If you’re one of Facebook Messenger’s 1.3 billion users, then you have just been given a serious reason to quit. While recent headlines suggest the platform is adding new security protections, there's a nasty twist which makes this more risky than it seems, raising new questions about Facebook and its secretive backend systems.
While Apple’s controversial CSAM update and surprise backtrack have dominated the headlines, Facebook has quietly made a huge change to Messenger that arguably has more serious implications for your security and privacy than anything Apple has done.
Messenger’s biggest issue has always been its lack of default end-to-end encryption. Now after years of delays and disappointments, Facebook says it is finally teasing out some of this long-awaited functionality. But there are two huge issues buried under the surface here, both of which you need to know if you continue to use the app.
Facebook is in the data collection business—we all know this. But it’s also in the user collection business. Just look at the numbers. Facebook has four apps that have topped 3 billion installs—Facebook itself, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. TikTok is the only other app to hit those heights. Think that through for a moment.
But not all those users are the same. Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram are tightly linked. The main platform and its photo-sharing subsidiary grip you with algorithmic timelines literally coded to learn from their mistakes—when you look up, exit the app, do something else. Meanwhile, Messenger and Instagram DMs enable you to engage your social graph, linking all that catchy content in one place with everyone you know.
