By default, communications through Facebook Messenger are not end-to-end encrypted, meaning that another party could theoretically retrieve sensitive information from the chat if they were of a nefarious mind. It also means that conversations are basically open to reading by Facebook and whoever has access to Facebook data.
If you’re a privacy junkie (then why use Facebook, which is the antithesis of privacy?), you might be interested in enabling end-to-end encryption on your Facebook Messenger chats. End-to-end encryption means that no one, including Facebook, can read the contents of your messaging conversations.
Interestingly, Facebook doesn’t have a global setting for end-to-end encrypted messaging, which probably shows how enthusiastic they are about not being able to read your messages, so you have to enable it one by one per conversation.
How to enable end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger for iPhone
- Open the Messenger app if you haven’t already, then tap the conversation you want to encrypt
- In the Messenger thread, now tap on the person’s profile at the top of the screen
- Look for “Go to Secret Chat” under the More Actions section
- Tap back, then repeat with other conversations you want end-to-end encrypted as desired
Now that you have end-to-end encryption enabled for a particular Facebook Messenger conversation, you can be a little more confident that no one will be able to hack into your conversation. But it’s still Facebook, which isn’t exactly a bastion of privacy given that you and your information are their product, so how much you trust them as a secure platform for communication is entirely up to you.
If you’re serious about having secure encrypted conversations that are less likely to be snooped on by who knows what and who, you might consider using something like Signal, which is always end-to-end encrypted and offers other nice features like messages that they also disappear. Given that Signal’s entire business model revolves around security, privacy, and encryption, it probably makes more sense to trust something like that, compared to a company like Meta/Facebook, whose entire business model which collects details about you and sells your information.
Don’t forget to check out more Facebook Messenger tips if you like it!