Google is indexing WhatsApp group chat links, making even private groups discoverable

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Invitations to WhatsApp group chats are being indexed by Google, making the invite links —including links to private group chats — discoverable and available to anyone who wants to join, Motherboard reports.

Journalist Jordan Wildon said on Twitter that he discovered that WhatsApp’s “Invite to Group Link” feature lets Google index groups, making them available across the internet since the links are being shared outside of WhatsApp’s secure private messaging service.

Motherboard was able to find private groups using specific Google searches (and the results included a lot of porn-sharing groups). Once they joined a group — which was intended for NGOs accredited by the UN — they had access to all of the participants and their phone...

Continue reading…

from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3c02OHx