this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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As evidence, the lawsuit cites unnamed "courageous whistleblowers" who allege that WhatsApp and Meta employees can request to view a user's messages through a simple process, thus bypassing the app's end-to-end encryption. "A worker need only send a 'task' (i.e., request via Meta's internal system) to a Meta engineer with an explanation that they need access to WhatsApp messages for their job," the lawsuit claims. "The Meta engineering team will then grant access -- often without any scrutiny at all -- and the worker's workstation will then have a new window or widget available that can pull up any WhatsApp user's messages based on the user's User ID number, which is unique to a user but identical across all Meta products."

"Once the Meta worker has this access, they can read users' messages by opening the widget; no separate decryption step is required," the 51-page complaint adds. "The WhatsApp messages appear in widgets commingled with widgets containing messages from unencrypted sources. Messages appear almost as soon as they are communicated -- essentially, in real-time. Moreover, access is unlimited in temporal scope, with Meta workers able to access messages from the time users first activated their accounts, including those messages users believe they have deleted." The lawsuit does not provide any technical details to back up the rather sensational claims.

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[–] roserose56@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 hour ago

No surprised at all tbf.

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I never used WhatsApp, but what made people think they used e2e? I'm way passed blindly believing what any company says they do without proof. I'd expect some kind of key or certificate management in the app, is that present?

Heck.. my default is still to think every website does plaintext password storage. I can't prove it, but neither can they. Stop storing my passwords in plaintext lemmy! /s

[–] purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 2 points 28 minutes ago

Around a year ago WhatsApp had large ads that just said "no one else can read your messages." I don't think most people thought that some one could, which makes me wonder why they were paying so much to say it.

[–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 hours ago

Proposed line of defense: "With all respect, M. Judge, with all the different times we fucked our users, lied to them, tricked them, experimented on them, ignored them, we already sold private discussions on Facebook in the past, our CEO and founder most famous quote is «They trust me, dumbfucks!», the list goes on and on: no one in their sane mind would genuinely believe we were not spying on Whatsapp! They try to play dumb, they could not possibly believe we were being fair and honest THIS time?!"

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 33 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

15 years ago I’d have called this a conspiracy theory given how the evidence seems to be anecdotal, but given literally every single other thing we’ve learned in recent times about how cartoonishly evil and lying the tech bros truly are, it seems entirely likely.

[–] Delilah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Wait, you are telling me that the company whos entire business is collecting personal information, including people who don't sign up for their services, to leverage for advertising, is keeping their platforms unsecured they can continually grab more information rather than secure it?

I for one am shocked, absolutely shocked.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 7 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, except they’re not leveraging your data for advertising, they’re leveraging it so they can manipulate your political views and keep you from finding solidarity with other working people.

[–] dogzilla@masto.deluma.biz 3 points 3 hours ago

@FlyingCircus @technology These two things are the same thing

[–] pinesolcario@lemy.lol 11 points 6 hours ago
[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 80 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Well if I can't trust Meta with my information, who CAN I trust

[–] chemicalprophet@slrpnk.net 39 points 9 hours ago (4 children)
[–] usernameusername@sh.itjust.works 31 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Oh okay. My location is 55.752121, 37.617664, my full name is Jeremy, and my password is hunter9. I trust you not to tell this to anybody

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 24 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Your full name is "Jeremy"?

[–] usernameusername@sh.itjust.works 18 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Oh god damnit chemicalprofet why did you tell this guy i thougjt i could trust you :((

[–] bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

All I see is '••••••'

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 28 minutes ago

I see '******' though.
Maybe it's just a different interface.

[–] EdgeOfDistraction@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

Just like Cher (which is short for Cheremy).

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 18 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Your secret is safe with us and our 36,893 affiliates.

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[–] mudkip@lemdro.id 4 points 5 hours ago

It was obvious.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 hours ago

It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere. It looks like the claims are based on specific aspects of California law (put simply: wiretapping, privacy, and deceptive business practices). Do they have a strong case? I don't know, not worth my personal time to research state law on these issues.

Is there enough to go to court? Certainly the lawyers think so, and I agree. If Meta is claiming E2EE (which it is) and then immediately undercutting that by re-transmitting large numbers of messages to itself (which is alleged), that sure feels deceptive to me, and it's easy to think that a jury might agree.

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