Is Meta reading your WhatsApp messages? A group of international WhatsApp users has filed a lawsuit in a US court, alleging that Meta, the app’s parent company, can access private messages despite WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. Filed in a San Francisco court, the plaintiffs described the encryption feature as a “sham” and are seeking damages from the tech giant. Meta has rejected the claims, calling them “false and absurd.”
WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption is meant to keep messages private, allowing only the sender and recipient to read them, since the encryption keys stay on users’ devices. However, a lawsuit filed on January 23, featuring plaintiffs from Australia, South Africa, and Mexico claims that WhatsApp and Meta staff can bypass this encryption and access users’ messages. Bloomberg reports the case alleges Meta can decrypt conversations despite the platform’s privacy safeguards.
The 51-page lawsuit states, "A worker need only send a ‘task’ to a Meta engineer explaining why they need access to WhatsApp messages. The engineering team then grants access, often without scrutiny, allowing the worker to view any user’s messages via a widget linked to the user’s unique ID."
It further claims that the messages appear almost in real time alongside unencrypted chats, and that access is not restricted by time, even including messages users believe they have deleted. However, the suit does not provide technical evidence to back up these allegations.
The suit claims messages appear almost in real time alongside unencrypted chats and can be accessed even after deletion, but it provides no technical evidence.
Reacting on social media, Elon Musk said, “WhatsApp is not secure,” adding that “even Signal is questionable” and urged users to “use X Chat.” In November, Musk’s xAI launched X Chat on X as a privacy-focused alternative to WhatsApp and other messaging apps.