Encryption is crucial when dealing with sensitive data as it ensures that if the data is intercepted, it cannot be easily understood or altered by unauthorized parties. End-to-end encryption means only the communicating users can read the messages. While enabling passwords, antivirus, and utilizing a VPN also provide security benefits, they do not protect message content as directly as end-to-end encryption. Passwords prevent unauthorized access to the device, antivirus protects against malware, and a VPN secures the data in transit but does not specifically encrypt the content of messages like end-to-end encryption does.