Can Other People Read What I Write in Facebook Messenger?

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Chances are that if you use Facebook today (and those chances are high because Facebook just passed over two.6 billion monthly active users), you accept heard all the hype about the Facebook Messenger App and concerns over Facebook Messenger privacy.

To start off the whole fiasco in 2014, users were forced to download the separate Facebook Messenger App if they wanted to employ messaging through the Facebook app itself for mobile. This started causing Facebook users to exist leary.

Why? Because the Facebook Messenger app asked for admission to a lot more than permissions than the average app and, let'due south exist honest, the permissions are a niggling frightening when you start looking into them (more on that beneath).

Then, in early on 2018, the Facebook-Cambridge Belittling data scandal happened which exposed the fact that millions of Facebook users' personal data was being harvested without their consent by Cambridge Analytica. This led to the #DeleteFacebook movement which trended on Twitter.

Needless to say, Facebook users have been worried about their privacy for a long time now, and for good reason.

If you take questions about Facebook Messenger when it comes to your privacy, then you're in the right place.

We take answers. Utilise the guide below to jump around as y'all need:

• Are Letters On Messenger Private?
• Is Facebook Messenger Secure?
• Can Anybody See Your Messages On Messenger?
• How Do I Start Hugger-mugger Conversations On Messenger?
• Facebook and Facebook Messenger App Permissions
• Why Does Facebook Demand These Permissions?
• Is Facebook the Just App With These "Invasive" Permissions?
• Should Yous Be Worried About Your Privacy With the Facebook Messenger App Or Not?
• What Are Skillful Alternatives to Facebook Messenger?

Are Messages On Messenger Private?

NO. Unless you are using Secret Conversations (explained below), your messages on Facebook Messenger are non private.

Messages that are sent through the Facebook Messenger app are NOT end-to-end encrypted. This means that any message you lot send on Messenger could exist seen or intercepted in plain text.

If you truly care about your privacy, you would never use a messaging app that is not stop-to-stop encrypted by default such as Facebook Messenger.

What does end-to-end encryption hateful? Glad y'all asked! In super simple terms, if you ship a bulletin from your phone that says "Hi Marking" and the message is encrypted, it gets sent as a bunch of jumbled letters and numbers earlier it reaches Marking's phone.

This means that if your "Hi Mark" message was intercepted by anyone, it would look something like this: TUVm6HIrSJjhNU9x8gIaWJF4KtK3I5TYaSDdaxcDlrI=

That way, nobody (including hackers) would be able to know what the message is proverb.

Notwithstanding, since the Facebook Messenger app does not encrypt your messages by default, all of your pictures and messages you transport can be seen past Facebook.

In fact, Facebook confirmed it uses engineering to spy on your Facebook messages and pictures. Even though these messages aren't always seen past an actual person, that's notwithstanding a very shady business decision and the exact opposite of "privacy."

Sounds pretty scary, doesn't information technology? Yet millions of users continue to utilize Facebook Messenger on a daily ground.

Is Facebook Messenger Secure?

NO. Facebook Messenger is simply "secure" if yous are using their Clandestine Conversations feature.

In 2016, Facebook appear a new feature offer encrypted, secret, self-destructing Messenger chats called Secret Conversations.

Even though Secret Conversations have been a feature that Facebook Messenger has offered since 2016, many users today don't fifty-fifty know the feature exists.

In March of 2019, Facebook CEO, Marker Zuckerberg, posted a note on Facebook chosen "A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking" in which he outlines the company's visions to work towards edifice a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp (all platforms owned by Facebook).

In the article, Mark Zuckerberg writes, "I believe the future of advice volition increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever."

This would include end-to-end encryption on all Facebook-owned messaging services. It should be noted that WhatsApp already has finish-to-stop encryption built into the app by default (good news!).

All of that being said, Facebook's messaging platforms aren't even close to beingness fully encrypted and they have said that encrypting Messenger will accept years.

Tin Everyone See Your Letters On Messenger?

Technically, Yep. Since your messages are not end-to-end encrypted, that ways that Facebook, law enforcement, hackers, over-reaching governments, or anyone who knew what they were doing could potentially read your letters.

