But you can fix these by changing some of the settings. And, yes, there are weakness is how WhatsApp is set-up be default. Yes, Facebook’s moves to commercialize the app are irritating, but they don’t compromise its fundamental security. Messenger and Instagram have now been integrated, to an extent, but WhatsApp is different. The idea being that all Facebook’s messaging technologies would become interoperable, expanding the user base and, clearly, the opportunities to mine all that metadata and monetize all those eyeballs. When Facebook first announced that Messenger would become end-to-end encrypted by default, it was part of that plan to integrate the back-end platforms underpinning Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

But any such update was already delayed, with no launch date in site, and that just got much worse. End-to-end encryption would stop those behaviors dead in their tracks. Facebook has said that “privacy is at the heart of Messenger,” but it has also admitted to “ spying ” on user content to enforce its rules and even downloading private files.

Facebook messenger app down