Meta sued over WhatsApp privacy claims as users question encryption

Meta is facing a new lawsuit over WhatsApp privacy and encryption claims, after an international group of users accused the company of misleading billions of people about what “end-to-end encrypted” really means.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in US District Court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs allege Meta’s public assurances — including WhatsApp’s in-app message stating 'only people in this chat can read' messages — are false. They claim Meta and WhatsApp 'store, analyse, and can access" most user communications, and that WhatsApp’s privacy marketing has misled users worldwide.

Bloomberg reported the group includes plaintiffs from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa, and alleges Meta stores the substance of communications and that employees can access them. The complaint also references unnamed 'whistleblowers,' though it does not identify them publicly.

Meta rejected the allegations, calling the case 'frivolous.' A spokesperson said WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade and said the company would pursue sanctions against the plaintiffs’ legal team.

The case has quickly resurfaced broader debate over what privacy protections messaging apps can realistically guarantee. While end-to-end encryption is designed to prevent platforms from reading message contents, privacy risks can still emerge from backups, account takeovers, and spyware on devices — concerns that security researchers and regulators have repeatedly raised in past investigations into messaging platforms.