{"id":253652,"date":"2026-05-22T06:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T10:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/texas-sues-meta-over-misleading-whatsapp-privacy-claims\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T17:35:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:35:34","slug":"texas-sues-meta-over-misleading-whatsapp-privacy-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/texas-sues-meta-over-misleading-whatsapp-privacy-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sues Meta over ‘misleading’ WhatsApp privacy claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas sues Meta over ‘misleading’ WhatsApp privacy claims<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.tpr.org\/news\/2026-05-22\/texas-sues-meta-over-misleading-whatsapp-privacy-claims<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-22 06:21:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.tpr.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Meta and its messaging app WhatsApp, accusing the companies of misleading Texans about how private their messages really are.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, claims WhatsApp falsely told users their messages were protected by end-to-end encryption \u2014 meaning only the sender and recipient could read them. The state argues Meta and WhatsApp still had ways to access some user messages despite those promises.<\/p>\n

\n“WhatsApp’s assurances are false,” the lawsuit read. “WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta, have access to virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications.”<\/p>\n

\nAccording to court records, Paxton alleges WhatsApp marketed itself as a secure messaging app by telling users that “not even WhatsApp” could see their conversations. But the lawsuit alleges company employees and contractors were able to review certain messages.<\/p>\n

\nThe lawsuit also cites a Bloomberg report from April about a federal investigation into WhatsApp’s privacy claims. According to the report, a Commerce Department investigator concluded there was “no limit” to the type of WhatsApp messages Meta could access. Bloomberg said it couldn’t independently verify the claim, which Meta denied.<\/p>\n

\nPaxton’s office is asking the court to block the companies from making what it calls “false, misleading, and deceptive” privacy claims and to impose financial penalties under Texas consumer protection laws.<\/p>\n

\nMeta denied the allegations in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n“WhatsApp cannot access people’s encrypted communications and any suggestion to the contrary is false,” a company spokesperson said. “We will fight this suit as we continue defending our strong record on protecting people’s messages.”<\/p>\n

\nThis comes after Meta agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion in 2024 to settle claims the company unlawfully collected biometric data through facial recognition technology without users’ consent.\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KERA News<\/p>\n

…
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Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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