Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), has raised concerns about the security of Meta’s messaging service, WhatsApp, saying it is “not secure at all”.
Musk’s comments came in response to a user on X who questioned why they were seeing ads related to conversations they had on WhatsApp, despite the platform claiming to offer end-to-end encryption.
This is not the first time Musk has criticized WhatsApp. Earlier this year, he accused the messaging service of exporting user data nightly for targeted advertising. He cited this as evidence that WhatsApp prioritizes user data for its own benefit rather than protecting user privacy.
Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, responded to Musk’s claims, stating that WhatsApp takes security seriously and that end-to-end encryption protects user messages. He refuted the notion that messages are sent to WhatsApp every night or exported for data analysis.
However, security researcher Tommy Mysk pointed out that while WhatsApp messages may be encrypted, metadata like user location, communication patterns, and online activity is still collected and used for targeted advertising across Meta services, as outlined in WhatsApp’s privacy policy. Mysk concluded that Musk’s criticism is valid.
Musk’s ongoing feud with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dates back to 2022 when Musk expressed concerns about Zuckerberg’s dominance over social media through Meta’s ownership of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The rivalry escalated in 2023 with a planned cage match that never materialized. The launch of Meta’s Threads platform, seen as a direct competitor to Twitter, further strained relations between the two tech titans.