Meta is bringing default end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger for enhanced privacy

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced the beginning of an upgrade to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default for personal conversations on Messenger. The objective of this upgrade is to ensure that personal messages on Messenger can only be accessed by the sender and intended recipients, providing authentication of the sender's identity.

The company stated that the process of introducing E2EE to Messenger “has been a complex process” and that “enabling E2EE on Messenger meant fundamentally rebuilding many aspects of the application in its protocols to improve privacy, security, and safety while simultaneously maintaining the features that have made Messenger so popular”.

In addition to this, Meta has released two white papers to provide further insight into the new security measures. The first, a Messenger end-to-end encryption whitepaper, outlines the core cryptographic protocol for transmitting messages between clients. The second, the Labyrinth encrypted storage protocol whitepaper, provides details on Meta's protocol for end-to-end encrypting stored messages history between devices linked to a user’s account.