Your Private WhatsApp Groups, User Profiles Are Visible On Google Search
The texting app has allowed the indexing of group chat invites which is displaying private groups on search results. With clear access to the links to join a chat, this puts people in the groups vulnerable as anyone can join and see who all are on the texting platform.
Recently, WhatsApp users around the world got the shock of their life when they saw the updated terms and privacy policy. This new update would allow the app to share user data with the parent company Facebook.
PA
However, the news today is even more astonishing, as WhatsApp groups are now appearing on Google Search, along with user profiles and their profile images through search results.
This was first reported by Gadgets 360 (via cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia). Basically, anyone could look for a particular WhatsApp group by simply searching for it on Google.
WhatsApp has allowed the indexing of group chat invites which is displaying private groups on search results. With clear access to the links to join a chat, this puts people in the groups vulnerable as anyone can join and see who all are on the texting platform.
Reuters
The issue apparently isn¡¯t new. In 2019, WhatsApp experienced something similar but was reportedly fixed last year before the issue grew. According to reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, this issue was fixed by adding the ¡®noindex¡¯ meta tag on chat invite links and this was followed on future generated group links too. However, the issue now seems entirely different.
Cybersecurity researcher Rajaharia has revealed that the messenger hadn¡¯t included a robots.txt file (a file to regulate search engine crawlers) particularly for its web interface -- chat.whatsapp.com.
This robots.txt file is also missing for the api.whatsapp.com subdomain which, according to the report, just like group chat invites indexing, makes user profiles accessible on Google, with the search engine indexing over 5,000 profile links, allowing anyone to communicate with a user or gain access to their cell number or profile image.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said in an official statement, "Since March 2020, WhatsApp has included the "noindex" tag on all deep link pages which, according to Google, will exclude them from indexing. We have given our feedback to Google to not index these chats. As a reminder, whenever someone joins a group, everyone in that group receives a notice and the admin can revoke or change the group invite link at any time.¡±
Reuters
¡°Like all content that is shared in searchable, public channels, invite links that are posted publicly on the internet can be found by other WhatsApp users. Links that users wish to share privately with people they know and trust should not be posted on a publicly accessible website.¡±
