DO NOT USE FACEBOOK MESSENGER for group messages

Unless it's OK for your EVERY message to be published to the whole world, Facebook Messenger must not be used for any group conversations.

I am referring to Facebook chat groups, not Facebook groups. There are basically no options to control Facebook chat groups.

Any member of the conversation can add any person, Friend or not, to an existing conversation!

So, even if there were no ill intentions, an accidental addition of someone else means TOTAL COMPLETE leakage.

Even if you Remove that unintended person immediately, that person can view the WHOLE conversation, every message, since the group was created. There is no way to stop this.

In the first place, while you can easily Add a person to a conversation from www.messenger.com, there is no way to Remove him or her on this same site. You have to do it from the Messenger app from the phone or facebook.com.

Removal of a participant merely stops new messages from going to that person. He or see can still continue to see EVERY single message in the conversation up to the time the Remove was done. He can do this at his own leisure, any time in the future, for as long as he likes, from any computer in the world, by just signing in to www.messenger.com.

So if you were having a discussion on some confidential or commercially sensitive stuff, the moment someone is accidentally added, every message in the discussion can now be viewed by the whole world. There is no gate to lock.

In contrast, WhatsApp allows a participant to see only new group messages created after the time he or she joins a group.


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