WhatsApp defends itself after Elon Musk says it ‘cannot be trusted’
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said rival social networking site WhatsApp “cannot be trusted” following complaints by a user on its platform.
A screenshot shared by a Twitter engineer, Foad Dabiri, on Wednesday sparked concerns that WhatsApp may be accessing users’ microphones even when the app is not in use.
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Dabiri claimed that his WhatsApp app was constantly using the microphone while he was asleep, raising questions about the app’s privacy practices.
“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?”
The tweet caught the attention of tech mogul Musk, who responded with a cautionary message: “WhatsApp cannot be trusted.”
WhatsApp cannot be trusted https://t.co/3gdNxZOLLy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
In response to the allegations, WhatsApp denied any wrongdoing and stressed that users have full control over their microphone settings.
The company also stated that it only accesses the microphone when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video, and these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption, meaning that WhatsApp cannot hear them.
“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 mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate,” WhatsApp 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 mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate. https://t.co/MnBi3qE6Gp
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023
Earlier, Musk had said new features will soon be added to Twitter which will seemingly make it more like WhatsApp.
In a tweet, he said users will soon be able to make voice and video calls to other users on the platform directly from their Twitter handles.
“This feature will allow people from all over the world to connect with each other easily,” he said.
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He also said Twitter direct messages (DMs) will be encrypted to ensure greater privacy and security.
Another addition will be the ability to respond to any message in a thread, rather than just the most recent one.
Users will also be able to react to messages with any emoji they choose.