Messenger End-to-End Encryption Testing Extended Meta

According to Wired , a spokesperson for Meta said the testing of the new encryption was not related to the Nebraska abortion.
Earlier, a Nebraska woman and 17-year-old daughter faced charges related to an alleged abortion after 20 weeks. This practice has long been illegal in this state. The report states that law enforcement has collected evidence data from Meta . Lincoln Journal Star and Motherboard said the authorities asked the company to turn over the girl's Messenger chat history.

Although Meta is forced to comply with a court order, it will not be able to have chat history if participants use end-to-end encryption, a feature that has long been adopted by the social network . promises to be on for all users by default.

Meanwhile, the social media giant has just announced that it is testing an expansion of the end-to-end encrypted messaging feature on Messenger . The company has been promising a full rollout of this security feature since 2016.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged by 2019 to roll out encryption across all of his chat apps. But Facebook has faced technical and political challenges that have delayed the rollout for years. Meta says it is aiming to roll out the default encryption for private messages and calls globally by 2023.

Still, the company has moved slowly, saying it is testing a new set of encryption-related features and initiatives. This week, Meta is expanding the number of chats that have auto-encryption enabled in certain accounts.

The company also said that it will soon expand the number of users who can choose to use end-to-end encryption on Instagram Direct Messenger. Meta is also testing a "secure storage" feature for encrypted chats. Users can back up their messages in case they lose their device or get a new phone and want to restore their chat history.

Meta says secure storage will be the default feature for end-to-end encrypted chats on Messenger, with the option to lock backups with a generated PIN or code. This feature is designed so that Meta will not be able to access the backups. Users will also be able to opt out of backups and turn them off.

Speaking to Wired , a Meta spokesperson said this update was scheduled for months in advance and is not related to the Nebraska incident. The company wants users to hear about these tests before realizing the change in the application.

Meta said it received a request to view the Nebraska incident on June 6. The company said the subpoenas it received did not mention abortion and that they were accompanied by non-disclosure orders.