Private WhatsApp chats easily discoverable in Google searches
A simple Google search lets you can gain access to private chat groups on WhatsApp
PHOTO: REUTERS
Google is logging invite links to WhatsApp group chats. With a basic search, anyone can find and join private chats including ones the group admin may want to keep private.
Facebook had knowledge about the aforementioned flaw for the past few months but failed to put it right.
According to twitter user @hackrzvijay, the social media platform was notified about this security flaw and yet the company failed to do anything to fix it.
The user messaged Facebook in hopes to receive a cash bounty in return for reporting the security glitch however, the social media platform refused on the grounds that ability for anyone to find invite codes online for private WhatsApp chat groups is “an intentional product decision.”
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However, Vice affirms that WhatsApp group invites are not as private as it seems because a simple Google lets you can gain access to private chat groups.
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The search engine giant uses crawlers to index URLs across the internet and hence it is very easy for websites and apps to place a line of code on pages that tells these Google crawlers not to index the information there.
If you want to test this out then simply start with a “chat.whatsapp.com” string and then enter in some information specific to your chat reported Vice.
This article originally published on Android Authority.
Facebook had knowledge about the aforementioned flaw for the past few months but failed to put it right.
According to twitter user @hackrzvijay, the social media platform was notified about this security flaw and yet the company failed to do anything to fix it.
The user messaged Facebook in hopes to receive a cash bounty in return for reporting the security glitch however, the social media platform refused on the grounds that ability for anyone to find invite codes online for private WhatsApp chat groups is “an intentional product decision.”
WhatsApp to launch digital payments service in India
However, Vice affirms that WhatsApp group invites are not as private as it seems because a simple Google lets you can gain access to private chat groups.
Facebook,Whatsapp, Instagram suffer global outage
The search engine giant uses crawlers to index URLs across the internet and hence it is very easy for websites and apps to place a line of code on pages that tells these Google crawlers not to index the information there.
If you want to test this out then simply start with a “chat.whatsapp.com” string and then enter in some information specific to your chat reported Vice.
This article originally published on Android Authority.