Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu, creator of WhatsApp rival Arattai, takes aim at Meta’s privacy promises

Sridhar Vembu, the founder and chief scientist of Zoho, has voiced strong concerns about the feasibility of user privacy in advertising-driven business models. His remarks come in the wake of a lawsuit challenging Meta Platforms' assertions regarding the end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Vembu stated, "When your revenue relies on advertisements informed by user habits, privacy cannot be prioritized. The inherent conflict of interest is both real and significant." Vembu further elaborated that the relentless pressure from public markets for escalating profits makes it unrealistic to expect these tech giants to prioritize user privacy. His comments are particularly pertinent as an international group of plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco court, alleging that Meta has misled users about WhatsApp's privacy and security features. The lawsuit argues that, despite WhatsApp's claims of robust end-to-end encryption designed to ensure that only senders and recipients can view messages, Meta is accused of storing and analyzing much of this supposedly private communication. The plaintiffs, representing countries such as Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa, allege that Meta not only holds onto users' data but also permits employee access to it. In response, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous," asserting in a statement that any claims disputing the encryption of WhatsApp messages are "categorically false and absurd." He emphasized that WhatsApp has utilized end-to-end encryption based on the Signal protocol for the past decade. The lawsuit also mentions unnamed whistleblowers, although their identities remain undisclosed. The plaintiffs' legal team is pushing for the case to be classified as a class-action suit, which could significantly amplify the stakes for Meta and its messaging platform.