WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption has been independently investigated: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/324396471/whatsapp.pdf

Full version here: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/794.pdf

We didn't review the entire source code, only the cryptographic core. That said, the main issue we found was that the WhatsApp servers ultimately decide who is and isn't in a particular chat. Dan Goodin wrote about it here: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/05/whatsapp-provides-n...

Why did you not mention that the WhatsApp apk, even on non-google play installed devices, loads google tag manager's scripts?

It is reproducibly loaded in each chat, and an MitM firewall can also confirm that. I don't know why the focus of audits like these are always on a specific part of the app or only about the cryptography parts, and not the overall behavior of what is leaked and transferred over the wire, and not about potential side channel or bypass attacks.

Transport encryption is useless if the client copies the plaintext of the messages afterwards to another server, or say an online service for translation, you know.

There's a whole section, early, in the analysis Albrecht posted that surfaces these concerns.