Facebook has recently announced to be making end-to-end encryption (E2EE) the default across all of its messaging services.

Facebook released a plan outlining the steps to improve the security of its messaging apps following the rise in private messaging due to the pandemic. With the increase in messaging, more people felt concerned about their privacy and how their data is used and thus, turning towards privacy-focused messaging platforms like Signal and Telegram.

Facebook’s CEO declared to be working on improving Facebook’s reputation as a privacy-focused social media platform since 2019. Since then, Facebook has introduced a few privacy and safety tools, including additional privacy settings, messaging forwarding limits, an app lock, and Snapchat-style disappearing messages.

Yet, end-to-end encryption still remains a work in progress, as the project won’t be completely finished until 2022 at the earliest.

There is a clear need for Facebook to balance the privacy and security of users’ messages all the while maintaining the safety of the platform, and ensuring that law enforcement can access data when needed.