WhatsApp security: Is this hidden flaw a new reason to quit?

WhatsApp might be encrypted, but a hidden flaw is showing the service to be less private than you think. Consumer-friendly and encrypted, WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps in use today with a whopping 1.5 billion users. Sure, WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, but the most recently discovered flaw doesn't affect that aspect of the service. Last week, I detailed how WhatsApp group chats are easily found via a Google search, because the search engine was indexing links to conversations intended to be private. Privacy advocates were soon up in arms as tech site Vice found phone numbers belonging to 48 participants in a group chat between non-governmental organizations accredited by the United Nations. A source told me this is due to a quiet change made by WhatsApp owner Facebook, which prevented the conversations being indexed by Google. WhatsApp told DW in a statement: "We show all numbers in groups for people's safety, that way they know who will receive their messages.” The WhatsApp "Feature" is not always that safe. "Facebook owner WhatsApp sent me a comment, which reads:"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.” WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, which is integrating the messaging service at the back end with Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Big organizations have already started to move away from WhatsApp. The EU is already doing this, banning WhatsApp and instructing staffers to use Signal, and a mysterious other app for secure communications. You can try and secure your group chats using this advice from Wildon, who recommends going into group settings, tapping "Invite to Group via Link" then "Reset link." This doesn't turn the link off: it generates a new one. The most secure thing you can do, if you care about your security at least in group chats, is to look at alternatives to WhatsApp, such as Signal and Wickr. Source | Create Website | Criar site | Crear sitio web | Créer un site Web