It went somewhat unnoticed., but starting today, Friday, it's becoming a reality: Instagram is loosening the social network's privacy protections. Meta is globally disabling the option to opt in to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for direct messages.
The same Meta that touted E2EE as the gold standard for privacy protection. The company had been gradually adding E2EE to Facebook Messenger and Instagram since late 2023.
Explaining the end-to-end encryption removal, an updated Facebook blog post states that very few people were using the encryption option in direct messages. Anyone who still wants to use E2EE for messaging can use WhatsApp for that.
Of course this step is welcomed by governments and law enforcement authorities.
Of course, Meta will now be able to access more personal user information, which could be used for advertising purposes, although it is not necessary. Based on metadata alone, advertising is already possible with surprising accuracy, as Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri recently mentioned.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
