Just a few years ago, none of us would have cared about what encryption was or think we needed it, even if we had known about the technology. It almost seems like we were in a trusting cocoon where we were sure no one would come poking their noses into the emails and text messages we sent. We implicitly trusted those that could access our correspondences to simply not do so – unless we gave them reason to.

But that time has long gone. Today people as well as businesses have almost lost their absolute right to privacy due to various reasons and both willingly and unwillingly. Everywhere we turn there is news of how one company had its data stolen or how messages from a certain individual were made public through a leak.

Hence, encryption became an important topic everyone wanted to know about. Businesses wanted to make sure they didn’t have hackers sifting through their communication or hackers accessing critical information about their clients. The Average Joe just wanted to be left alone without his “sweet nothings” having to be intercepted and analyzed at every juncture of the internet.

This meant all the IT companies that were making products commonly used to chat – whether using videos or text – had to make sure they met this one criterion: end-to-end data encryption.

What is end-to-end data encryption?

In the “old” days, when you communicated with a friend using any sort of app, the text message you sent was passed on to the manufacturing company’s servers and then forwarded to your from there. Anyone who could hijack your message en route or pick them from the midway server would be able to read your messages.

Improvements were made so that partial encryption allowed the messages to be encrypted while en route, but that still left the companies with the ability to snoop through your messages.

Now, end-to-end encryption allows your message to leave your phone encrypted and only when it reaches the intended destination (your friend’s phone) will it be able to be decrypted. Meaning, no one gets a peek.

WhatsApp started it all

Among the very first companies to do so was WhatsApp. Although the application is not popular in some parts of the world, in over a hundred countries like India (with the most number of user at 70 million), Mexico and, especially, Brazil (where people heavily depend on it due to high telecommunication tariffs) it is the preferred method of communication. Almost everyone that uses a smart phone in these countries has the app installed.

Five years after WhatsApp was created, Facebook Inc. realized what a gem of an application it was and purchased the company in 2014. And then two years later, in April of 2016, WhatsApp came up with the ultimate solution to its clients’ security worries by announcing that thenceforth all communications that were made using its app would be protected via end-to-end encryption.

Facebook is now following suit

With one of its subsidiaries offering such a service, Facebook couldn’t be seen doing otherwise and soon enough, they too announced that their messenger would also similarly be encrypted. The only difference, they said, was that the user would have the option of enabling the encryption as opposed to WhatsApp’s implementing it without the need of the users’ consent.

Why you should care about it

Although the Facebook Messenger encryption is still in its testing phase, you as a business owner can rest assured that it will be implemented soon. And if you’re not too keen on the topic you should start paying attention because this could be something that will affect you and your business.

Facebook is undeniably the most popular social media platform out there. Everyone uses it – well, at least one-and-a-half billion people on the planet do – and it is a tool that you will have surely used to market your products or services. It is also the tool that you will have used to make sure you engage and are constant communication with your users.

This means, if your business has setup its social media marketing plan right it will have staff (dedicated or otherwise) that will monitor incoming communication from users and clients worldwide. They will need to ensure that all the messages that are exchanged will remain secure.

This fact becomes even more important if you are looking for a way to make your online support as effective as possible. Imagine you had a client on the other side of the world who wanted to find out what had happened to his purchase order. The simplest way to contact you would be to use the social media platform they probably spend a lot of time on and “Like” your business’ page. Now, all the client would need to do is send you a message through the app and even if they sent you their intimate and financial details they would know there wouldn’t be any chances of them being hijacked by any third-parties.

This way you will have won two battles. The first is the fact that you have made sure no one will be able to access your clients’ information and you remain trustworthy in their eyes.

The second, and perhaps most important, point is that you have taken support to a whole new level. You are using a method that almost everyone (ok, 1.5 billion people) is comfortable at using and turning it into a tech support application. People won’t be left confused about whether or not they have sent the message to the right person, they will also not be confused by unfamiliar features and they will not have to worry about security.

Therefore, if you still haven’t implemented an SEM plan that is specifically built around Facebook’s Messenger, now would be the time to do it.