A random Google search is enough for people to join a wide array of group chats, a report has claimed.
While WhatsApp continues to occupy the space among the most-used instant messenger apps, questions have often been raised over its security amid rising concerns of privacy among users. New reports have emerged that show that the security of your WhatsApp groups may have been compromised.
According to a report in Vice, Google is cataloguing WhatsApp groups invite links which may help users find URLs and join a group even without an invitation. The report claims that a random Google search is enough for people to join a wide array of group chats.
The Reverse app engineer Jane Manchun Wong revealed that a simple google search of-"chat.whatsapp.com"-part of the URL that makes up invites to WhatsApp groups, had lead to 470,000 results.
"Google is letting anyone find invite links to some private WhatsApp groups. Here is one we joined that is supposed to be for United Nations NGOs judging by its description. Can see members and get numbers," Joseph Cox, a journalist for Motherboard-tech publication of Vice.
Therefore, even though the instant messenger app shows that the messages are encrypted, the WhatsApp chats are not secure.
Vice revealed that certain WhatsApp invite links on google have led to WhatsApp groups sharing porn. Another WhatsApp group invite link found on Google, lead Vice to a "WhatsApp group chat that described itself as being for NGOs accredited by the United Nations."
"Search engines like Google & others list pages from the open web. That’s what’s happening here. It’s no different than any case where a site allows URLs to be publicly listed. We do offer tools allowing sites to block content being listed in our results."Danny Sullivan, Google's public search liaison tweeted.
Meanwhile, a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement, "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."
However, this is not the first time that WhatsApp's capability to provide a secure framework for its users have come into question. In October last month, many Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Pegasus.
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