Facebook is currently experimenting with a feature for its iOS Messenger app, meant to add additional protection to the user's privacy by asking users to authenticate using Touch ID, Face ID or a passcode, before accessing the user's conversations.
When enabled, the experimental feature will ask for authentication before giving access to Messenger chats, and will use the same authentication method that is currently used for unlocking the phone itself. App Lock, as it's called, also allows for selecting when to require Face ID, either immediately after closing Messenger, or up to an hour after its last usage.
Screenshot of the experimental App Lock feature.
A Facebook spokesperson has told Engadget the following, regarding App Lock:
We want to give people more choices and controls to protect their private messages, and recently, we began testing a feature that lets you unlock the Messenger app using your device’s settings. It’s an added layer of privacy to prevent someone else from accessing your messages.
Facebook Messenger's experimental App Lock security feature is currently being tested on a small number of iOS users, with the possibility of it becoming available on all platforms later on, if users respond positively to it.
In related news, Facebook was recently fined by Canada's Competition Bureau (CCB) in the amounts of $6.5 million. According to the CCB, the reason for this is Facebook improperly sharing personal user data with third-party developers, in addition to making false or misleading claims about the privacy of Canadian users' personal data. In a statement, Facebook did not agree with the allegations, but did agree to pay the fine.
Prior to that, Mark Zuckerberg's company also got fined by the US, the UK, Australia and other countries over the Cambridge Analytica situation, where the personal data of 87 million users was obtained by the analytics firm via an online survey.
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