what does end-to-end encryption mean on instagram?
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End-to-end encryption means messages between the sender (one end) and the recipient (the other end) are encrypted, and cannot be read by anyone in between.
For a messaging platform like Instagram, it means messages/images/whatever between you and another user are encrypted, using keys that, in theory, only the two of you have access to. So even the company providing the service itself are unable to decrypt the messages.
The key word there is “in theory”, because the Instagram app/platform is responsible for creating those keys and transferring them to other users. You have to trust that they are not keeping their own copy of the keys to decrypt your messages.
In more detail, systems like this usually work with a mechanism called asymmetric encryption, specifically Public Key Infrastructure. With PKI, a Public key and Private key are created as a pair of mathematically-linked (asymmetric) keys. The Public key, as its name suggests, is shared freely to other users with which you want to communicate. The Private key is kept on your device. The Public key is used only to *encrypt* messages, which can only be *decrypted* with the corresponding Private key (which only you should have).
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