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A federal agent said WhatsApp's encryption is a lie. Then the investigation was shut down
(www.techspot.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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I never assumed that this presumed "end to end encryption" was secure in any way. The key exchange either runs over Meta servers, and they just log them, or the client software simply surrenders the key (maybe always, maybe on demand) together with the data stream that still runs over Meta servers.
They can log anything they want and have nothing useful, if the encryption protocol is sound.
Have a look at how TLS is designed, if you want to know more.
You can have the soundest encryption in the world but if they have access to the keys it doesn’t matter, they can see everything.
But the key exchange is not the issue then.
Access to private keys is.
If the host system, on which the key exchange runs, is compromised, you're toast.
Where's the private key? I can get a new phone, log with WhatsApp and download all the historical messages without intruducing any additional password or key.
I assume they have all the required data too.
@Railcar8095 @zergtoshi actually is not my exlerience with whatsapp, since I have the backups disable, everytime I change phones I lost all my conversations. But since whatsapp is closed source, the app can indeed use encryption to comunicate p2p, but I will allways assume that the key is logged by meta, "just in case"
Sounds like a compromised phone in the sense that it doesn't protect (and instead transmit) the private key.
That's not the phones fault, but how WhatsApp works
How is a phone not compromised if it hosts apps that play into the hands of evil actors?
it is not, unless the app can exfiltrate data from other apps
I undersrstand my threat model and how to limit exposure.