A lawsuit has been filed in a San Francisco federal court against Meta Platforms, where an international group of plaintiffs claims that the company misled WhatsApp users about the privacy level of their messages. Bloomberg reports on this matter.
The complaint states that Meta and WhatsApp "store, analyze, and have the ability to access almost all WhatsApp chats that are marketed as private." The plaintiffs accuse the company and its leadership of fraud affecting billions of users.
Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, denied these allegations. Company representative Andy Stone called the lawsuit "nonsensical" and stated that the company would seek sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys. He noted that claims of a lack of encryption are "categorically false and absurd." Stone emphasized that WhatsApp has been using the Signal protocol for end-to-end encryption for ten years, which ensures that only the sender and recipient have access to the messages.
The lawsuit has been brought by citizens of Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa. The document states that Meta retains the content of messages and company employees can access them. "Whistleblowers" are mentioned as the source of information, although their names are not disclosed.
It’s worth noting that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission continues its legal battle against Meta over monopolistic practices in the social media market. The regulator insists that Meta maintains its dominance by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp.