The FBI’s ability to see some of the contents of iMessage and collect metadata from WhatsApp in as little as 15 minutes are two of the revelations found on a recently published internal bureau document. First published last month by Property of the People following a Freedom of Information Act request, the document contains an infographic showing the FBI’s ability to lawfully access secure messaging app content and metadata. The FBI’s collection of messaging and call data has been well-known for years, but the new document reveals the speed and scope with which agents can obtain such information—particularly with Facebook/Meta’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage. According to the document, WhatsApp provides the FBI with metadata every 15 minutes in response to a “pen register”—a surveillance request that provides the agency with the source and destination of each message for a targeted individual. Other messaging platforms—including iMessage, Signal, Telegram and WeChat—provide logs of …