US Federal Agencies Spy on WhatsApp Users From China – No Explanation Provided

Messages from WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, as nobody else besides two people chatting can see the messages. Or at least that’s what the developers are telling us.

WhatsApp’s encryption is useless, at least in the face of federal agencies from the US. According to Forbes.com, such agencies have been using an old surveillance law to secretly spy on WhatsApp users. Furthermore, they didn’t offer any explanation.

Seven WhatsApp users from China and Macau were spied

Back in November 2021, DEA investigators demanded WhatsApp to spy on seven users from China and Macau. The DEA didn’t even know the identities of the seven individuals. Instead, the famous instant-messaging app was asked to monitor the IP addresses and numbers of the targets.

Otherwise, WhatsApp remains a highly-trusted instant-messaging app. It’s owned by Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. The app was acquired by the famous tech giant back in 2014. At that time, Facebook paid an astronomical amount of money to buy WhatsApp: $16 billion.

Slowly but surely, WhatsApp became the leading instant messaging app in the world. Today the app counts 2 billion users. The fact that the app is free to use is extremely tempting, and pretty much everybody is using it.

Here’s how WhatsApp is described within the Google Play Store:

WhatsApp from Facebook is a FREE messaging and video calling app. It’s used by over 2B people in more than 180 countries. It’s simple, reliable, and private, so you can easily keep in touch with your friends and family. WhatsApp works across mobile and desktop even on slow connections, with no subscription fees*.

Let’s face it: we’re all practically forced to use WhatsApp if the majority of our co-workers, friends, and family members are doing so! And that’s ok!