Facebook Messenger will protect your chats like WhatsApp does
It is logical that, as two applications from the same company, they share some of the values and functionalities of one another. Or perhaps out of envy, like brothers, they end up copying This is what seems to have happened with Facebook Messenger , the original messaging tool from Facebook, which has decided to start encrypting or protecting your messages and conversations similar to what seen on WhatsAppProtection that would prevent Facebook itself, not to mention hackers and nosy governments, see the messages and contents of your users.
At the moment they have only begun to test this new encryption that, according to its manager, David Marcus , is added to the security layers that Facebook already applied to its messaging tool. Thus, only a small group of users will be able to activate end-to-end encryption or user-to-user, as this protection is known. Of course, the month of September has been set as the deadline to bring it to all mobile users of Android and iOS At the moment the web version and the application for computers are left without this protection.
This is the same technology used in WhatsApp, known as Signal Protocol It is developed by Open Whistper Systems, and in addition to being free it is open source With it, the content of a message is encrypted before leaving the terminal, and is only decrypted on the recipient's mobile with a unique code , exclusive and updated that only these two terminals know, to explain it roughly. This means that, although communication information may be stolen, it will only be decoded in the receiver's terminal by the unique key it possesses. A system that has proven to be the most reliable and secure to date
But Facebook Messenger has not only focused on security, it has also addressed privacy with its latest revision. Thus, the application will also have secret chats Something remarkably reminiscent of the application Telegram, and with which the user can make disappear their messagesTo do this, you just have to configure a time or expiration date after which the message will leave the forum in said chat secret
Now, this security and protection system doesn't quite fit into Facebook Messenger And that is, when you activated from the info screen of an individual chat, many of the application's functions are lost. Key things like bots, payments and other features that need Facebook servers to work. Thus, the evolution of this application collides squarely with the section on privacy and security A good reason for which they have enabled this protocol to be activated and deactivate at will.
Of course, disable secret chats allows the use of all functions of Messenger , but exposing the conversations (with the security of the service).A duality in which each user will decide whether to bet on functionality or security and privacy
