Meta is facing a lawsuit which suggests that the company has not been honest in saying that WhatsApp messages are completely private. Filed in US District Court in San Francisco, the lawsuit comes from an international group of plaintiffs who make the allegation that Meta and WhatsApp “store, analyze, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications”.
The legal action is being challenged by Meta, with a spokesperson for the social media giant describing the claims as “frivolous”. WhatsApp has long offered end-to-end encryption, even though it seems like something which is not in keeping with Meta’s general ethos.
The WhatsApp website says that “privacy and security is in our DNA, which is why we built end-to-end encryption into our app. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, live location, status updates, and calls are secured from falling into the wrong hands”.
The page goes on to state:
WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption is used when you chat with another person using WhatsApp Messenger. End-to-end encryption keeps your personal messages and calls between you and the person you’re communicating with. No one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share them. This is because with end-to-end encryption, your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on any special settings to secure your messages.
This is – as Bloomberg reports – what the lawsuit is calling into question. Meta is accused of defrauding billions of users around the world, with the plaintiffs bringing the case pointing to alleged evidence from whistleblowers. Bloomberg says:
The group, which includes plaintiffs from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa, alleges that Meta stores the substance of users’ communications and that workers can get access to them.
The complaint cites “whistleblowers” as having helped bring this information to light, though it doesn’t explain who they are.
Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, told Bloomberg that it “will pursue sanctions against plaintiffs’ counsel”, adding:
Any claim that people’s WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd. WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction.
The time frame for what happens next is not clear, but it could be a case that is either resolved quickly or drags on for years. The plaintiffs will be well aware that Meta has incredibly deep pockets which it will dip into to defend itself, suggesting that the evidence they have to prove their case must be quite compelling.
Image credit: Mino Surkala / Dreamstime.com
