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Top 3 WhatsApp controversies you need to know about

Whether it be private chats leaked, or mass lynchings in India or Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s statement on its end-to-end encryption, the Facebook-owned messaging app has seen it all.

By: HT CORRESPONDENT
Updated on: Aug 20 2022, 19:29 IST
Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov in a blog post titled ‘Why Using WhatsApp is Dangerous’ said backdoor bugs leave any and all data on smartphones exposed. (REUTERS)
Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov in a blog post titled ‘Why Using WhatsApp is Dangerous’ said backdoor bugs leave any and all data on smartphones exposed. (REUTERS)

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. It has a user base of 2 billion worldwide and it is likely by people from across age groups for its ever growing set of features and its ease of use. In the past couple of years, this popular messaging app has been at the centre of many controversies.

Whether it be private chats leaked, or mass lynchings in India or Telegram founder Pavel Durov's statement on its end-to-end encryption, the Facebook-owned messaging app has seen it all.

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So, here are top controversies that WhatsApp has been a part of recently:

Also read: Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here.

Jeff Bezos account hack

Perhaps one the biggest controversy ever faced by WhatsApp is the hacking of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' account allegedly by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In May 2018, Bezos got a video on WhatsApp. The Amazon CEO has said that the MP4 clip allegedly contained malware that began siphoning off data from his iPhone.

According to reports, the clip was sent from an account allegedly belonging to the Saudi Crown Prince. The Saudi government has denied all the allegations as falsehood though.

The malware then proceeded to exfiltrate the data from his device. This was brought to light when journalist Jamal Khassogi's murder case was being presented in the United Nations.

ALSO READ: Your private WhatsApp group chats are on Google search and Facebook knows about it

Telegram founder calls WhatsApp dangerous

Telegram's founder Pavel Durov in a blog post titled 'Why Using WhatsApp is Dangerous' said backdoor bugs leave any and all data on smartphones exposed and accessible to hackers, and in such a case there is no use of end-to-end encryption.

In the post, he had also written that a WhatsApp backdoor allowed hackers to access all data on any phone that had the app installed and running.

ALSO READ: What to do if your WhatsApp account gets temporarily blocked

WhatsApp group chats data on Google

This is the most recent controversy in which the messaging app has landed itself in.

According to a report published by Vice, Google is apparently indexing invite links to WhatsApp group chats whose admins would choose to be private.

This basically means that anybody with a basic search on Google can find and join a good range of chats on WhatsApp groups.

A WhatsApp spokesperson in a statement said that group invite links that are posted publicly can be found by other WhatsApp users. "Group admins in WhatsApp groups are able to invite any WhatsApp user to join that group by sharing a link that they have generated. Like all content that is shared in searchable, public channels, invite links that are posted publicly on the internet can be found by other WhatsApp users. Links that users wish to share privately with people they know and trust should not be posted on a publicly accessible website." a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

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First Published Date: 23 Feb, 09:50 IST

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