Meta exec denies having access to WhatsApp chats amid privacy lawsuit

San Francisco, CA — A senior executive at Meta Platforms Inc. provided key testimony in federal court yesterday, vigorously denying claims that the company or its employees have the technical ability to access the content of private user messages on the WhatsApp platform. The denial comes as Meta battles a high-profile class-action lawsuit alleging widespread privacy violations and improper data handling.

During a deposition related to the litigation, Meta’s Chief Operating Officer of Privacy and Data Integrity, Ms. Evelyn Reed, stated under oath that WhatsApp’s stringent end-to-end encryption (E2EE) protocols make it technically impossible for Meta staff, including herself, to read or intercept the substance of user chats.

‘The architecture of WhatsApp is specifically designed so that only the sender and the receiver can decrypt the messages. If we cannot access the message contents ourselves, we certainly cannot misuse them,’ Ms. Reed testified, characterizing the encryption mechanism as an inviolable defense against both external threats and internal snooping.

The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of consumer privacy groups, centers on allegations that Meta improperly handles user data collected through WhatsApp, though the plaintiffs have also implied that content access may have occurred. Ms. Reed’s testimony serves as a crucial defensive strategy for Meta, aiming to draw a clear line between the company’s ability to access metadata (such as timestamps and IP addresses) and its complete lack of access to the encrypted message content. Legal analysts note that the outcome of this testimony will significantly influence the court’s perception of Meta’s adherence to global privacy standards.

Source: Meta exec denies having access to WhatsApp chats amid privacy lawsuit