Want end-to-end encryption on your Facebook Messenger? Use Cryptocat

[securistul]

Instant messaging is the primary means of communication for many to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues, but with increasing fears of mass surveillance demand for encrypted messaging is increasing. However, lack of easy to implement and use end-to-end encryption tools and solutions is something of a deterrent for their widespread use.

Facebook Messenger is used by millions of users across the globe and the lack of end-to-end encryption is something that worries quite a few. No doubt the data is encrypted while it transits from users’ device to Facebook servers and vice versa, but Facebook is able to read the data, which does leave a shred of doubt that maybe there are prying eyes looking out for juicy chats.

Cryptocat, a popular chat-encryption tool, has announced a new version and with this version comes the ability to have end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger.

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“Cryptocat can now log into your Facebook account for you, fetch your Facebook contacts, and if another contact is also using Cryptocat, you’ll be able to automatically set up an end-to-end encrypted chat”, read a statement on Cryptocat blog post.

When two individuals are chatting using Cryptocat, Facebook will be able to identify the parties involved in a chat; however, it won’t be able to read the messages as they will be encrypted and Facebook doesn’t have the key to decrypt the messages.

Cryptocat ensures that it doesn’t rely on Facebook and connects through to the social network in most minimal way possible to ensure that none of Facebook’s code is executed.

“In our current design, Cryptocat connects to Facebook in the most minimal way possible: as a regular XMPP client over Cryptocat’s outbound BOSH relay. Not a single line of code from Facebook is ever loaded or executed in Cryptocat. Even the Facebook login process happens in a completely separate, sandboxed window.”

However, Facebook has already taken note of this and will be retiring Chat API/XMPP services by April 2015. Users still have a year to enjoy encrypted chats if they wish to.

You can download Cryptocat 2.2 with encrypted Facebook chat from here (https://crypto.cat/).