WhatsApp made the news a few months back when it switched on end-to-end encryption, securing the messages, emojis and selfies of more than a billion people who used the messaging platform. The encryption resulted in messages only being able to be deciphered by the intended recipients with even WhatsApp unable to read said messages. However, with WhatsApp being owned by Facebook speculations rose whether the also popular Facebook Messenger would receive a security treatment. On Friday, Open Whisper Systems, the group behind the Signal Protocol that was used in WhatsApps end-to-end encryption, announced that Facebook Messenger has begun implementing end-to-end encryption.
However, unlike Whatsapp, Messenger’s version of end-to-end encryption is slightly different. Rather than encrypting all messages, a feature was introduced in the app for a select few individuals. Called “Secret Conversations”, the feature will be end-to-end encrypted with messages only being able to be read on one device of the person you’re communicating with. That means the messages are intended just for you and the other person — not anyone else, including Facebook. However the key term here is one device. If you initiate a secret conversation between the phones of two people, that conversation will not be carried over to the desktop version of Facebook Messenger. Furthermore, in Secret Conversations there is currently no support for rich content like GIFs, videos, making payments, or other popular Messenger features.
On the other hand, one interesting feature of Secret Conversations is the ability to set a timer to control how long the message remains visible for in the conversation before being permanently deleted.
While Secret Conversations is only available on a limited testing basis currently, the option to opt-in will be more widely available later in the Summer, ensuring you can quickly and secretly message your friends about the best place to capture a legendary Pokémon; just make sure you’re not using a malicious version of Pokémon Go.
Source: Facebook
