publica Recently published an explosive report which claimed that Facebook Undermines WhatsApp’s privacy protections. despite assurances WhatsApp Users of E2E encryption, Facebook moderators can access “user messages, images and videos”. ProPublica’s report raised eyebrows globally and made headlines shortly thereafter. However, it turns out that ProPublica’s report was factually incorrect and he himself has now admitted that his “story inadvertently created confusion” and that he “changed the language in the story.”
While it cannot be denied that Facebook moderators have the ability to scrutinize messages sent on WhatsApp, there is one important piece of information that the report failed to clarify. Only messages that are reported by users can be scrutinized by moderators– who are essentially contract employees of Facebook. These moderators do not have access to your chats.
According to a report from 9to5 Mac, Facebook moderators can only view and check “user messages, pictures and videos” when the sender or receiver presses the report button to report the message to WhatsApp. As 9to5 Mac reports, “When the recipient of a message uses WhatsApp’s report feature, the message is effectively auto-forwarded to Facebook.” It also states that “entering the report creates a new end-to-end encrypted message for Facebook, which then keeps the key as it is the recipient of the intended message.”
Acknowledging this, ProPublica said, “A previous version of this story inadvertently created confusion about whether WhatsApp scrutinizes messages from its users and whether it breaks the encryption that keeps exchanges secret. The company only examines messages from threads that have been described as potentially abusive by users. This does not break end-to-end encryption.”
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