U.S. House of Representatives personnel have allegedly been prohibited from utilizing WhatsApp. Axios indicates that the House’s chief administrative officer notified staff on Monday that Meta’s messaging platform is now off-limits due to security issues.
“The Office of Cybersecurity has classified WhatsApp as a significant risk to users because of insufficient transparency in its user data protection methods, the lack of encrypted stored data, and possible security vulnerabilities linked to its usage,” the chief administrative officer stated in an email reviewed by Axios.
Consequently, House personnel are now forbidden from having WhatsApp on any official devices, or even accessing its web version on such devices. They are instead being guided towards alternatives like Signal, Microsoft Teams, Amazon’s Wickr, or Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime.
In a response to the matter on X, Meta’s communications director Andy Stone dismissed these security apprehensions, asserting that members of the House and Senate frequently use WhatsApp.
“Messages on WhatsApp are encrypted end-to-end by default, meaning that only the intended recipients can access them, and not even WhatsApp itself,” Stone noted. “This represents a superior level of security compared to many of the applications listed by the CAO that lack such protection.”
End-to-end encryption is a security feature that conceals messages so they can solely be decrypted by the targeted recipient. Signal’s end-to-end encryption is perpetually activated, enhancing its reputation for privacy focus. iMessage, FaceTime, and Wickr also seem to provide this encryption by default. The exception is Microsoft Teams, which requires users to enable its end-to-end encryption.
When contacted for remarks by Mashable, Meta reaffirmed Stone’s assertion.
Concerns over the security of applications utilized by government employees are not a recent phenomenon. States like New York and Texas have launched prohibitions against DeepSeek’s AI application on government devices in several cases, while TikTok was restricted from all federal devices in early 2023.