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As evidence, the lawsuit cites unnamed "courageous whistleblowers" who allege that WhatsApp and Meta employees can request to view a user's messages through a simple process, thus bypassing the app's end-to-end encryption. "A worker need only send a 'task' (i.e., request via Meta's internal system) to a Meta engineer with an explanation that they need access to WhatsApp messages for their job," the lawsuit claims. "The Meta engineering team will then grant access -- often without any scrutiny at all -- and the worker's workstation will then have a new window or widget available that can pull up any WhatsApp user's messages based on the user's User ID number, which is unique to a user but identical across all Meta products."

"Once the Meta worker has this access, they can read users' messages by opening the widget; no separate decryption step is required," the 51-page complaint adds. "The WhatsApp messages appear in widgets commingled with widgets containing messages from unencrypted sources. Messages appear almost as soon as they are communicated -- essentially, in real-time. Moreover, access is unlimited in temporal scope, with Meta workers able to access messages from the time users first activated their accounts, including those messages users believe they have deleted." The lawsuit does not provide any technical details to back up the rather sensational claims.

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[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

at what point is it someone's responsibility to simply know better?

this isn't some complicated deceit it's literally one of the most untrustworthy companies in the world lying to your face. A company we've known for now like two decades is untrustworthy and overtly harms people to make money

do people have responsibility at all?

[-] YeahToast@aussie.zone 2 points 3 months ago

People can't take increase responsibility for every single aspect of life. It seems straightforward to you because you're likely tech literate. Do you know every process around how the mechanic services your vehicle, how medicines are made that you consume, how food is curated that you consume, how energy is generated that you consume? People can't have intimate knowledge of every aspect of life, therefore if a company says "this is E2EE" you should be able to believe that at face value and rely on consumer protection agencies to follow up if it's inaccurate.

[-] ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

You don't need to be tech literate to follow the news. Meta has been caught in lie after lie for YEARS and it has all been widely reported on. Meta needs to face actual repercussions for their crimes against humanity, but anybody still buying into their bullshit is being willfully ignorant.

[-] gustofwind@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago

No that’s not correct at all. If a company says something you do not in fact just get to believe it at face value and do 0 research, this applies in every field you mentioned. What planet are you from where you are supposed to just believe what companies say at face value????

People often get second options from different mechanics, doctors, contractors, and all sorts of specialists when told something because you need to do your own research to know about stuff.

You literally do in fact need to try and learn and make informed decisions about everything in life.

[-] fodor@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago

What you're positing here is a view of life that Margaret Thatcher loved. The idea is, "There is no society. There are no laws. There is no oversight. Everything, all responsibility, all of it is 1000% individual."

Of course in reality that's nonsense. We live in a world with laws that are sometimes enforced, where governments sometimes protect us, because we want them to, because that's good for us all.

But even if you believe in Thatcher's view, then you have the problem of corporations. You can't seriously argue that we should be responsible for everything ourselves, as individuals, and also that corporations should exist, because they are anti-individual.

[-] YeahToast@aussie.zone 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Chief, if you needed to make an informed decision about every decision in life, there'd be no time for life. That's why other people specialize in jobs so that within reason, confidence can be placed to their decision. I'm not saying you blindly agree and follow everything, but people can't be responsible for every decision. For example, who made the seatbelt in your car? What research did you personally do to verify the safety of your seatbelt. What maintenance have you done to it to ensure that it works as intended? Pretty important life saving bit of equipment.

Edit: my presumption is that you(or the vast majority of the population) haven't done any research into your seatbelt because you trust in the car company and the safety rating requirements of your nation to ensure adequate protection.

[-] fodor@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago

If companies are lying in their advertising to the general public, then that is something the companies are responsible for. You can blame the victims, but that's kind of stupid because there are so many people in the world who are not technically savvy. They don't have the resources, background, knowledge, and skills to evaluate whether what the company is telling them is true. That's why there are laws designed to protect consumers from lying companies.

Would it be great if everyone was an expert in everything? Yes. Are they? No. They never will be. That's why we have laws.

this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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