WhatsApp failed to exclude invitation links to group chats from Google search, resulting in 400,000 group chats being listed on Google.

Links to hundreds of thousands of WhatsApp group chats on Google search public! – The most important thing at the beginning:

WhatsApp has failed to exclude from Google search the links that can be sent to invite people to group chats. Google was able to find over 400,000 group chats with which you can join other people's groups. The problem is now partially resolved.

WhatsApp has long made it possible to invite users to a group chat via a link. If you follow this link, you will automatically be added to the corresponding group.
The Verge reports that until recently, thousands of these invitation links could be found publicly via Google.

Joining other groups possible

Journalist Jordan Wildon was probably the first to draw attention to this problem. He wrote on Twitter: “WhatsApp groups are not as secure as users think.”

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He noticed that the URLs used to add people to WhatsApp group chats were indexed by Google and listed in searches. One click on such a link is enough to join another group. And once you're in such a chat, all of the participants' phone numbers are visible.

Over 400,000 Whatsapp group chats found

Motherboard looked into the issue and entered “site:chat.whatsapp.com” into the Google search. This is the beginning of the URL that all WhatsApp invitation links begin with. Motherboard was able to find over 400,000 chats.

Most WhatsApp groups were chats where porn videos were shared. A group that, according to their description, served as a discussion space for NGOs was also found. According to Jordan Wilson, a group of right-wing extremists was also found.

Facebook was already aware of the problem

Twitter user Viji commented on Twitter that he had already pointed out the error to Facebook in November. He added Facebook's reaction as a screenshot.

Facebook describes the accessibility of the links as an “intended feature of the product”. The only surprise is that these were indexed and listed by Google. However, Facebook “has no influence on what search engines like Google record”.

Google itself did not make a statement on this topic. But Danny Sullivan, Google's search spokesperson, said in a Twitter post that Google has a tool available to block website content from Google Search.

WhatsApp spokeswoman Alison Bonny said in a statement that invitation links to groups “like any content shared in searchable public channels” can be found by other WhatsApp users. She advises users who want to keep their groups private to simply not share the links publicly.

Can no longer be found on Google

Now WhatsApp seems to have partially fixed the problem by excluding the links from Google Search using the “noindex” meta tag.

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As Jane Manchung Wong writes on Twitter, this currently only applies to Google. Other search engines such as Bing or Duckduckgo still show results when searching for invitation links.

Source: derstandard.at


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