Facebook Messenger: End-to-end encryption will be the default soon

By the end of the year, end-to-end encryption will be switched on by default in Facebook Messenger, Meta says. That means Meta’s servers won’t be able to read your communications — only the sender and receiver can read end-to-end encrypted messages in plain text. Users have already been able to encrypt their chats via a setting in Messenger, but soon it will become standard for everyone.

Services like Meta-owned Whatsapp, Signal, and several other competitors already offer this type of encryption. Meta has been building and testing the feature for Messenger for a number of years and says that the transition has required major changes to its technical infrastructure.

The introduction of end-to-end encryption for all is an important measure, though it remains to be seen how it will play out with the EU’s controversial Chat Control proposal lingering overhead. This would allow all digital communication in the EU to be monitored, including those that are fully encrypted. How and when this might be realized remains to be seen, however.

This article was translated from Swedish to English and originally appeared on pcforalla.se.