Video and voice calls on Facebook Messenger are becoming just a tiny bit more secure now that Facebook has announced it’ll be releasing the option of having end-to-end encryption, according to TechRadar.
First, let’s back up and go over what end-to-end encryption is, because the term is thrown around a lot but nobody ever seems to explain it (probably because they don’t know either). As TechRadar describes it, this encryption “works a little bit like a lock and a set of keys: only you and the person you’re chatting to have the right key to unscramble the communications and see what’s being said. If someone else intercepts the messages or calls, they won’t be able to interpret them.”
This means that nobody, not even Facebook or its employees or a government agency, can see what you’re saying in the conversation since they don’t have the right keys. A variety of apps and platforms already offer this encryption, including regular Facebook Messenger chat messages, WhatsApp, Signal, and Google Messages on Android.
Personally, I trust Facebook and their sister companies about as far as I can throw Mark Zuckerberg’s human skinsuit, but it’s nice to hear that this is how it’ll work in theory. In general, you should definitely look for this feature in any app where you plan on talking about or storing sensitive information.