Despite opposition from many governments, Meta began end-to-end encrypting “all personal conversations and calls on Messenger and Facebook,” as well as on WhatsApp, to make them more private.
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This type of encryption will make private exchanges via messaging and the platform “even more confidential and secure,” the social media giant argued in a press release on Wednesday.
“This means that no one, including Meta, can see what is being sent or said unless you choose to report a message to us,” the American group explained.
Messenger users were already able to choose this option, but it is now the default, as is the case with WhatsApp, the messaging service that the Californian company bought in 2014.
The update also includes additional features, including the ability to edit messages and higher quality images (photos and videos).
This deployment, which has been announced for years, comes as various authorities reject end-to-end encryption of meta-applications.
They want their country’s judiciary to be able to restore the emails, instant messages and photos exchanged, which are essential in criminal investigations.
In September, the British government asked the Californian company not to take action without “robust” safeguards in place to protect children from sexual exploitation.
The Home Office fears this will prevent police from detecting violence against children, as they currently do, particularly through news reports.
The company asserted that our industry-leading work will continue to make more reports to law enforcement than our competitors.
On Wednesday, the US state of New Mexico filed a complaint against Meta, accusing its platforms of promoting child crime, from child pornography to recommendation algorithms and criminal solicitation.
Conversely, at the end of November, the French government asked ministerial offices to replace traditional messaging services such as WhatsApp or its competitor Signal with Olvid, an application unknown to the general public that it considers to be more secure.
Developed in 2019 by French cybersecurity experts, Olvid not only encrypts messages end-to-end, but also metadata (who is talking to whom, when).
“We developed our end-to-end encryption based on solid cryptographic principles such as the Signal protocol and our own protocol Labyrinth,” emphasized Meta on Wednesday.
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Originally posted 2023-12-07 20:26:29.