private chats and calls across Messenger to be end-to-end encrypted by default. This has taken years to deliver because we've taken our time to get this right. Our engineers, cryptographers, designers, policy experts and product managers have worked tirelessly to rebuild Messenger features from the ground up. We've introduced new privacy, safety and control features along the way like delivery controls that let people choose who can message them, as well as app lock, alongside existing safety features like report, block and message requests. We worked closely with outside experts, academics, advocates and governments to identify risks and build mitigations to ensure that privacy and safety go hand-in-hand.

The extra layer of security provided by end-to-end encryption means that the content of messages and calls are protected from the moment they leave the sender's device to the moment they reach the receiver's device. In other words, nobody, including Meta, can see what is sent or said, unless the message is reported.

End-to-end encrypted conversations also offer additional functionality including the ability to edit messages, higher media quality, and disappearing messages.

Meta notes that end-to-end encryption won't prevent users from using features like themes and custom reactions, but "it may take some time for Messenger chats to be updated with default end-to-end encryption."

As things stand, end-to-end encryption for group Messenger chats remains opt-in, and Meta previously said that Instagram messages will be encrypted "shortly after" the rollout of default encryption for Messenger chats.

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Facebook Messenger Rolls Out End-to-End Encryption by Default - MacRumors

In a groundbreaking move, Meta is set to enhance the privacy of its Messenger app, mirroring the security features of its sibling, WhatsApp. This major update will see personal calls and chats on Messenger encrypted by default, a significant stride in safeguarding user communications. Dive into the evolution of Metas encryption strategy and the implications for user privacy.

Meta takes a giant leap in the realm of privacy as Messenger gears up to fortify its security, echoing the protective shield of WhatsApp. Uncover the layers of encryption shaping the digital conversations of millions, revolutionizing the way we connect in the digital age.

Meta announced a paradigm shift by default encrypting personal calls and messages on Messenger. This transformative update aligns the service more closely with WhatsApp, offering users enhanced security and control over their digital conversations. The move represents a significant stride towards ensuring user privacy and confidentiality.

The implementation of default end-to-end encryption is backed by strategic cryptographic principles, including in-house developments and inspiration from the secure Signal messaging app. This multi-faceted approach reflects Metas commitment to adopting the latest and most robust encryption technologies for the benefit of its users.

Loredana Crisan, the head of Messenger, underscores the groundbreaking nature of this update, emphasizing that the encryption ensures utmost privacy. With nobody, including Meta, having access to the encrypted content, users are empowered to communicate with confidence, knowing their messages remain secure.

Step into the digital living room of the future as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expresses his vision for private, encrypted services. The journey from past data-privacy challenges to this momentous encryption update unveils a commitment to user security and a more confidential online experience.

Metas encryption push sparks a broader conversation around user privacy, law enforcement investigations, and the challenges posed by encrypted services. As the company bolsters security, speculation arises regarding the potential impact on law enforcement efforts and the ongoing debate on balancing privacy with the need for online safety.

Mark Zuckerbergs vision for a more private, encrypted online space takes a significant step forward with Metas latest encryption update on Messenger. The companys commitment to user security and confidentiality underscores a transformative shift towards a more protected digital landscape.

Photo byImage from Creative Commons Canstock, Pexel, made on Canva!

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Breaking News: Messenger Boosts Privacy Metas Bold Move Towards WhatsApp-Like Encryption | by J. A. Jackson ... - Medium

End-to-end encryption is the main feature of Protons software. The Swiss software developer started with Proton Mail a few years ago, and now operates a variety of useful apps that you can bundle together or use separately, depending on your needs. Proton Drive is one of them, offering a great cloud alternative to Google Drive, iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, and others.

Every Proton account gets free Proton Drive storage, though youll want to go premium if you need significantly more space for your documents and photos.

Were most likely to back up photos and videos on our phones. Thats where the new Proton Drive feature comes in handy. Youll be able to automatically back up your photos to the cloud, starting with Android. The iPhone app will get a similar feature down the road.

You might be already backing up photos to the cloud with Google Photos or Apples iCloud. As the recent Google Drive data issues have proven, you can never be too careful when it comes to storing your stuff in the cloud. It might be a good idea to keep separate cloud and physical backups of key information in your life, including photos and videos.

