WhatsSpy Public Web Application Can Track Your WhatsApp Activities
The world's most popular instant messaging application WhatsApp seems to be in a bit of a trouble. A Dutch university student Maikel Zweerink has found out a critical flaw in the design of WhatsApp. He developed a web based application named 'WhatsSpy Public' that can track your WhatsApp activities, even if you have applied the strictest privacy setting. Let’s see what kind kind of activities WhatsSpy Public can track.
WhatsSpy Public is an open source web based application that can track noticeable activities like changing of profile picture and status message. It creates a timeline for any individual, indicating how much time users were online and when they changed their profile picture or status message. Users of the app can also compare the usage history of two WhatsApp users. However, it has to be noted that this application is not able to track the actual messages exchanged between two individuals.
Developer Maikel Zweerink claims that, this is not a hack or an exploit of WhatApp systems. It is result of the way WhatsApp is designed. WhatsApp provides three settings under privacy – last seen hide, hide profile picture and hide status. Even if a user has hidden his/her last seen, the other user can still see whether he/she is online.
Maikel Zweerink believes that WhatsApp's privacy settings are broken. The app is sure able to hide the last seen indicator, profile photo and status, but it’s not been implemented in the way a user wanted it to. The WhatsSpy Public app can be downloaded for free and can be installed on a web server. It has some requirements to run, such as a rooted android phone or jailbroken iPhone and a SIM card number not used by WhatsApp.
What is your view on this flaw of WhatsApp? Share it with us through comments below.
Source: WhatsApp privacy is broken!
WhatsSpy Public is an open source web based application that can track noticeable activities like changing of profile picture and status message. It creates a timeline for any individual, indicating how much time users were online and when they changed their profile picture or status message. Users of the app can also compare the usage history of two WhatsApp users. However, it has to be noted that this application is not able to track the actual messages exchanged between two individuals.
Developer Maikel Zweerink claims that, this is not a hack or an exploit of WhatApp systems. It is result of the way WhatsApp is designed. WhatsApp provides three settings under privacy – last seen hide, hide profile picture and hide status. Even if a user has hidden his/her last seen, the other user can still see whether he/she is online.
Maikel Zweerink believes that WhatsApp's privacy settings are broken. The app is sure able to hide the last seen indicator, profile photo and status, but it’s not been implemented in the way a user wanted it to. The WhatsSpy Public app can be downloaded for free and can be installed on a web server. It has some requirements to run, such as a rooted android phone or jailbroken iPhone and a SIM card number not used by WhatsApp.
What is your view on this flaw of WhatsApp? Share it with us through comments below.
Source: WhatsApp privacy is broken!
Replies
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Kaustubh KatdareWho cares about privacy anyways? 😉 -
Ankita KatdareWondering if the folks behind the app are taking note of this. #-Link-Snipped-# Has there been any kind of update over this? Surely, they can't let such a big security breach tarnish their reputation.
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Jatin Kumarif you search for it ,a procedure is also given for it,and along with last seen ,you can also see users profile pictures without there permission
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Ankita KatdareYep. The guy behind the project Maikel Zweerink is also actively responding to the queries of users trying to run it and solving their issues. I tried googling for Facebook's comments on the WhatsApp loophole, but I guess their speaker hasn't yet replied to any questions.
You are reading an archived discussion.
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