You should stop sending sensitive info through Facebook Messenger

In this digital age, most of us use messenger apps to quickly send a photo or a file to our friends and even to workmates sometimes. There’s a reason you might want to change this habit.

What is end-to-end encryption and why it’s essential?

According to an article on Forbes about cybersecurity, Facebook messenger lacks a significant security feature and that is end-to-end encryption. Even this Facebook executives know that this is essential, they won’t be able to roll it out until 2022.

The concept of encryption is pretty straightforward: It turns data into something that cannot be read. End-to-end encryption is the act of applying encryption to messages on one device such that only the device to which it is sent can decrypt it. The message travels all the way from the sender to the recipient in encrypted form. Basically, it enables private and secure communication for all of us.

Since Facebook Messenger currently does not support end-to-end encryption, it means the app and third parties possibly have an access to all of our messages.

WhatsApp is relatively safer than Facebook Messenger

There’s a report that Facebook engineers are having a hard time implementing this feature since they would have to rebuild the present structure.

They noted that there’s a remarkable difference between WhatsApp and Messenger. WhatsApp lacks support for multiple devices and it does not need to backup messages on a server but Messenger does. That’s why it’s easier for them to add end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp.

Even though Messenger isn’t end-to-end encrypted, it comes with a Secret Conversations feature. You just have to enable this feature if you want to send your contact an encrypted message. To start a secret conversation on Messenger, simply open the app, start a New Message, click Secret, and choose a recipient among your friend list.

For now, it would be better to be on the safe side and do the options above. After all, we must value and protect our privacy all the time by being aware of the risks.

Do you guys agree?