WhatsApp has been in the news lately for some other reasons. And yet again, users doubt the app’s authenticity after a Twitter engineer claimed that WhatsApp was allegedly accessing his device while he was sleeping.
The Twitter engineer, in his tweet, wrote, “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?”
Users have full control over their mic settings
Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video – and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023
Replying to his tweet, Twitter owner Elon Musk sarcastically tweeted, “Trust nothing, not even nothing.”
Trust nothing, not even nothing
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
This incident raised concern among WhatsApp users. But, on the other hand, the Union Minister said in his tweet, “This is an unacceptable breach n violation of Privacy. We will be examinig this immdtly and will act on any violation of privacy even as new Digital Personal Data protection bill DPDP is being readied (sic).”
However, WhatsApp declined the claims and said, “Over the last 24 hours, we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp.
We believe this is a bug on Android that misattributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate.”
Further added, “Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video – and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them.”
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