Meta rolls out default end-to-end encryption for its 1 billion users. Here’s what to know

Meta has begun rolling out default end-to-end encryption for all personal chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook, the company announced this month.

End-to-end encryption is a common type of secure communication process that prevents third parties from accessing data while it is being sent from one device to another. It can prevent unintended users from reading or modifying data. End-to-end encryption is already used to secure WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, and other popular messaging platforms like Telegram and Signal.

“This means that nobody, including Meta, can see what’s sent or said, unless you choose to report a message to us,” Loredana Crisan, Meta’s Head of Messenger, said in a statement.

End-to-end encryption has been optional for Messenger users since 2016. Yet introducing default end-to-end encryption, Meta says, will make the platforms more private and more secure.

“The extra layer of security provided by end-to-end encryption means that the content of your messages and calls with friends and family are protected from the moment they leave your device to the moment they reach the receiver’s device,” Crisan added.

The roll-out of default end-to-end encryption to all users will take months, the company says, since Messenger has over one billion users worldwide.

Meta has promised for years to introduce default end-to-end encryption, but said the platform first needed to consider digital safety concerns. “This has taken years to deliver because we’ve taken our time to get this right,” Crisan noted.

Some digital safety advocates and law enforcement agencies have warned that default end-to-end encryption could hamper efforts to curb the dissemination of abusive and illegal content. Meta, however, has said that the necessary steps have been taken to ensure digital safety.

“We worked closely with outside experts, academics, advocates and governments to identify risks and build mitigations to ensure that privacy and safety go hand-in-hand,” Crisan said.

Meta is represented on the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety initiative, which, since 2019, has been bringing together a diverse group of leaders to accelerate public-private cooperation to tackle harmful content and conduct online.

The Coalition Working Group also includes representatives from Microsoft, WeProtect Global Alliance, Google, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Ofcom UK.

In January 2023, the Coalition developed a set of principles that aimed to help balance concerns around digital safety and personal privacy and cybersecurity. The report, Global Principles on Digital Safety: Translating International Human Rights for the Digital Context, noted that it is “important to acknowledge that digital safety requires a complex range of deliberations, balancing legal, policy, ethical, social and technological considerations.”