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Thats where the new Proton Drive photo backup feature will help, with an added benefit. It comes with end-to-end encryption, which means nobody gets to see your photos or metadata associated with them. Think location information and file names associated with your images:

Photos are in many ways even more sensitive than other kinds of information. They hold emotional value, but they also quietly contain troves of vital data, from your biometrics to your precise location. You may also take pictures of sensitive documents, like your passport, Social Security card, driving license, or tax returns.

The Android app will let you quickly enable photo backup. All you need to do is give Proton Drive access to the photos stored on your Android device. After that, syncing will begin, and youll be able to access your photos on any device.

A similar feature is in beta for Proton Drive for iOS and should be available to iPhone and iPad users in the future.

Proton further explained in a blog post on Thursday that once you back your photos and videos to the cloud, youll be able to easily view and browse though your collection.

The files will be organized in chronological order for easy navigation. As expected, you can manage your photo library in the cloud, which means you can download and/or delete files. Marking files as available offline means youll get access to them even when theres no internet connection.

Aside from the iPhone app, Proton also plans to add other photo-related features to backups. The company is working on support for albums and automatic categorization based on photo types. Unspecified smarter features are also coming to a future version of Proton Drive, which will use on-device machine learning. This likely refers to editing photos in the cloud.

You can test Proton Drive by getting started at this link. You get up to 1GB of free storage, with premium plans starting at $3.99 per month for 200GB of storage. Bundles that include other Proton services might be an even better idea.

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Proton Drive brings end-to-end encrypted photo backups to Android - BGR

Seven years after Meta (known as Facebook at the time) began working on it, end-to-end encryption is finally being made default across the companys messaging platforms.

Loredana Crisan, the Head of Messenger, announced in a blog post that all chats and calls on Facebook and Messenger will now be end-to-end encrypted by default.

The feature is also being rolled out to Instagram chat, thus securing two major communication platforms. However, Metas journey to implement default end-to-end encryption was fraught with challenges, including pressure from law enforcement authorities.

It was in 2016 that Facebook (now Meta) started to work on deploying end-to-end encryption across its several communication apps. In the same year, the company finished rolling out end-to-end encryption as a default feature on WhatsApp. However, the rest of the companys suite of communication apps had to wait.

Encrypted messaging had already been introduced in Messenger in 2016, but only on an opt-in basis.

In 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out a plan to bolster privacy protection on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram in the face of growing scrutiny of Facebooks data practices. Zuckerberg promised that the company would launch default end-to-end encryption features on all its messaging apps.

Instagram started to test opt-in end-to-end message encryption in 2021. Despite the tech giant doubling down on privacy and security technologies in 2019, the path was a long and slow one.

As Meta finally announced the rollout of end-to-end encryption as a default feature on Wednesday, the company shed some light on the difficulties it faced along the way.

For Messenger to default to end-to-end encrypted messaging, the platform had to be reworked at a massive scale. Calling it the biggest upgrade Messenger has received since its launch in 2011, Loredana Crisan highlighted that the apps features had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Jon Millican, a software engineer from the privacy team that worked on Messenger, pointed out that the change was about more than just migrating the users data.

Were having to fundamentally change a bunch of the assumptions that they work with when theyre using the product.Jon Millican

Besides the technical challenges, Meta also encountered opposition over the implementation of the security feature. Victim advocacy groups and law enforcement authorities claimed that end-to-end encryption would hinder crucial police investigations by restricting necessary oversight.

However, the company remained set on its goal to ensure privacy protection on its communication platforms and has delivered on its promise despite the challenges.

Despite the growing importance and demand for privacy protection features on messaging apps, Metas move to introduce encrypted messaging by default on Messenger and Instagram has become a topic of debate.

On one hand, its crucial to the safety of minorities, journalists, human rights workers, and political dissidents. By rendering messages unintelligible except for the sender and recipients devices, the feature helps protect such groups from authoritarian governments.

On the other hand, law enforcement authorities have historically opposed Metas growing focus on privacy protection technologies. In 2019, the tech giant clashed directly with the Department of Justice (DoJ) when William Barr, the Attorney General at the time, called on Meta to delay the efforts.

Encrypted messaging can help dangerous criminals to cloak their communications and activities behind an essentially impenetrable digital shield, Barr later argued during a speech in July this year.

Law enforcement agencies insist that tech companies should only allow authorized officials to use encrypted messaging. However, according to security experts, criminals would always find a way to use a technology released exclusively for certain authorized users.

