Meta accused of violating WhatsApp privacy in the US
25 January 12:18
An international group of plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, accusing the company of spreading false information about the privacy and security of WhatsApp, which it has owned since 2014. This was reported by Bloomberg, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco District Court on January 23, alleges that WhatsApp and its parent company “store, analyze, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ supposedly ‘private’ messages,” despite Meta’s public statements about using end-to-end encryption technology.
The company claims that with such encryption, messages are only accessible to the sender and recipient, and the WhatsApp app itself informs users by default that “only participants in this chat can read, listen to, or forward them.”
The plaintiffs accuse Meta and its management of fraud
However, the plaintiffs, who include citizens of Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa, insist that these statements are false. They claim that Meta stores the content of users’ messages and that company employees have access to this information.
The lawsuit states that some “whistleblowers,” whose identities are not disclosed, helped make this information public. On this basis, the plaintiffs accuse Meta and its management of fraud against billions of WhatsApp users worldwide.
Meta denies the allegations and threatens sanctions against the lawyers
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said the company would “pursue sanctions against the plaintiffs’ attorneys.” “Any claims that WhatsApp users’ messages are not encrypted are categorically false and absurd,” he told Bloomberg. “WhatsApp has been encrypted using the Signal protocol for ten years. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction.”
