Scary WhatsApp flaw could expose your private moments
A new flaw has been discovered which could leave you red faced.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world and it has over 1.5 billion active users worldwide. For the most part, the messaging service works as advertised with very few glitches observed. However, as per the latest reports, there is a new bug that could potentially expose your embarrassing moments.
As per a report by TNW, the WhatsApp Delete for Everyone feature that’s intended to wipe texts or files sent by accident could still leave remnants of your messages. This is because of the discrepancy in the way the feature works on iPhones and Android devices.
This flaw was discovered by a researcher, Shitesh Sachan and he observed that even after deleting messages and media files sent to iPhone owners in group chats, who have the save to camera roll feature enabled will still stay on the handset.
To break this down, although the purged messages that contain media files won’t be seen in the WhatsApp chat, the files are still present to iPhone owners with the Save to Camera Roll feature turned on.
In comparison, the feature works differently on WhatsApp for Android devices. Once a user has chosen the Delete for Everyone option, media files that have been saved to an Android photo gallery get deleted automatically.
The differentiating factor between the two platforms may potentially give Android owners a fall sense of privacy with the way that this feature works on Apple devices.
The researcher then proceeded to contact WhatsApp and a spokesperson stated that the feature provides no guarantee that media files will be deleted from the devices’ storage.
The Hacker News reports, “The functionality provided via ‘Delete for Everyone’ is intended to delete the message and there is no guarantee that the media (or message) will be permanently deleted —the implementation focuses around the message presence in WhatsApp.”