Facebook missed a big opportunity with end-to-end encryption in Messenger

After testing the feature on a small set of users since July, Facebook has now enabled end-to-end encryption for all Messenger users. 

The way it's implemented, though, not many of those users will care. 

First, a word on end-to-end encryption. Despite Facebook's claims that your chats on Messenger are pretty secure even without it, end-to-end encryption is what you want. The presence of the feature means it's very hard for your messages to be intercepted and read by a third party, be it a malicious hacker, internet provider or a government organization snooping around (and there's good reason to believe they are). With end-to-end encryption, the content is encrypted on your device, delivered to the recipient's device and decrypted there — and vice versa.  Read more...