Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp merger raises new privacy fears leaving users furious

SOCIAL media users have been left furious and fearing their for their privacy after news emerged today that Facebook Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp chats are going to merge.

For the first time, users will be able to send messages between the networks without needing to switch apps.

This means you can message someone on Instagram without ever actually having an Instagram account before early 2020.

Or Instagram users can text people on Whatsapp.

But Facebook Messenger, along with Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Instagram, will still exist as standalone apps.

The move, revealed in a New York Times , and later confirmed by Facebook, has raised privacy concerns among experts and users.

Matthew Green, cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins UNiversaity urged people to “move important conversations off those services”.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Green said: “I’ve always assumed that FB used 2FA mobile numbers to link WhatsApp accounts to an existing Facebook user. If true, this is scummy and bad for security. I’d love to be proven wrong.)

“This move could be potentially be good or bad for security/privacy.

“But given recent history and financial motivations of Facebook, I wouldn’t bet my lunch money on “good”.

“Now is a great time to start moving important conversations off those services.”

Work on the project is already underway to unify the “messaging infrastructure” between the apps.

It means that all three apps will support end-to-end encryption, which Instagram currently lacks.

End-to-end encryption means your message is garbled into gibberish during transit, and can only be read in its true form by the sender and recipient.

It’s an important privacy feature, and already one of the defining features of WhatsApp. But it won’t be easy.

“Given the spotty history Facebook have in managing user privacy settings, merging personal information and privacy configurations from three significant applications won’t be trivial,” said Tim Mackey, technical evangelist at Synopsys, speaking to The Sun.

“Facebook development teams would do well to look at this precedent and prioritize user privacy.

“With the integration project currently expected to take a year to complete, and with end-to-end encryption as part of the plan, we should expect the Facebook engineering teams to focus attention on uniform data security both in their platform and in the apps themselves.”

Worryingly, child safety campaigners have warned that this could make child-grooming even easier for online sickos.

“The decision to merge and incorporate end-to-end encryption in all three apps means child abusers could find it easier to access more young victims, and detecting grooming behaviour and sexual abuse on these apps will become far more difficult,” said Andy Burrows, Associate Head of Child Online Safety at the NSPCC.

“Given that police have already told us that Facebook-owned apps are being used in more than half of grooming offences, Facebook must explain how it took children into account when it made this decision.

“This is precisely why the NSPCC’s Wild West Web campaign is calling on Government to introduce a tough independent regulator for social networks to force them to meet consistent child safety measures and hold them to account when they fail.”

According to the NYT, the idea is being masterminded by billionaire Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s a bid to keep users hooked into the Facebook ecosystem – and avoid turning to rival offerings “from Apple and Google”.

Zuckerberg has reportedly been “floating” the idea for months, but has been met with heavy opposition.

And WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton also left for similar reasons.

According to the report, Zuckerberg still isn’t sure how to make money from the merger.

Speaking to The Sun, industry expert Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Securities, said: “It’s an interesting issue, since users aren’t really asking for integration, but Facebook recognizes that by integrating the products, they facilitate greater communication/interaction among their user base.

“I personally think it’s a great idea, but am not sure there is any immediate impact on revenues or profits.

“The integration is likely going to roll out in a year or so, and we will have to see how smoothly it goes before understanding the potential for monetization.”

In a statement given to The Sun, a Facebook spokesperson said the company hoped to “build the best messaging experiences we can – and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private”.

“We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.”

We’ve asked Facebook for more details about the merger and will update this story with any response.

Several Facebook privacy blunders in 2018 caused Zuckerberg’s firm to lose about £180billion in value.

Furious Facebook employees even resorted to buying burner phones to badmouth Zuck’s leadership.

And this week, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey revealed Mark Zuckerberg tried to feed him “some cold goat he knifed and killer with a laser gun”.

Do you think this is a good idea? Let us know in the comments!

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