Facebook has been taking the privacy of its users quite seriously for some time now in an attempt to re-establish itself as a highly trustworthy social media platform. One thing that Facebook has done that has really made a lot of waves when it comes to improving the security that users are able to enjoy while they are exchanging messages on any of the platforms that Facebook owns is that the company has tried to provide end-to-end encryption for all users.
You have probably seen messages about end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp already. Facebook is trying to introduce it to all of its properties to ensure that all of the messages exchanged on their platforms can be made secure in this manner. What end-to-end encryption basically is involves making it so that messages exchanged between two users only exist on the specific devices that these users are trying to utilize. What this means is that if you access your WhatsApp from a different device you might not have your old messages on there (unless you back them up) which is something that makes it quite difficult for anyone to hack into your device and read any messages that you might have been sending.
While many have lauded Facebook’s attempts to provide this level of encryption to all of its users, government officials from countries such as Australia, the US and the UK have criticized these developments and have called on Facebook to stop encrypting messages in this manner. The justification that they are giving for these requests is that encryption of this magnitude makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to track down bad actors that are trying to break the law. While this does seem like a valid concern, many are criticizing these governments for making these requests stating that this is a sign that governments are overreaching and trying to infringe on the civil rights of internet users.
Photo: AP
Read next: Facebook is Looking to Exclude Opinion and Satire from its Fact-Checking Program!
You have probably seen messages about end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp already. Facebook is trying to introduce it to all of its properties to ensure that all of the messages exchanged on their platforms can be made secure in this manner. What end-to-end encryption basically is involves making it so that messages exchanged between two users only exist on the specific devices that these users are trying to utilize. What this means is that if you access your WhatsApp from a different device you might not have your old messages on there (unless you back them up) which is something that makes it quite difficult for anyone to hack into your device and read any messages that you might have been sending.
While many have lauded Facebook’s attempts to provide this level of encryption to all of its users, government officials from countries such as Australia, the US and the UK have criticized these developments and have called on Facebook to stop encrypting messages in this manner. The justification that they are giving for these requests is that encryption of this magnitude makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to track down bad actors that are trying to break the law. While this does seem like a valid concern, many are criticizing these governments for making these requests stating that this is a sign that governments are overreaching and trying to infringe on the civil rights of internet users.
Photo: AP
Read next: Facebook is Looking to Exclude Opinion and Satire from its Fact-Checking Program!