At present, this doesn't mean that your friends or family members would exist able to read your letters. They would only be able to read them if they had your username and countersign and were signed into your account.

However, your Facebook Messenger messages are stored on Facebook's servers word for word. So, if Facebook actually wanted to, they could view all your letters or, in some cases, would accept to hand your messages over to law enforcement or the regime.

If Facebook'south servers or your own Facebook account was always hacked, your messages and pictures you've sent could potentially all be retrieved as well.

How Practise I Showtime Secret Conversations On Messenger?

If y'all want to use Secret Conversations on Facebook Messenger (which offer end-to-end encryption), you take to first enable Secret Conversations on your account.

Follow the steps below to enable Secret Conversations on Facebook Messenger for both Android and iOS:

1. Open Facebook Messenger
2. Tap on your Profile Picture in the upper-left
3. Ringlet down and tap on Secret Conversations
4. Brand certain the Secret Conversations toggle is turned ON

In one case Hugger-mugger Conversations are enabled, then you lot can get and actually use them.

Follow the steps below to start a Hush-hush Conversation on Facebook Messenger for Android:

1. Open Facebook Messenger
2. Tap on the Pencil icon in the upper-right
3. Make sure the Padlock toggle is turned ON
4. Cull the person you want to start a Secret Conversation with

Follow the steps below to outset a Secret Conversation on Facebook Messenger for iOS:

1. Open Facebook Messenger
2. Tap on the Pencil icon in the upper-right
3. Tap on Underground in the upper-correct
4. Choose the person y'all desire to commencement a Secret Conversation with

For more than information, encounter the Facebook Secret Conversations help commodity.

Read: Password Security – Why Secure Passwords Need Length Over Complexity

Facebook and Facebook Messenger App Permissions

Every bit far equally Facebook and Facebook Messenger App permissions go, there has been a lot of speculation ever since 2014 when users were forced to download the separate Facebook Messenger app in order to use messaging on mobile.

Facebook users have been concerned almost how Facebook is using these permissions to their advantage to transport personalized advertisements and make money off of them.

Well, we went and started looking into the Facebook and Facebook Messenger permissions and have presented our findings beneath.

Commencement of all:

If you have the regular Facebook App downloaded, you already have agreed to nearly all the permissions that the Facebook Messenger App requests!

Yes, you heard that correctly. The regular Facebook app (not the Messenger app) uses about all the same permissions every bit the Messenger app does.

Don't believe us? Here's an list of the Facebook and Facebook Messenger permissions side-by-side:

As of Facebook version 265.0.0.61.103 and Facebook Messenger version 259.0.0.18.120

In the above pictures, you'll see screenshots of the Facebook app and the Messenger app's permissions. After reading through them, some of them stand out as being pretty scary if y'all've never looked into these before (some are listed below).

Facebook Messenger App Permissions Examples:

• directly call phone numbers
• receive and read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• take pictures and videos
• record audio
• change network connectivity
• download files without notification
• read the contents of your shared storage

Facebook App Permissions Examples:

• read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
• have pictures and videos
• tape audio
• modify network connectivity
• download files without notification
• access location in the groundwork

Notice that many of the permissions are the same, and the two apps request nearly identical permissions (with a few differences). After all, you are able to call people straight using the Facebook Messenger app which explains why it has a few differences from the regular Facebook app such every bit permission to directly call phone numbers.

Why Does Facebook Demand These Permissions?

Well, Facebook has some pages in their Help Eye to explicate to users what the permissions are used for. The pages take an caption for both the regular Facebook App and the Facebook Messenger App.

See these links:

• Messenger App Help Folio – Why is the Messenger app requesting permission to access features on my Android phone or tablet?
• Facebook App Assistance Page – Why is the Facebook app requesting permission to admission features on my Android?

