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Lawsuit Alleges That WhatsApp Has No End-to-End Encryption
(it.slashdot.org)
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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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DUH
No if this is proven it would be a real scandal and would bring a lot of users to better alternatives.
If it's false that's good too, since then WA has e2e encryption
Most users of whatsapp don't care about e2e. They hardly even know what it is.
Right. This place sometimes forget that we are tiny community of techies that hate the system. Makes me see this place as a bit of a circlejerk at times.
Yeah the venn diagram overlap of “people who understand and care about e2ee enough to drop a messaging app for not supporting it” and “people who use whatsapp” has to be a sliver
It must really be empty... Two contradictory assumptions lol
Not empty... It's hard to embark all your family, relatives and friends on your journey to fucking basic privacy principles
No but average people understand the concept of meta reading and accessing your private message. That would be a scandal and righly so
They don't but they do know what "Any Meta employee, and every US government employees, can read all of your messages" means
Especially if they saw it now
They don't know what e2e encryption is, but they sure as hell know what "employees have access to all your messages" means. Sure, it makes it harder for them to find a good alternative, but it will scare some away from Meta (unknown how many will actually care).
True. But some would care about broken promises
"Your messages are public and being read by silicon valley creeps"
That's easy enough to understand.
It's already a known risk, because WA uses centralized key management and servers, and always has regardless what Meta says. If you believe their bullshit, then I feel sad for you.
Also...you don't think that LAWYERS willing to go up against Meta would have rock solid proof from these whistleblowers FIRST before filing a lawsuit?
C'mon now, buddy.
I'm surprised anyone is surprised. It's been known since WhatsApp came out that it's not true e2ee because meta holds your keys.
Well they did this whole stupid "rebranding" of it becoming e2e after Facebook bought them a few years back, but literally every security researchers was like "Nahhhh, pass".
considering that you can decrypt facebook e2e encryption with a 6 digit security pin... yea Facebook at least has the private keys backed up server side.
I don't use any Meta products, so not sure how you mean. If you are a user that has been sending e2e messages, then you can surely decrypt said messages if you're a participant in those messages transactions.
So, with facebook if you lose your device, you can register a new device to the account and recover your messages using a 6 digit security pin or a recovery code.
This means that your messages are stored in decryptable format either via a private key being stored, or as a separate server encrypted form in a backup.
I just had to go through this with my grandfather a few months back.
This is not how civil court works. It's not trial by combat. There is no standard for the quality of lawsuits filed. And despite what the ambulance chasers say on TV, Layers get paid even when they loose.
"alleged in a lawsuit..." is the same level of credibility as "they out here saying...".
It doesn't matter if it's criminal or civil. The costs to bring such a case are massive, and you're leaving yourself open to a behemoth like Meta just dragging out the case for lengthy periods of time which drastically increase those costs.
No law firm files suit against a giant company like this unless they have rock solid proof they will, at the very least, land a settlement plus recuperation of costs. Just not a thing.
What do you want from me here?
Mark zuckerberg eats scandals for breakfast
Yes but Whatsapp has been pretty reliable and trustworthy for many people. No ads etc
we can't lose!
People wouldnt move. They know its not secure and they dont care enough.
How would we know?
It would not. People don't care. People don't care that meta is an evil corp. Encryption is not even close to the top 10 reasons people use that app. It's just a random word normal users throw around because marketing told them it's good.
Normal users don't talk about encryption at all but they somewhat trust WhatsApp
Shocked, I tell you
That's just another comment