Lawsuit Against Meta: New Allegations on Privacy Concerns
A lawsuit has been filed in the San Francisco court against Meta Platforms, where an international group of plaintiffs claims that the company misled WhatsApp users regarding the privacy of their messages. According to Bloomberg, the complaint states that Meta and WhatsApp "store, analyze, and have the ability to access almost all WhatsApp chats that are marketed as private." The plaintiffs accuse the company and its management of fraud against billions of users of the service.
Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, dismissed these allegations. Company spokesperson Andy Stone called the lawsuit "ridiculous" and stated that the company would seek sanctions against the plaintiffs' attorneys. He asserted that claims of a lack of encryption are "categorically false and absurd." Stone emphasized that WhatsApp has been using the Signal protocol for end-to-end encryption for ten years, ensuring that only the sender and recipient have access to the messages.
The lawsuit was filed by citizens of Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa. The document states that Meta retains the content of messages, and employees can access them. "Whistleblowers" are mentioned as the source of information, but their identities are not disclosed.
It is worth noting that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission continues its legal battle against Meta over monopoly issues in the social media market. The regulator insists that Meta maintains dominance in the personal social networking market by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp.
