End-to-end encryption has become the new gold standard of online communications. With it, each party to a message uses encryption keys stored only on devices they control to encrypt one-to-one and group conversations. Apple’s iMessage, Microsoft’s Skype, the Signal messaging app, and a correctly configured account with Facebook’s WhatsApp, among other ecosystems, allow this sort of ostensibly unmonitored, uncrackable connection.
But you might note that there’s a name attached to each of those methods. While end-to-end encryption was originally envisioned as something controlled by individuals—or, in the case of business communications, by their employers—that’s not what’s materialized. Instead, because of the complexity of managing, distributing, validating, and updating encryption keys related to identity, centralization became the only game in town. That also helps explain why messaging systems are walled gardens. (Just try to send an iMessage from your WhatsApp…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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