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Meta Finally Makes Encrypted Messaging Default for Facebook, Messenger and Instagram Chat - The Tech Report

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Meta will start automatically encrypting Facebook and Messenger chats, it has said.

The new end-to-end encryption ensures that messages are scrambled as they are delivered, so that they cannot be read by anyone else, including the company itself.

Security experts and companies including Meta and Apple have argued that the technology is key to ensuring that communications on the internet remain safe. But it has attracted criticism from governments and law enforcement.

The new features will be available immediately but the company said it would take some time for end-to-end encryption to be rolled out to the more than one billion users on the platform.

Users will receive a prompt to set up a recovery method to restore their messages once the transition is completed.

However critics, including UK police and the Government, have claimed the rollout will make it harder to detect child sexual abuse on the platform, andHome Secretary James Cleverly said he was incredibly disappointed Meta has not listened.

Loredana Crisan, head of Messenger, wrote in a post announcing the change: The extra layer of security provided by end-to-end encryption means that the content of your messages and calls with friends and family are protected from the moment they leave your device to the moment they reach the receivers device.

This means that nobody, including Meta, can see whats sent or said, unless you choose to report a message to us.

She added: This is the biggest set of improvements to Messenger since it was first launched in 2011.

Im proud of what Messenger has become: a fast and reliable service, with enjoyable features and strong safety tools, and now with the added privacy and security of end-to-end encryption.

Apps including iMessage, Signal and WhatsApp all already protect the privacy of messages with E2EE.

Mr Cleverly said: This Government supports strong encryption, but this cannot come at the cost of public security, especially the safety of our children.

Law enforcement, charities and our close international partners all agree: these plans to roll out end-to-end encryption without appropriate safety measures will empower child sex abusers and hamper the ability of the police and National Crime Agency to bring offenders to justice.

I am incredibly disappointed Meta has not listened especially when we have worked together to make great progress in tackling other online harms, including signing our Online Fraud Charter.

We have been clear that there is no contradiction between child safety and privacy, this need not be an either/or. We know that end-to-end encryption can be implemented responsibly in a way that is consistent with public safety.

Well continue to work closely with Meta to keep children safe online, but we must be honest that in our view, this is a significant step back.

Simon Bailey, a former police chief constable who was national lead for child protection at the National Police Chiefs Council, accused Meta of a complete loss of social and moral responsibility over the plans.

John Carr, who is secretary of a coalition of UK childrens charities to deal with internet safety, called the move utterly unconscionable.

Their comments came after head of the National Crime Agency Graeme Biggar said introducing end-to-end encryption on Facebook would be like consciously turning a blind eye to child abuse.

Then home secretary Suella Braverman alleged that Facebook Messenger and Instagram direct messages were the platforms of choice for online paedophiles, telling the BBC that we are arresting in this country about 800 perpetrators a month, we are safeguarding about 1,200 children a month from this evil crime.

Meta said it had worked with outside experts, academics, advocates and governments to identify risks to ensure that privacy and safety go hand-in-hand.

It said: When E2EE is default, we will also use a variety of tools, including artificial intelligence, subject to applicable law, to proactively detect accounts engaged in malicious patterns of behaviour instead of scanning private messages.

The firm also announced that it would add a number of new features, including the ability to edit messages for up to 15 minutes after they have been sent.

It will also give users the ability to control if people who send messages receive read receipts telling them a message has been read.

NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said: By starting to roll out end-to-end encryption on their services, Meta are choosing to turn a blind eye to crimes against children we know to be proliferating on their platforms. Where is their duty of care to children in taking this step?

Without telling us how they will spot such activity in future, we can only conclude they are happy to allow groomers to exploit young people at will on their services, instead of enabling abusers to be spotted and punished. This flies in the face of the priority the public attaches to basic child safety online.

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, said: We are outraged Meta has chosen to prioritise the privacy of paedophiles over the safety of our children. We strongly urge other platforms not to follow this dreadful example.

This catastrophic decision to encrypt messaging services, without demonstrating how protection for children wont be weakened, will lead to at least 21 million reports of child sexual abuse going undetected. Meta is effectively rolling out the welcome mat for paedophiles.

It is now up to Ofcom to show its teeth and demonstrate it is serious about protecting the privacy and safety of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Additional reporting by agencies

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Meta starts adding controversial encryption to Facebook and Messenger chats - The Independent