{"id":1959,"date":"2021-11-29T16:18:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T15:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/29\/bad-news-confirmed-for-1-3-billion-facebook-messenger-users-forbes\/"},"modified":"2021-11-29T16:18:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T15:18:17","slug":"bad-news-confirmed-for-1-3-billion-facebook-messenger-users-forbes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/29\/bad-news-confirmed-for-1-3-billion-facebook-messenger-users-forbes\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad News Confirmed For 1.3 Billion Facebook Messenger Users &#8211; Forbes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>If you\u2019re one of Facebook Messenger\u2019s 1.3 billion users, you have just been given some seriously bad news. Meta has suddenly confirmed delays to critical security updates, and there are more serious problems that should concern you even more.<br \/>New warning for 1.3 billion Facebook Messenger users.<br \/>Facebook is the world\u2019s messaging giant. WhatsApp and Messenger are the two most popular cross-platform services, with 2 billion and 1.3 billion users, and there\u2019s also Instagram DMs added into the mix. While WhatsApp default encrypts all messages, the other two platforms do not. Facebook announced a grand plan to fix this in 2019, shifting to a fully encrypted, integrated back-end, but those plans are not going well.<br \/>The intent is that Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs will come under the same level of default end-to-end encryption that now protects WhatsApp. We already knew the rollout had been pushed to 2022. Now we\u2019ve been told it will slip another year. <br \/>\u201cWe\u2019re taking our time to get this right,\u201d Meta\u2019s Global Head of Safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2021\/11\/20\/people-shouldnt-have-choose-privacy-safety-says-facebook-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2021\/11\/20\/people-shouldnt-have-choose-privacy-safety-says-facebook-safety\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2021\/11\/20\/people-shouldnt-have-choose-privacy-safety-says-facebook-safety\/\" aria-label=\"confirmed\">confirmed<\/a> last week. \u201cWe don\u2019t plan to finish the global rollout of end-to-end encryption by default across all our messaging services until sometime in 2023.\u201d<br \/>Words are important. Facebook had already said \u201c2022 at the earliest,\u201d and is now talking about completion a year later. You could squint and argue this is consistent, but it is clearly taking significantly longer than expected and is now caught in the mire of government pushbacks on encryption and child safety.<br \/>Taken at face value this delay is a very serious issue. Meta\u2019s Antigone Davis also reiterated that encryption is required to keep messages \u201csafe from hackers, fraudsters and criminals,\u201d and that \u201cat Meta&#8230; we know people expect us to use the most secure technology available,\u201d citing WhatsApp as having the reference model.<br \/>This isn\u2019t new. WhatsApp\u2019s boss, Will Cathcart, has repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/opinion-encryption-has-never-been-more-essential-or-threatened\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/opinion-encryption-has-never-been-more-essential-or-threatened\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/opinion-encryption-has-never-been-more-essential-or-threatened\/\" aria-label=\"said\">said<\/a> that encryption should be the standard for all messaging platforms. \u201cEnd-to-end encryption locks tech companies out of particularly sensitive information. Will we be able to have a private conversation, or will someone always be listening in?\u201d<br \/>Hard to reconcile WhatsApp\u2019s stance, again at face value, with Facebook\u2019s other billion-plus user messaging giant pushing this level of security another two years down the road. Especially when Facebook has <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/facebook-confirms-it-spies-on-your-messenger-conversations\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/facebook-confirms-it-spies-on-your-messenger-conversations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/facebook-confirms-it-spies-on-your-messenger-conversations\" aria-label=\"admitted\">admitted<\/a> to monitoring user content on Messenger and after we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2020\/10\/25\/why-apple-iphone-and-google-android-users-should-stop-using-facebook-messenger-apps\/?sh=20a5091233f1\" target=\"_self\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2020\/10\/25\/why-apple-iphone-and-google-android-users-should-stop-using-facebook-messenger-apps\/?sh=20a5091233f1\" data-ga-track=\"InternalLink:https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2020\/10\/25\/why-apple-iphone-and-google-android-users-should-stop-using-facebook-messenger-apps\/?sh=20a5091233f1\" aria-label=\"exposed\" rel=\"noopener\">exposed<\/a> its alarming handling of private document links.<br \/>Child Exploitation Statement<br \/>This isn\u2019t the most serious Messenger problem, though. For that we can turn to WhatsApp again, and the eleven words in its <a href=\"https:\/\/faq.whatsapp.com\/general\/how-whatsapp-helps-fight-child-exploitation\/?