Just days after its new policy was introduced that forces users to share their data with Facebook, WhatsApp has an embarrassment in violation of privacy, with its private chat groups indexed on Google’s search engine.
The violation of privacy was reported on Sunday. Invite links to private WhatsApp message groups as well as some user profiles are indexed by Google and appear in search results, which means anyone was able to join a secure chat and see both chats and related phone numbers.
The issue was immediately addressed by WhatsApp, and the exposed links have now disappeared from the search results. The issue appears to be similar to a privacy breach of chats and user information reported in early 2020.
In the company’s statement about the breach, he insisted that the app’s security has been significantly improved since the leak last year, implying that users themselves were to blame for the Google run-out over the weekend.
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“Since March 2020, WhatsApp has included the ‘noindex’ tag on all deep link pages, which Google says will exclude it from indexing,” it told Gadgets 360 oultet and encouraged users not to place invitation links in any publicly accessible places, to keep them away from search engines.
Like all content shared in searchable public channels, other WhatsApp users can also find invitation links that are publicly posted on the Internet. Links that users want to share privately with people they know and trust should not be placed on a publicly accessible website.
The incident comes days after WhatsApp unveiled its new, highly controversial policy that forces users to share their private data with its parent company, Facebook, or to leave the platform if they do not agree to it. The company said the information collected would be used “Help operate, deliver, improve, understand, adapt, support and market our services.” It acknowledges that it monitors the content of users “Fight spam, threats, abuse or transgression activities” and “Improve” the WhatsApp experience.
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The controversial rules caused a huge exodus of users from the messenger, with its competitors – Telegram, as well as Signal – enjoying a consequent increase in popularity.
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