Facebook has announced that it will discontinue support for PGP-encrypted emails starting December 5, 2023.

Facebook PGP Encrypted Emails Support

Back in June 2015, Facebook introduced PGP-encrypted emails as an additional layer of security to complement Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) protocols. PGP encryption aimed to provide users with a heightened level of privacy, ensuring that emails sent by Facebook to a user’s email address remained completely encrypted. This feature has existed for several years with the primary aim of protecting user data from forcible access by malicious actors and authorities.

However, the email encryption feature has experienced limited adoption, mainly because most Facebook users do not know how it works or how to activate it.

Some Facebook users have also reported instances of hackers taking advantage of the PGP encryption feature to compromise accounts. Once a hacker gains access to a Facebook account, they can proceed to activate email encryption. This renders recovery emails sent to the user’s email address unreadable, as only the hacker has the encryption keys.

Facebook has not provided an explanation as to why they are retiring the feature.

NOTE: The text in the image above has been automatically translated from the original language Italian to English.