Big Tech Company Monitors WhatsApp Messages After All, According to Investigation

Big Tech Company Monitors WhatsApp Messages After All, According to Investigation

(UnitedReader.com) – With technology taking control of just about everything in our lives, it’s no surprise those same devices monitor us to some degree. However, few people understand just how far that watchful eye goes. Just how much time does Big Tech really spend spying on the average American? A new report reveals the truth.

Privacy Denied

Big Tech giant Facebook vows its employees don’t read messages between users on its WhatsApp messaging platform, saying the company takes pride in its privacy policy. Yet, the conglomerate is actively paying groups around the globe to read through and moderate the messages sent between users.

According to a ProPublica investigation, the tech company employs thousands of people in Austin, Texas, Singapore, and Dublin. Their core task? Review and interpret private messages for comments that might violate guidelines or break the law. Facebook openly acknowledges the existence of these moderators.

Facebook’s Excuse

The tech giant says moderators only read users’ messages reported by others for abuse, at which time they review them and act accordingly. WhatsApp’s FAQ claims content admin team members only receive the most recent messages between users or groups after someone reports a violation. Facebook, for its part, maintains its claim that WhatsApp’s encryption code prevents anyone from reading random messages.

WhatsApp’s “Protection”

WhatsApp’s alleged encryption gives “end-to-end” protection that scrambles sent messages. Facebook says the same process only unscrambles them after a user opens the exchange to read it. But there’s a catch: moderators receive an unencrypted version of the messages after someone reports abuse, as per the aforementioned ProPublica report.

A Facebook spokesperson assigned to handle WhatsApp inquiries asserts that the app’s end-to-end encryption protects over 100 billion messages on a daily basis. The unnamed individual says the service has built-in limits on what data the app collects to prevent spam and abuse. They feel the feature is in the best interest of users and accepting reports doesn’t interfere with the app’s end-to-end encryption.

But how do we really know if they’re telling the truth? Big Tech could very well be looking at every single message we send — we would never know it. The same technology that brings us closer together drives us further apart in other ways. Yet, it also opened the door for tech companies and the government to monitor our everyday lives.

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