On WhatsApp, links to group chats have appeared in Google's search. Are your data also affected?
- WhatsApp allows users to invite their friends in groups
- Links to groups, however, were not private when shared publicly
- Unauthorized persons could access data via the links on search engines such as Google
WhatsApp * users can invite friends to a group chat via a link. When the recipient opens the link invitation, they are automatically added to the group . So far so good. But as "The Verge" reports, such links were not private. Because if you searched the sent URL on Google , you could find the link invitations via so-called meta tags. Now users are asking: Am I affected too? And how did it come about? A chronology of events.
WhatsApp: Journalist Jordon Wildon points out data leak at Google
The journalist Jordon Wildon was the first to draw attention to the data leak on WhatsApp and Google. "Whatsapp group chats are not as secure as users think," Wildon wrote on Twitter . The links would be listed in the search in Google. On the one hand, this means that unauthorized parties can also join foreign groups on WhatsApp. In such a case, the intruder can see all of the participants' phone numbers.
Your WhatsApp groups may not be as secure as you think they are.
The "Invite to Group via Link" feature allows groups to be indexed by Google and they are generally available across the internet. With some wildcard search terms you can easily find some ... interesting ... groups. pic.twitter.com/hbDlyN6g3q
WhatsApp: Well-known Twitter user Viji speaks up - the fault is with Google
The well-known Twitter user Viji also spoke in the discussion. Basically, it is a "typical property" that the links are accessible to everyone. What is surprising, however, is that the links from Google are listed in the search. However, Viji restricts that Facebook and WhatsApp have no influence on what Google indexes in the search. So the problem was with Google.
WhatsApp / Facebook was informed of such issue before by security researcher @hackrzvijay but they seemed to emphasize that Google is responsible for ithttps: //t.co/3p7w7WKl8T
- Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 21, 2020WhatsApp: Google has not yet explicitly reported on the data leak
So far, Google has not explicitly reported this problem to WhatsApp. Only Danny Sullivan, spokesman for Google's search function, wrote a Twitter post . Accordingly, Google provided a great tool for blocking website content. According to Google, WhatsApp removed the links to the groups using the "noindex" meta tag. But on other search engines like Bing or Duckduckgo you can still look for invitations in WhatsApp groups.
WhatsApp: Do not share links publicly, otherwise unauthorized persons could enter the group via Google
WhatsApp itself has also commented on the problem. Invitation links can "like all content shared in searchable public channels," said WhatsApp spokeswoman Alison Bonny. Logically, these could be found by other users. Therefore, users should not post the links to the groups publicly. Otherwise they may be found on Google .
WhatsApp: How about Signal, Threema, Telegram and Hoccer?
The story is part of a series of incidents in which unauthorized persons could access sensitive user data. Therefore, not every user relies on WhatsApp . Many people have already turned their backs on WhatsApp because they were not satisfied with the data security. And there are alternatives. We have presented alternatives to WhatsApp such as Signal, Threema, Telegram and Hoccer *, including the recommendation of Edward Snowden.
By Moritz Serif
* hna.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.