CALIFORNIA (Kashmir English): Meta’s messaging service, WhatsApp, has been banned from all United States House of Representatives devices, according to a memo sent from the chief administrative officer to all House staff on Monday.
‘WhatsApp a high risk to users’
The notice told the staff members that the “Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use.”
The memo recommended using other messaging apps, as Microsoft Corp’s Teams platform, Amazon.com’s Wickr, Signal, and Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime.
According to a company spokesman, Meta disagreed with the move “in the strongest possible terms,”, noting that the platform provides a higher level of security than the other approved apps.
In January, a WhatsApp official said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.
The House had banned other apps from staff devices in the past, including the short video app TikTok in 2022 over security risks.
