Meta Platforms, Inc. has been sued by an international group of plaintiffs who allege the company has misled users about the privacy and security of WhatsApp chats.
In a lawsuit filed on Friday at a US District Court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs claim Metaâs repeated assurances that WhatsApp messages are protected by end to end encryption are false. They argue that Meta and WhatsApp âstore, analyze, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp usersâ purportedly âprivateâ communicationsâ.
End to end encryption is a core feature promoted by WhatsApp, which says the system ensures messages are only accessible to the sender and recipient. The app tells users that âonly people in this chat can read, listen to, or shareâ messages, and states the feature is enabled by default.
The plaintiffs accuse Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, and its executives of defrauding billions of users worldwide by making what they describe as misleading privacy claims.
A Meta spokesperson dismissed the lawsuit, describing it as âfrivolousâ and saying the company âwill pursue sanctions against plaintiffsâ counselâ.
âAny claim that peopleâs WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd,â spokesperson Andy Stone said in an email. âWhatsApp has been end to end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction.â
The group of plaintiffs includes individuals from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa. The complaint alleges Meta stores the substance of usersâ communications and that company employees can access them.
The filing also references âwhistleblowersâ as sources of the allegations, though it does not identify them.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are seeking class action status for the case. Several attorneys listed from the firms Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Keller Postman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Another lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Jay Barnett of Barnett Legal, declined to comment.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
