Tech: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said that US agencies such as the CIA can hack into the messenger platform and read messages by physically accessing devices. The agencies are abled enough despite the app’s end-to-end encryption, the CEO told The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
The head of the social media giant was confirming that governmental agencies can bypass encryption to access private communications. He explained that when the encryption prevents Meta’s servers from accessing the content of chats, the protection cannot be extended to data stored on the user’s device.
“The thing that encryption does is it makes it so that the company running the service doesn’t see it. If you’re using WhatsApp, there’s no point at which the Meta servers see the contents of that message,” WION quoted him.
Zuckerberg said that spy tools such as controversial Pegasus software enable agencies to directly access data stored on devices. He said that these tools allow surveillance, including reading messages, viewing photos and accessing logs. They will not need to intercept communications in transit for this.
However, he said that measures are in the works by the messenger to enhance users' privacy, and disappearing messages were introduced to that account.
Disappearing Messages feature automatically deletes messages after a set time, reducing the amount of sensitive data stored on users’ devices.
In the meantime, governments argue that end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp hinders efforts to combat crime and terrorism, sealing communication transmissions.