Texas lawsuit accuses Meta, WhatsApp of misleading users on privacy
Texas lawsuit accuses Meta, WhatsApp of misleading users on privacy
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/texas-lawsuit-accuses-meta-whatsapp-165339420.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-22 12:53:00
Source Domain: www.yahoo.com
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., alleging the company misled users of the popular messaging app about whether their encrypted communications are truly inaccessible to Meta.
The lawsuit, filed in Harrison County, came one day after Paxton’s office opened a separate privacy investigation into the company’s smart glasses, which can record audio and video.
“Meta has a rich track record of (i) choosing profit and ‘efficiency’ over meaningful user protections; and (ii) speaking in half-truths (at best) when it comes to reporting breaches or other potentially negative information to the public, investors, and regulators,” states the lawsuit.
The lawsuit follows Bloomberg reporting on the issue and cites interviews with government officials and a whistleblower complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also overlaps with allegations in a similar January lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco by plaintiffs from South Africa, Mexico and other countries.
“Texans deserve to know whether their private communications are indeed truly private,” Paxton said in a news release.
Paxton’s suit includes no original technical or forensic analysis, but alleges the company is violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act.
Meta, the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, denied the allegations in an emailed statement.
“WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications and any suggestion to the contrary is false. We will fight this suit as we continue defending our strong record on protecting people’s messages,” said Rachel Holland of Meta Public Affairs.
Both lawsuits are heavily concerned with Meta’s past conduct, citing illegal data harvesting done by Cambridge Analytica a decade ago, Federal Trade Commission violations resulting in a consent decree before that, and billions of dollars in fines the company has…
