The importance of end-to-end encryption of digital messages is getting new attention with the announcement that Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook will partly add the feature to its Messenger product now, and eventually for all use cases such as group chats by year-end.
It’s an important step, since E2EE, as it’s known for short, is a critical method of providing secure communication that keeps outside parties from accessing data while it’s transferred between systems or devices. But the announcement isn’t the whole story, either, because Facebook is playing catch-up with many of its competitors, such as Signal and Telegram, which have offered E2EE messaging products for years now.