A lawsuit has been filed in San Francisco against Meta Platforms, where an international group of plaintiffs claims that the company misled WhatsApp users about the privacy of their messages. Bloomberg reports on the matter.
The complaint states that Meta and WhatsApp "store, analyze, and can access almost all WhatsApp chats that are marketed as private." The plaintiffs accuse the company and its management of fraud against billions of users.
Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, rejected these accusations. Company representative Andy Stone called the lawsuit "absurd" and stated that the company would seek sanctions against the plaintiffs' lawyers. He emphasized that the claims regarding the lack of encryption are "categorically false and ridiculous." Stone highlighted that WhatsApp has been using the Signal protocol for end-to-end encryption for ten years, ensuring that only the sender and recipient have access to the messages.
The lawsuit was filed by citizens from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa. The document claims that Meta stores the content of messages and that company employees can access them. "Whistleblowers" are mentioned as sources of information, but their names are not disclosed.
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission of the United States continues its legal battle against Meta over monopoly practices in the social media market. The regulator insists that Meta maintains dominance in the personal social networking market by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp.