A proposed class action lawsuit has accused Meta Platforms of allowing employees, contractors, and third parties to access private messages on WhatsApp, despite marketing the service as fully private and end-to-end encrypted.
The 52-page complaint claims that although WhatsApp promotes its platform as one where only the sender and recipient can read messages, internal staff, Ireland-based firm Accenture, and possibly other third parties could access communications through a “backdoor” in the app’s source code.
According to the filing, this alleged backdoor allows Meta and WhatsApp personnel, along with contractors, to bypass encryption and view user messages. Whilst the access is reportedly used to evaluate the content which is marked for fraud or policy violations, the lawsuit states that these groups still have broad access to user communications.
The complaint further alleges that users are not informed or asked for consent regarding their messages being intercepted, read, stored, or accessed. It adds that WhatsApp’s privacy policy states messages are typically stored on users’ devices and not retained on company servers.
The lawsuit alleges that third-party contractors, WhatsApp employees, and Meta personnel had access to user chats, citing whistleblower disclosures given to federal authorities. Special agents from the US Department of Commerce are apparently looking into these reports.
The complaint further mentions that WhatsApp used the Signal Protocol in collaboration with Open Whisper Systems, which is generally understood to guarantee that communications remain unreadable by anybody other than the intended recipients. However, the petition claims that Meta does not release its source code, which makes it impossible to separately confirm whether a backdoor of this kind exists.
According to the case, there may be a way to access encrypted messages because WhatsApp can comply with government inquiries in nations like India and the UK.
Additionally, it states that hundreds of Accenture contractors were hired by WhatsApp worldwide in 2021 or 2022 to examine and filter message content. The petition claims that usernames and profile information were provided to reviewers along with flagged communications, including conversations spanning many days.
According to the lawsuit, WhatsApp has continuously promoted itself as a secure messaging service since its 2009 debut, stressing that messages are encrypted and inaccessible to the business.
Additionally, it asserts that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has openly declared that WhatsApp does not maintain user chat logs. According to the complaint, these guarantees run counter to the purported actions detailed in the document.
The lawsuit aims to represent every American WhatsApp user who transmitted or received communications on the app between April 5, 2016, and the present.
In most cases, users are not required to participate in a class action lawsuit during the filing phase. Eligible customers are often informed and given additional advice if the lawsuit ends in a settlement.
Many famous figures have acknowledged the lawsuit. Pointing out rumors about the case, Elon Musk said on X that WhatsApp is unreliable.
WhatsApp responded by claiming that the accusations are untrue and that its platform has long depended on end-to-end encryption utilizing the Signal Protocol to guarantee that communications are only accessible by senders and recipients.
In addition, Pavel Durov attacked WhatsApp. He claimed that WhatsApp reads the conversations as well as shares them with third parties while misguiding its users about security. He said:
“Telegram does not engage in such practices,”.
A request for a response from Benzinga was not immediately answered by Meta.
As stated in the report, earlier on, Meta was blamed for misrepresenting encryption practices of WhatsApp in a similar case that was filed earlier this year.
According to Benzinga Pro, Meta Platforms shares surged 2.61% to finish at $628.39 on Thursday and then increased an additional 0.099% to $629.01 in after-hours trading.
