Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday said that US authorities like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can read our WhatsApp messages by physically accessing devices.
He added that this is possible despite the app’s end-to-end encryption. While speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Zuckerberg addressed questions about how government agencies can bypass encryption to access private communications.
Zuckerberg explained that while WhatsApp’s encryption ensures that Meta’s servers cannot see the content of messages, this protection does not extend to data stored on a 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,” he said.
However, authorities can exploit vulnerabilities in devices themselves, bypassing encryption entirely, according to him.
This revelation came during a discussion about journalist Tucker Carlson’s allegations that US intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA, interfered with his attempts to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin by accessing his private messages.
Carlson had claimed that these agencies leaked his plans, disrupting the interview process with the Russian leader.
Zuckerberg also told Rogan that tools such as spyware, including the controversial Pegasus software, are enabling agencies to directly access data stored on devices.
According to him, these tools allow surveillance, including reading encrypted messages, viewing photos, and accessing call logs, without needing to intercept communications in transit.
In response to these risks, Zuckerberg said that measures are being introduced by WhatsApp to enhance user privacy, for example disappearing messages.
This feature automatically deletes messages after a set time, reducing the amount of sensitive data stored on devices.
“If someone has compromised your phone, they can see everything as it comes in. Having it encrypted and disappearing is a good standard of security and privacy,” he said.
While encryption protects communications during transmission, governments argue it can hinder efforts to combat crime and terrorism.
A 2021 FBI document revealed that agencies can gain limited access to encrypted communications on platforms like WhatsApp and iMessage through methods such as cloud backups or device access.
