The WhatsApp chat application is subject to a wave of criticism about privacy issues, as there are increasing reports from users about the application spying on their communications.
Billionaire Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is one prominent voice in this debate. Musk called WhatsApp “untrustworthy” on Twitter as it launches its own encrypted messaging system.
Concern about privacy on WhatsApp is not new. Reports going back at least five years indicate users’ concerns about the permissions the app requests and how it uses them.
This concern was renewed when a user posted documentation showing how WhatsApp used his phone’s microphone while he slept.
WhatsApp says the main cause of the problem is a bug in the Android operating system, which sent wrong information to the user’s privacy control panel. This feature from Google monitors how and when third-party apps access your camera and microphone.
WhatsApp confirms that users can control microphone settings, and that the app only accesses the microphone when the user is making a call or recording an audio or video note.
However, the privacy dashboard showed that the app can access the microphone even when the user is not using it.
Despite these concerns, WhatsApp insists that all communications between users are protected with end-to-end encryption, which makes them inaccessible by the company itself.
According to the “Daily Mail”, the privacy control panel was launched with Android 12 as a way for users to monitor how applications use permissions and data. This feature shows a green light at the top right of the screen when an app accesses the device’s microphone or camera.
However, despite these measures, some Android users are still concerned about how WhatsApp uses the microphone and camera, as some of them have noticed that the app accesses their microphone even at times when they are not using the app.
In response to these concerns, WhatsApp stresses that it only collects data that is necessary to provide the service, such as account registration information, transaction information, service-related information, mobile device information, and IP address. The company also stresses that it does not permanently store messages and recordings.
