Regardless of whether or not WhatsApp could do that secretly, and my guess is it probably has for some governments and against specific individuals, I think the

Regardless of whether or not WhatsApp could do that secretly, and my guess is it probably has for some governments and against specific individuals, I think the writing is on the wall for Facebook to announce that WhatsApp will drop default end-to-end encryption sometime next year. It's basically why the two WhatsApp co-founders left. Facebook is getting ready to better "monetize" WhatsApp, and they'll get more money by looking at people's messages. So if you haven't already switched to Signal (or better), there's no point in waiting around. WhatsApp's loss of default end-to-end encryption is inevitable and it will come soon.