Some examples Facebook provides as to why they need those permissions (can also be found in the links above):

• Read your text messages (SMS or MMS) – If you add a telephone number to your business relationship, this allows us to ostend your phone number automatically by finding the confirmation code that we send via text message.
• Take pictures and video – This permission allows you to accept photos and videos within the Messenger app to easily send to your friends and other contacts.
• Tape audio – This permission allows you lot to send voice letters, brand free voice calls, and send videos inside Messenger.
• Directly call phone numbers – This permission allows you to call a Messenger contact by tapping on the person's phone number, establish in a carte du jour within your message thread with the person.
• Read agenda events plus confidential data – This allows the app to prove your calendar availability (based on your telephone'due south agenda) when you're viewing an event on Facebook.

Some other thing that is important to note — An awarding needs permissions in order to become its features to piece of work. I accept even developed some bones Android apps in the past for fun that required some of these permissions.

For example, if at that place is a button inside your application that allows the user to take a film or video, the programmer needs to require permission to accept pictures and videos along with the permission to record sound . Otherwise, that button is useless because it won't do annihilation. Simple equally that.

Is Facebook the Merely App With These "Invasive" Permissions?

Admittedly not. This is something that yous would think is common sense, but plain it's not. There are enough of other apps out there that use many of these same permissions.

Hither is a listing of virtually of the "invasive" permissions listed above that the Facebook and Messenger App use along with other popular apps that use those same permissions:

• directly call phone numbers
  • Also used by:
    • AVG AntiVirus Security – 100,000,000+ downloads
    • Skype – 500,000,000+ downloads
• receive, read, and edit your text messages (SMS or MMS)
  • Also used by:
    • AVG AntiVirus Security (all of them) – 100,000,000+ downloads
    • WhatsApp Messenger (only receive and ship SMS messages) – 1 billion+ downloads
    • Skype (only receive SMS and read SMS/MMS) – 500,000,000+ downloads
    • Snapchat (only receive SMS) – 500,000,000+ downloads
• have pictures and videos
  • Also used by:
    • AVG AntiVirus Security – 100,000,000+ downloads
    • WhatsApp Messenger – one billion+ downloads
    • Skype – 500,000,000+ downloads
    • Instagram – ane billion+ downloads
    • Snapchat – 500,000,000+ downloads
• record audio
  • Also used past:
    • WhatsApp Messenger – 1 billion+ downloads
    • Skype – 500,000,000+ downloads
    • Instagram – 1 billion+ downloads
    • Snapchat – 500,000,000+ downloads

With all of that new information, it's nevertheless a matter of how the company decides to use those permissions.

For example, if a visitor such equally Facebook has as much data as they do, at that place are a lot of bad things they could do with that information.

Data is precious. Companies will pay absurd amounts of money for Facebook to sell it to them so that they tin can advertise to you. Plus, knowing Facebook's extremely shady past, tin can you lot trust Facebook? We don't.

Should Y'all Be Worried Most Your Privacy With the Facebook Messenger App Or Non?

The answer is ABSOLUTELY YES you should be worried!

Facebook is non even close to having cease-to-end encryption by default on all of the apps they own (Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp). The only Facebook-owned app that has end-to-end encryption by default right now is WhatsApp, so if you HAVE to use ane, we would highly advise using WhatsApp.

Betwixt the Facebook-Cambridge Analytical data scandal, Facebook admitting that they use technology to spy on your letters and pictures, Facebook blatantly suppressing certain topics on their platforms, and so much more, it's no wonder that no 1 trusts Facebook.

Facebook is using the data they gather most each individual user so that they can sell that data to 3rd-party companies. This is how Facebook monetizes the data they receive. Without it, they wouldn't be in business.

Not certain how your data is used? You lot can poke through the various categories on the Facebook Data Utilise Policy folio.

The part we should be even more worried well-nigh is the fact that, regardless of any permission that any app could e'er ask united states of america, much of online Internet data (whether that be Facebook chats, websites visited, pictures sent, etc.) goes directly to the NSA because manifestly we all need to be tracked. But that'due south a whole other conversation…

What Are Practiced Alternatives to Facebook Messenger?

Use Signal.

Happy messaging!

Jake is the founder of Crambler. He is a fully-remote software engineer by day and a guitar-wielding musician by night with a burning passion for technology, entrepreneurship, and music.

Can Other People Read What I Write in Facebook Messenger?

Source: https://crambler.com/truth-about-facebook-messenger-app-privacy/

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