- The U.S. House chief administrative officer has asked officials to stop using WhatsApp on government devices.
- The ban comes as a result of the high risk to user privacy and a lack of transparency in how WhatsApp protects user data.
- This U.S. House has previously banned other AI centric apps like DeepSeek and Microsoft Copilot as well.
It’s been almost a week since WhatsApp introduced ads on the platform for the very first time, and today, we hear that the US House has ordered a ban on WhatsApp from all government devices. It’s a result of growing concerns about WhatsApp’s privacy and data security.
This news comes from Axios, which reported that the U.S. House’s chief administrative officer has informed congressional staffers about the ban on WhatsApp. As a result, the House staffers cannot install or keep the messaging app on any of the House devices including phones, desktops, or web browsers.
The reason for the ban was revealed in an email sent by the chief administrative officer obtained by Axios. The email mentions, “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.”
In response, Meta (WhatsApp’s parent company) spokesperson, Andy Stone, told Axios, “We disagree with the House Chief Administrative Officer’s characterization in the strongest possible terms.” He further added that WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, which allows only the recipient to see the messages. Not even WhatsApp can see it, and it has better security than other apps on CAO’s approved list.
In the meantime, the U.S. House CAO has allowed Microsoft Teams, Wickr, Signal, iMessage, and FaceTime as viable alternatives to WhatsApp. The US House has also banned the use of other AI apps previously, like DeepSeek and Microsoft’s Copilot.
The sudden ban on WhatsApp is surprising, but the recent AI-fication of the app does lead to some serious questions regarding privacy. The introduction of ads and the fact that the app is working on using Meta AI to summarize messages puts the security of WhatsApp in question.
