The tech entrepreneur has accused WhatsApp of ‘consumer fraud’ over its backup practices
RT composite. © Getty Images / Tero Vesalainen / nantonov
Telegram
founder and CEO Pavel Durov has accused WhatsApp of misleading users
about privacy, arguing that Telegram offers stronger protection for
sensitive content.
The Russian tech entrepreneur has repeatedly
criticized Meta-owned WhatsApp’s security model, dismissing claims that
the app cannot access user communications.
In a series of posts on Sunday, Durov described WhatsApp’s claim of “end-to-end encryption by default” as “a giant consumer fraud,” alleging that most private messages ultimately end up stored in plain-text cloud backups on Apple and Google servers.
”Add
the fact that WhatsApp stores and discloses who you chat with, and the
picture is dire,” he wrote, further claiming that Apple and Google
provide backed-up data from the service to third parties “thousands of times per year.”
In response to a user who said he only shares intimate images via Telegram, Durov replied: “Thanks for the trust – your nudes are safe with us.”
Telegram,
however, does not use end-to-end encryption by default. According to
the company’s own documentation, only its ‘Secret Chats’ feature offers
full end-to-end protection, while regular messages are stored in its
cloud. Critics have identified cloud backups as a weak point in
messaging privacy, as data stored outside encrypted channels may be
accessible under legal requests or breaches.
Security researchers say that while WhatsApp’s core messages are
end-to-end encrypted, its reliance on optional cloud backups can
undermine these protections, potentially exposing user data if
additional safeguards are not enabled.
Meta has long maintained
that messages are protected with end-to-end encryption and cannot be
accessed by the company. It also offers optional end-to-end encrypted
backups for users who enable the feature.
In January, a major
class-action lawsuit filed against Meta Platforms in a US district court
by an international group of plaintiffs from several countries accused
the company of making false claims about the privacy of its WhatsApp
service.
Durov has long criticized the platform as a “tool of surveillance,”
urging users to avoid it entirely, particularly after its 2014
acquisition by Meta, then known as Facebook. In 2022, he warned that
vulnerabilities regularly discovered in the app were not accidental but
likely backdoors.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone rejected the allegations, saying any claim that WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is “categorically false and absurd,” and described the lawsuit as “a frivolous work of fiction.”