The digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) condemned Meta for ending encrypted conversations on Instagram. The company he had announced that it was removing the feature because too few people were using it. But now the EFF says that this should come as no surprise as it was optional and required four steps to enable it.
The EFF said that defaults matter and that Meta's decision to blame users for removing the feature is proof of that.
The EFF states:
“Meta’s abandonment of this principle is disheartening, especially as we still await other promising features from the company, such as end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger group messages. Instead of blaming users for not using such features and then abandoning their promise, Meta – and other tech companies – should start enabling strong privacy features by default.”
It is not known whether Meta has encountered any technical hurdles or if it is simply unwilling to argue with governments over encryption. Many governments are now cracking down on social media and adult websites, citing child safety, and among their demands is access to social media users' private messages.
It should be mentioned that Meta doesn't have the best record when it comes to privacy, so even though conversations are encrypted on WhatsApp and Messenger, that doesn't stop many from doubting whether their messages are truly encrypted or not.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
