US Home reportedly bans WhatsApp on authorities units

US congressional staffers have reportedly been informed that they are not allowed to make use of on authorities units. The Home of Representatives’ chief administrative officer (CAO) is claimed to have knowledgeable staff on Monday that the app — together with the cell, desktop and web-based variations — is just not permitted on Home-managed units.

“The Workplace of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a excessive danger to customers as a result of lack of transparency in the way it protects consumer knowledge, absence of saved knowledge encryption and potential safety dangers concerned with its use,” the CAO wrote in an electronic mail, in keeping with . Microsoft Groups, Wickr, Sign (regardless of how straightforward it could be to accidentally invite a reporter to a sensitive group chat), iMessage and FaceTime had been reportedly cited as acceptable alternate options, and the CAO reminded staff to be vigilant concerning potential phishing scams.

“We disagree with the Home Chief Administrative Officer’s characterization within the strongest doable phrases,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone . “We all know members and their staffs usually use WhatsApp and we look ahead to guaranteeing members of the Home can be part of their Senate counterparts in doing so formally. Messages on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted by default, which means solely the recipients and never even WhatsApp can see them. This can be a greater stage of safety than many of the apps on the CAO’s accepted checklist that don’t provide that safety.”

The step follows limitations on congressional staffers’ use of different apps (together with generative AI ones) that the CAO has deemed to be dangerous. These embrace , , DeepSeek (which some states and federal departments have additionally ) and .