Former contractors have alleged they and Meta staff had \u201cunfettered\u201d access to encrypted messages<\/p>\n
US federal authorities are investigating allegations that staff at WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms Inc. had access to message content despite the company marketing the app as protected by end-to-end encryption, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
\nSpecial agents from the US Department of Commerce\u2019s Bureau of Industry and Security have been examining claims from former Meta contractors who alleged that they and staff at Meta had \u201cunfettered access\u201d to WhatsApp messages.
\nOne contractor told an investigator that a Facebook team employee confirmed they could \u201cgo back a ways into WhatsApp (encrypted) messages,\u201d including in criminal cases, according to an agent\u2019s report reviewed by Bloomberg.
\nWhatsApp, which was acquired by Meta in 2014, insists on its website that \u201cno one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share\u201d what a user says.\u201d
\nMeta spokesperson Andy Stone had also denied the allegations, stating that \u201cwhat these individuals claim is not possible because WhatsApp, its employees, and its contractors, cannot access people\u2019s encrypted communications.\u201d
\nBloomberg noted that the inquiry, internally dubbed \u201cOperation Sourced Encryption,\u201d was described as ongoing in a July 2025 document and was reportedly active as recently as January. However, its current status is unclear, the outlet said, noting that many such investigations end \u201cwithout any formal accusations of wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Only \u2018braindead\u2019 believe WhatsApp is secure \u2013 Durov<\/p>\n
The probe follows a recent class-action lawsuit against Meta alleging the company can access and analyze virtually all WhatsApp communications. The claims have amplified longstanding skepticism from competitors and officials.
\nControlled by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, Meta also owns Facebook and Instagram, and in 2019 paid the US federal government $5\u00a0billion over a data privacy scandal involving the unauthorized harvesting of millions of Facebook users\u2019 personal information by a British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for political advertising.
\nPavel Durov, founder of the rival Telegram app, recently mocked anyone trusting WhatsApp\u2019s encryption claims, stating that \u201cyou\u2019d have to be braindead to believe WhatsApp is secure in 2026.\u201d
\nLast year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also stated that all messaging apps are \u201cabsolutely transparent systems\u201d to intelligence and security services and urged people to refrain from sharing sensitive information on such platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former contractors have alleged they and Meta staff had \u201cunfettered\u201d access to encrypted messages US federal authorities are investigating allegations that staff at WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms Inc. had access…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}