WhatsApp group chat invite links and profiles are reportedly showing up on Google Search, making them accessible to everyone on the internet. This issue was first discovered last year and fixed later. But, apparently, the problem seems to be taking place again because of the indexing of group chat invites.
WhatsApp recently updated its privacy policy and faced flak from users across the globe, many even uninstalled the app and switched to other messaging platforms like Signal, Skype, and Telegram. WhatsApp is now facing another blow that might shake the trust of its users.
Cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia tweeted the screenshots of WhatsApp group chat invite links that are made public. He noted, “WhatsApp groups may not be as secure as you think they are. WhatsApp Group Chat Invite Links, User Profiles Made Public Again on Google.”
The researcher explains that Whatsapp allows users to generate rich preview links of group chat invites that may allow people to identify the links and then index them for future searches.
“Since March 2020, WhatsApp has included the “no index” 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.
“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”, WhatsApp spokesperson said.
