Bad publicity for WhatsApp that makes data encryption one of its founding pillars. In this case, the messaging service has recognized the existence of a bug that activates the microphone without the user’s knowledge. Or at least, that shows information that the microphone has been activated.
A Twitter engineer, Foad Dabiri, noticed that WhatsApp was regularly turning on his microphone while he was sleeping. “WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was sleeping, and since I woke up at 6am (and that’s only part of the timeline!) What’s going on?” he wrote on Twitter.
The case, obviously, did not stop reacting to the chief engineer, Elon Musk, always quick to attack the competition. “You can’t trust WhatsApp,” he said, shortly before announcing new audio/video calling features to compete with encrypted messaging.
Finally, WhatsApp was forced to acknowledge the existence of a bug. “In the last 24 hours we have been in contact with a Twitter engineer who reported an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp,” the Twitter messenger wrote. “We believe this is a bug in Android.” Thus, the problem could come from a misinterpretation of the Google operating system regarding the access of certain applications to the microphone.
“We have asked Google to investigate and correct” this problem, says WhatsApp, which ensures that “users have full control over their microphone settings.”
The thesis of a display error linked to Android (and Google’s Pixel smartphones) seems more plausible since other Internet users have reported the same findings, affecting WhatsApp but also other applications that generally move the microphone, such as the Amazon Alexa assistant.
How to check your microphone usage
for android : Go to “Settings”, then “Privacy”. Then click on “Privacy Panel” and then on “Microphone”.
For iOS: Go to “Settings” and then “Privacy and security”. Then click on “Report App Privacy”. You can then turn it on to learn the precise activity of your microphone and all the features accessed by apps.
Also note that on the iPhone, an orange light dot is activated next to the front camera when the microphone is activated. It turns green when it comes to the camera.
Source: BFM TV
