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A 10-month Commerce Department probe concluded Meta could view all WhatsApp messages in unencrypted form

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[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 198 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"The claim that WhatsApp can access people's encrypted communications is patently false," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said. He added that the bureau had already "disavowed this purported investigation, calling its own employee's allegations unsubstantiated."

I can't help but notice that in response to people's concern that Meta may be able to read people's messages, the Meta spokesperson responds that WhatsApp can't read them. A little bit of administrative juggling on Meta's end so that the team with access to the messages doesn't fall within the WhatsApp department, and both claims could be true.

[-] IratePirate@feddit.org 34 points 1 month ago

But Facebook/"Meta" would never lie.

Oopsie! Hang on, they even lie to lawmakers in case buying them off fails? Bummer!

Seriously: this company needs to be scoured from the face of the earth.

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Mergers: Commission fines Facebook €110 million for providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover - Brussels, 18 May 2017

Classic

[-] IratePirate@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago

Profit made from yet more abuse of user data: 500m EUR
Cost of ~~misleading~~ lying to lawmakers: 110m EUR
Net profit: 390m EUR
"We got 'em good, boys! I'm sure they're never going to try that again!"

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

:’( poor general public

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

C'mon. It's not that hard. You're making the assumption that Andy Stone is telling the truth, with a gotchya astrict.

What if......the big business just......LIES???

[-] illi@piefed.social 12 points 1 month ago

The best lies have some kind of truth in them. Half truths are way more effective than complete falsehoods.

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

a gotchya astrict

Asterisk? This little fella? *

[-] count_duckula@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 month ago

Nah, probably meant the other little fella - Asterix the Gaul.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

Then they might get in trouble for false advertising.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

In what world do you live where billionsires face actual consequences?

Worst case scenario, Meta pays a small fine, and doesn't even blink. The day just goes on.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

I mean yeah, but they'd usually not pay even a small fine (or pay for legal proceedings), so it's a lot more efficient to use conveniently placed loopholes.

[-] elvith@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

GDPR has entered the chat

…assuming the EU representatives have some balls

[-] Mountainaire@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago
[-] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Are you telling me that the company that hosts "free" not propaganda services and has been caught repeatedly stealing all possible data including data about women and presumably girls' periods and has been caught in one of the largest data manipulation scandals this century could be betraying my trust with their "vawwy vawwy pwivate and vawwy vawwy encwypted" closed source and again operated by the most sinister motherfuckers of all time messaging app????

I. Am. Shocked.

I'm also looking for a bridge on the cheap if you guys have any leads.

[-] socsa@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

It's likely the cloud backups they can read. Encrypted archives are hard to sync across devices while still keeping the same level of security. I always advise against it if you don't have a good reason to do it.

It's also all but confirmed that they use on-device keyword recognition for targeted advertising. So if the app can phone home for some keywords, then it can phone home for anything.

this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
811 points (100.0% liked)

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