A Twitter engineer named Foad Dabiri has claimed that WhatsApp was using his phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on him. Dabiri shared a screenshot of his device indicating a privacy breach, which raised concerns for WhatsApp users who heavily rely on the app for their daily conversations. According to Dabiri, WhatsApp was running in the background even while he was asleep, leading him to question the app’s intentions.
WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6AM (and that's just a part of the timeline!) What's going on? pic.twitter.com/pNIfe4VlHV
— Foad Dabiri (@foaddabiri) May 6, 2023
— Foad Dabiri (@foaddabiri) In response to Dabiri’s claim, WhatsApp explained that it believed the issue was due to a bug on Android that “mis-attributes information in the Privacy Dashboard.” The chat company also stated that it had requested Google to investigate and address the problem. WhatsApp reiterated that users have complete control over their privacy settings and access to their microphone. The app only accesses the microphone with the user’s explicit permission, and even then, it is only used for making calls or recording voice and video messages, which are protected by end-to-end encryption.
Union Minister of State for IT & Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar responded to engineer’s tweet saying that the government will examine the issue.
“This is an unacceptable breach and violation of privacy. We will be examining this immediately and will act on any violation of privacy even as new Digital Personal Data protection bill is being readied,” the Minister said in a tweet.
Update: Shivnath Thukral, Director, Public Policy India, Meta, also responded to the Minister’s tweet saying, “We believe this is a bug on Android, Google has said they are looking into it. Your calls and voice notes are protected by end-to-end encryption so we cannot hear the microphone in any case. We’re aligned on safeguarding privacy.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk took the opportunity to warn his followers that they should not trust anything, including WhatsApp. He tweeted, “WhatsApp cannot be trusted.” In addition to this, Musk also announced that Twitter is planning to release encrypted direct messages (DMs) v1.0, which will allow users to reply to any message in a thread and use any emoji reaction. He also stated that the acid test for this feature is that he could not see users’ DMs even if someone held a gun to his head. Moreover, Musk revealed that Twitter is also planning to add voice and video chat features to the platform so that users can talk to anyone anywhere in the world without revealing their phone number.
While WhatsApp’s privacy concerns have drawn attention worldwide, Twitter has also faced similar issues in the past. Last year, the company paid $150 million in the US to settle claims that it handed over user data to advertisers.
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