Meta Platforms, Inc.

KTMC brought this case in the wake of reporting that whistleblowers had disclosed to the U.S. Government that, contrary to numerous public representations that any messages sent on the WhatsApp platform are private, WhatsApp and its parent company Meta, were permitting employees and contractors from Accenture, to regularly review the contents of user’s WhatsApp messages. Specifically, despite an intensive branding effort and marketing campaign that assures users and members of the public that any messages sent on the WhatsApp platform are protected by end-to-end encryption and cannot be viewed by anyone other than the messages’ sender and their intended recipient, whistleblowers have disclosed that, in truth, Meta and WhatsApp employees and third party contractors from Accenture have broad access to user’s WhatsApp messages and that these employees and contractors regularly view user’s WhatsApp messages. To redress this substantial invasion of privacy, KTMC has filed a complaint seeking both damages and an injunction and asserting federal and state wiretapping claims, breach of contract claims, common law invasion of privacy claims and statutory consumer protection claims in the Northern District of California.