After another serious warning, it's time for 1.3 billion Facebook Messenger users to switch...
“The lessons of the past five years make it absolutely clear that technology companies and governments must prioritize private and secure communication,” Cathcart says. He’s right, of course, but it doesn’t have to be one size fits all. And whether that means not encrypting platforms like Messenger, or allowing backdoors or restricting encryption to adult accounts, options should be explored.
And this brings me to the real crux of the issue here. The serious danger for Facebook is that if it pushes forwards with expanding WhatsApp’s security to include Messenger, and if lawmakers insist that any such expansion comes with compromises, then there is a real risk that WhatsApp’s own security will be weakened.
Conversely, of course, Facebook seemingly takes the view that fully integrating its platforms is the best way to keep them under the same roof. Whether or not that changes in light of its recentFacebook should accept limitations on any messaging encryption expansion as a trade-off to protect WhatsApp. Messenger users reading this should switch their personal chats to WhatsApp and leave Messenger for trivial comms and kids.
It makes sense for Facebook to integrate its messengers. Between them, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram serve half the world’s online population. And while privacy enhancements are always welcome, please don’t forget the profit motive in any such move. Messengers are sticky, they generate invaluable metadata, and they increasingly bring businesses and customers together. Combining three already giant platforms into the world’s messaging behemoth is not being done to protect our privacy.
Encrypting Facebook Messenger is an answer to a problem that doesn’t need to exist. Facebook can choose to better control its own data harvesting and monitoring, and it can continue to work with law enforcement to flag bad behaviors on its platform.stick to encrypted messaging platforms. That means switching where you might be using Facebook Messenger or Telegram or SMS.
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