Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement on January 11, 2025 that American authorities such as the CIA i.e. Central Intelligence Agency can read WhatsApp message chats if they physically access the user's device.

WhatsApp is the most used instant messaging app in the world. This app has more than 295 crore daily active users all over the world. WhatsApp is considered to be the safest messaging app. The main reason for this is the presence of end-to-end encryption in it. Its privacy feature protects the private chats of users from being leaked. The company claims that only the sender and receiver have access to the chats done on WhatsApp. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has issued a statement regarding the privacy of WhatsApp. After this, crores of users of the world have come under tension.

In fact, Mark Zuckerberg has said in a statement on January 11, 2025 that US authorities such as the CIA i.e. Central Intelligence Agency can read WhatsApp message chats if they physically access the user's device. He said in his statement that WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption takes full care of the privacy of users. However, if any agency has access to the user's device, then the chats done through it can be accessed.

Mark Zuckerberg gave this answer

Responding to a question asked in a podcast with The Joe Rogan Experience channel, Mark Zuckerberg said that WhatsApp's encryption feature is for Meta's server. In this, the communication done through the server such as messages, files etc. are kept safe, but not the device. If any government agency gets hold of the user's device, then the chats done through this device can be accessed.

What will happen if spyware is found in the device?

However, Meta CEO also said that if any spyware like Pegasus software etc. is installed in the device, then the agency will have access to the device. In this situation, agencies can access WhatsApp chats. In view of these risks, many privacy features have been added to WhatsApp recently, which include disappearing messages etc. This feature deletes the chat from the device at a fixed time. In such a situation, the privacy of the chats remains intact.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from abplive.com. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation.