WhatsApp markets itself on privacy. “Not even WhatsApp can read your messages” is the pitch. A new class action lawsuit claims otherwise.
WhatsApp users Brian Y. Shirazi and Nida Samson filed the case recently in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Meta, WhatsApp, and consulting firm Accenture.
The duo alleges that Meta employees and Accenture contractors had broad access to the content of private WhatsApp messages, including those flagged for fraud or policy violations, despite the company’s repeated assurances that end-to-end encryption prevents anyone, including WhatsApp itself, from reading them.
Meta has strongly denied the allegations, though. A company spokesperson called the claims ‘categorically false and absurd,’ saying that WhatsApp has used end-to-end encryption via the Signal Protocol for a decade.
Scope of the Legal Action
Shirazi and Samson further claim that users were never asked to consent to having their messages read, stored, or accessed by WhatsApp, Meta, or any third parties. The complaint seeks to cover messages going back to April 5, 2016, and proposes to represent a nationwide class of affected users, with subclasses in California and Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit names breach of contract, violations of California privacy and data laws, false advertising, unfair competition, and Pennsylvania’s wiretapping statute, among other violations. The plaintiffs have requested a jury trial and seek the full range of damages for themselves and all class members.
This isn’t Meta’s only legal headache at the moment. Last month, a separate group of consumers sued the company, alleging it enabled a stock pump-and-dump scheme that cost victims millions.
Sources: Top Class Actions, Justia, Bloomberg