Fresh legal scrutiny has emerged around the privacy promises of one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms, raising concerns over how secure user communications really are.
An international group of plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, alleging that the company has misled users about the privacy and security of WhatsApp chats. The suit challenges Meta’s long-standing claim that WhatsApp messages are protected by default through end-to-end encryption.
WhatsApp promotes end-to-end encryption as a system where messages can only be read by the sender and the recipient, not by the company itself. In-app messaging states that “only people in this chat can read, listen to, or share” the content.
However, in a complaint filed on Friday in the US District Court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs allege that these claims are false. The lawsuit says Meta and WhatsApp “store, analyze, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications,” accusing the companies and their leadership of misleading billions of users worldwide.
Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, has strongly denied the allegations. A company spokesperson described the lawsuit as “frivolous” and said Meta “will pursue sanctions against plaintiffs’ counsel.”
“Any claim that people’s WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd,” spokesperson Andy Stone said in an email. “WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade. This lawsuit is a frivolous work of fiction.”
The plaintiffs include users from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa. They allege that Meta stores the substance of user communications and that company employees can access this data. The complaint also refers to information provided by “whistleblowers,” though it does not identify them or explain their role in detail.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs have asked the court to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit. Several attorneys listed in the filing did not respond to requests for comment. Another lawyer for the plaintiffs declined to comment.
The case adds to growing global debates around data privacy, encryption, and transparency in digital communication platforms, especially as billions of users rely on such services for personal and professional conversations.
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