Lately, WhatsApp has been under scrutiny for various reasons. (Image: Reuters)
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the Indian government will investigate claims of WhatsApp accessing user microphones even when they are not in use, following a viral tweet by Twitter engineer Phod Dabiri.
According to Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Indian government will investigate allegations that WhatsApp has access to users’ microphones even when their phones are not in use. This follows a viral tweet by Phod Dabiri, a Twitter engineer who claimed that WhatsApp was using his microphone while he was sleeping, which has been viewed over 70 million times and 6,000 retweets.
“WhatsApp is using the microphone in the background while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6am (and it’s a part of the timeline!) What’s going on?” Tweeted Twitter engineer Phod Dabiri.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar has termed this alleged privacy breach as “unacceptable” and assured that the government will crack down on any violations, especially as a new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is being drafted. Twitter CEO and owner Elon Musk has also criticized WhatsApp, claiming that it cannot be trusted.
Addressing the criticism, WhatsApp attributed the issue to a bug that exists on Google’s Pixel devices. The company said, “Over the past 24 hours, we’ve been in contact with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp” — and it’s a “bug on Android that may be misappropriating information in his privacy”. Presents” dashboard, and we’ve asked Google to investigate and make improvements.
WhatsApp further said, ‘Users have full control over their mic settings. Once granted, WhatsApp accesses the mic only 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 can’t hear them.
Lately, WhatsApp has been under scrutiny for several other issues. Many users have been complaining about spam calls from overseas—where scammers ask for personal data and act as job recruiters—having unsuspecting users complete simple tasks, including liking YouTube videos, and more Easy to do provide opportunities to earn money.