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"color-link\" title=\"https:\/\/faq.whatsapp.com\/general\/how-whatsapp-helps-fight-child-exploitation\/?lang=en\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ga-track=\"ExternalLink:https:\/\/faq.whatsapp.com\/general\/how-whatsapp-helps-fight-child-exploitation\/?lang=en\" aria-label=\"statement\">statement<\/a> on fighting child exploitation that undermine Facebook\u2019s argument to add full encryption to Messenger: \u201cOn WhatsApp, you cannot search for people you do not know.\u201d<br \/>Meta\u2019s update on Facebook Messenger security was not really intended to drop the bad news on timing, but more to reassure on child safety. Apple\u2019s poorly conceived plan to compromise iMessage\u2019s end-to-end encryption with on-phone AI detection for sexually explicit images sent to or received by children, prompted a response.<br \/>\u201cWe believe people shouldn\u2019t have to choose between privacy and safety,\u201d Meta\u2019s Davis said. \u201cWe are building strong safety measures into our plans and engaging with privacy and safety experts, civil society and governments to make sure we get this right.\u201d<br \/>No surprises in what those measures are\u2014metadata monitoring to mine for \u201csuspicious patterns of activity,\u201d preventing users that admit to being adults from contacting children, filtering incoming messages and reporting functions.<br \/>This approach, Meta says, \u201calready enables us to make vital reports to child safety authorities from WhatsApp.\u201d It won\u2019t be enough\u2014not even close. To contact someone on WhatsApp, you need their contact details. You can\u2019t trawl WhatsApp for strangers. <br \/>Despite this, children\u2019s charity NSPCC tells me that \u201c10% of child sexual offences on Facebook-owned platforms take place on WhatsApp.\u201d But its encryption means this \u201caccounts for less than 2% of child abuse the company reports because they can\u2019t see the content.\u201d So, there\u2019s an issue even on WhatsApp, and encryption makes detection much harder\u2014this combination is very bad news for Messenger.<br \/>The reality is that adding messaging to social media platforms is bad enough, but encrypting that messaging to mask content from review is dangerous. Facebook Messenger and Instagram DMs have added disappearing messages and media and limited 1:1 secret chats. It is ridiculously simple to search both sites, looking at user profiles and photos, and clicking to message. The idea that all minors on those sites \u201cknow\u201d all their connections and can vouch for those accounts is nonsensical.<br \/>I\u2019m clearly an advocate for end-to-end encrypted messaging\u2014on <em>messaging<\/em> platforms. Go use WhatsApp or Signal or iMessage. But I\u2019m not an advocate for adding such security to social media platforms where adults share a vast public space with children. Let\u2019s remember, there\u2019s no certainty that any profile is real.<br \/>The final point regards Facebook itself. The concept of a private conversation on Messenger, which sits within Facebook\u2014the world\u2019s most surveilled \u201cpublic space,\u201d is a stretch. Yes, the specificity of content might be protected, but the platform knows everything about you and those you message. Unlike dedicated messengers, it harvests and mines all the data it can find. It knows almost everything and can infer the rest.<br \/>Facebook assures me it can address child safety without compromising encryption, but that ignores the social media issue. WhatsApp is different\u2014it doesn\u2019t carry those same risks, as it says itself in its statement. \u201cHalf my day is explaining to people that WhatsApp isn\u2019t a social network,\u201d one platform insider told me. <br \/>The stark truth is that Facebook is not the right guardian of private messaging or content. It is in the data harvesting and monetization business. There should be strict rules around the mixing of browsable social media and messaging and the monitoring of virtual \u201cpublic spaces\u201d that mix adults and children. Critical lessons here for the forthcoming metaverse, which will find it hard to present as a safe space.<br \/>The argument around child safety on messengers, now exposed by Apple and its well-intentioned if poorly planned child safety updates, will run and run. And while WhatsApp, Signal and others will need to defend their approach, the social media platforms need an entirely different approach.<br \/>Facebook is delaying a security update it says is critical, and there are arguments this update should not take place and may yet be prohibited. That\u2019s a reason to consider shifting your private messaging to WhatsApp and try out Signal if you haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2021\/11\/27\/apple-iphone-google-android-and-windows-10-11-users-given-reason-to-quit-facebook-messenger\/\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re one of Facebook Messenger\u2019s 1.3 billion users, you have just been given some seriously bad news. Meta has suddenly confirmed delays to critical security updates, and there are more serious problems that should concern you even more.New warning for 1.3 billion Facebook Messenger users.Facebook is the world\u2019s messaging giant. WhatsApp and Messenger are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}