Is WhatsApp spying on us? The latest reports at least revive well-known allegations.
Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri has made an interesting discovery. In the privacy dashboard of his Pixel 7 Pro, he could see Messenger accessing the phone’s microphone in the middle of the night. Not just once, but over and over again at regular intervals. WhatsApp should actually have no permission to do so.
After sharing his discovery on Twitter, Elon Musk also spoke up. “You can’t trust WhatsApp,” wrote the Twitter boss, who has often been critical of WhatsApp in the past. Is Messenger bugging us without us noticing?
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
No, at least that’s what WhatsApp says itself. It’s just a bug on Android. The information in the privacy dashboard is supposed to be misinterpreted by the system, so the assumption. You are already in contact with the discoverer of the error and Google to fix the problem. Among other things, the Samsung Galaxy S23 and a few other Android smartphones are said to be affected.
WhatsApp emphasizes that users still have full control over their microphone settings. The messenger only accesses the microphone when you make a voice note, make a call or record a video. “And even then, those communications are protected by end-to-end encryption, so WhatsApp can’t hear them,” promise those responsible.