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An international group of plaintiffs is suing Meta Platforms Inc, alleging that the company has made false claims about the privacy and security of its WhatsApp chat service.<\/p>\n
Meta has made so called \u201cend-to-end\u201d encryption a central part of WhatsApp\u2019s feature set, offering a kind of encryption that means a message is only accessible to the sender and recipient, but not the company.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/p>\n
In this kind of encrypted chat, which the company says is turned on by default, WhatsApp\u2019s in-app messaging says \u201conly people in this chat can read, listen to, or share\u201d the messages.<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit filed on Friday in US District Court in San Francisco, the group of plaintiffs allege that Meta\u2019s privacy claims are false.<\/p>\n
They allege that Meta and WhatsApp \u201cstore, analyse, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users\u2019 purportedly \u2018private\u2019 communications\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nThey accuse the companies and their leaders of defrauding WhatsApp\u2019s billions of users worldwide.<\/p>\n
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A spokesperson for Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, called the lawsuit \u201cfrivolous\u201d and said that the company \u201cwill pursue sanctions against plaintiffs\u2019 counsel\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny claim that people\u2019s WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd,\u201d spokesperson Andy Stone said in an email.<\/p>\n
Listen: WhatsApp ads are coming \u2013\u00a0should you be worried? [Jul 2025]<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Workers \u2018can get access\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
The group, which includes plaintiffs from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa, alleges that Meta stores the substance of users\u2019 communications and that workers can get access to them.<\/p>\n
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Read: WhatsApp and generative AI\u00a0propel Brazil into the future of\u00a0finance [Oct 2025]<\/p>\n
The complaint cites \u201cwhistleblowers\u201d as having helped bring this information to light, though it doesn\u2019t explain who they are.<\/p>\n
\nLawyers for the plaintiffs are asking the court to certify a class-action suit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Multiple attorneys listed in the suit from the firms of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Keller Postman didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment. Another one of the plaintiff\u2019s lawyers, Jay Barnett, from Barnett Legal, declined to comment Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
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