Texas AG Sues What­sApp for 'Lying About Pri­va­cy'

Texas AG Sues What­sApp for 'Lying About Pri­va­cy' | PCMag

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Meta and WhatsApp, claiming that Meta “misled consumers regarding the strength and scope” of WhatsApp’s privacy protections, though encryption experts have criticized his claims.WhatsApp provides end-to-end (E2EE) encryption, meaning no one, except the two parties involved, can read the messages, including Meta. Paxton, a Republican currently running for US Senate, claims that “investigations and insider accounts" have shown Meta's claims about being unable to access users' messages to be "blatantly inaccurate.” He alleges that reports suggest WhatsApp employees have been able to access user communications, and that “message content can be pulled and viewed after the message has been sent.”“I am suing to protect Texans’ privacy and ensure that WhatsApp by Meta does not mislead Texans by unlawfully accessing private conversations and data,” the AG says. You May Also Like

The lawsuit alleges violations of Texas's Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act (DTPA), which allows individuals and businesses to sue companies for false, misleading, or deceptive business practices.In January, WhatsApp was hit with a class-action lawsuit that said its end-to-end encryption is a sham. Meta, however, called the claims "false and absurd." More recently, Meta says it has tried to engage with the plaintiffs in that case, but isn't getting anywhere. The “so-called ‘whistleblowers’ behind the complaint are confused, deeply misinformed, or acting in bad faith," Meta says.Paxton is citing a Bloomberg report from April 2026, in which a special agent with the Office of Export Enforcement allegedly examined claims that Meta employees and contractors could view WhatsApp message content. The case was later closed.Benjamin Dowling, a senior lecturer in cryptography at King’s College London and a co-author of the study, tells Ars Technica that, “all the evidence we are aware of points towards WhatsApp providing users with end-to-end encryption for their message contents.” Recommended by Our Editors WhatsApp Adds an Incognito Mode to Keep Your Chats With Meta AI Private WhatsApp Plus Subscription Is Reportedly Rolling Out to Select iOS Users Meta: Lawsuit Claiming WhatsApp Lacks End-to-End Encryption Is Falling Apart

Though Dowling's team found “weaknesses in the protocol, such as a lack of user control over things like group membership...we are not aware of any concrete evidence that WhatsApp has broken their promise of end-to-end encryption,” he added.Kenny Paterson, a researcher at ETH Zurich called the “vast majority” of the lawsuit “general dung-throwing in Meta’s direction,” saying the case was “built on a very thin evidence base.”It’s important to note that though E2EE protects the messages themselves, it does not hide their metadata, which can reveal what time a message was sent and to whom. WhatsApp metadata has used in investigations that led to people being sentenced for sharing classified US government information—including former Treasury Department official Natalie Edwards, who messaged a BuzzFeed reporter 70 times before an investigation was published.

About Our Expert Will McCurdy Contributor Experience I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs. Latest By Will McCurdy Still Using Your Chromecast? Google Says It Will Live On Amid Fears Apple May Be Preparing Mysterious New Over-Ear Headphones Meta Joins Snap, TikTok, YouTube in Settling Social Media Addiction Case Companies Using Anthropic's Mythos AI Uncover 10K+ Serious Software Bugs First VPN Seized by European Authorities Over Organized Crime Links More from Will McCurdy Read Full Bio

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