[ad_1]
WhatsApp has been engulfed in controversy after a user shared screenshots on Tuesday claiming the messaging service was using microphone in the background, raising serious privacy concerns. As a result, the government said that it will investigate the accusation. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has now responded to the issue.
Responding to union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s tweet announcing an immediate investigation, Shivnath Thukral, Director, Public Policy India, Meta, claimed the issue arose owing to an Android flaw and assured the users that WhatsApp conversations are fully encrypted.
“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,” a Meta official said.
‘An unacceptable breach’: Rajeev Chandrashekhar
In response to the allegations of WhatsApp surveillance, the minister of state for electronics and information technology tweeted, “This is an unacceptable breach and a violation of privacy.” We will investigate this immediately and will act on any violation of privacy, even as the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDP) is being readied.”
READ HERE: Will investigate WhatsApp’s ‘unacceptable’ breach of privacy: IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar
What is the issue?
Foad Dabiri, a Twitter engineer, claimed that WhatsApp accessed the smartphone’s microphone while he was sleeping.
“WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6 AM,” Foad Dabiri, an engineering director at Twitter, said on Saturday. “What’s going on?” he tweeted.
This allegation became viral, even attracting the reaction of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted, “WhatsApp cannot be trusted.” (READ HERE: ‘WhatsApp cannot be trusted,’ says Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Company responds)
WhatsApp denies allegations
WhatsApp has since dismissed the claim, claiming that it is the consequence of an Android bug that wrongly attributes data on their privacy dashboard.
“Users have full control over their microphone settings,” according to a statement from Meta’s instant messaging service.
WABetaInfo, a WhatsApp news tracking website, previously stated that the smartphone showing a microphone or camera on is a false positive from the operating system.
Users have been reporting these situations for some time now, including the problem with other apps.
[ad_2]
Source link
