Although it seemed that the waters were already calm for WhatsApp, they arrive new-old problems This time from Holland and Canada, countries that accuse the best-known messaging tool for not respecting the privacy of its users At least regarding the privacy laws in force in these two countries And it is that the operation of WhatsApp is not as secure and private it is expected to be.Something that, on the other hand, we already knew.
The accusations come after a joint investigation of the Commissariat for the protection of private life (Canada) and The CBP Data Protection Office (Netherlands). In this investigation, significant deficiencies in the operation of WhatsApp have been detected that would violate the privacy laws of these countries Issues that directly concern the fact of having to share the contact list and the security holesof this application. We detail it below.
Apparently, neither Netherlands nor Canada allow thecopying private data for no specific purpose Something that WhatsApp does with our 's information contact bookIn order to use this application and start a conversation with other users, WhatsApp collect all our agenda, sends it to its servers and there it checks who already has the application. This means doing a copy of data that is kept on the servers of WhatsApp and manage user data and non WhatsApp users (the latter without giving their consent).
The other key point of the investigation and accusation against WhatsApp are its weak points in matters of security And it is that in the investigation it has been discovered that encryption of the messages in this application is very basic That is, when we send a message, it comes out encoded of our terminal but with a very simple password that can be decrypted by third parties to know the content of the messageAnd even more, this weakness allows to impersonate a user who uses WhatsApp through the same connection WiFi that the hacker or cybercriminal Something we told you about a few months ago thanks to the discovery made public in web Security by Default
Although the investigation has been joint by both Dutch and Canadian privacy watchdogs, the reports submitted have been individual, since the jurisdiction of each country is different Now we just have to wait for the next one movement of WhatsApp And it is that its weak encryption, although it was a l ogre after so many problems and complaints about its practically non-existent security, seems not to be enough.Neither is its way of add new contacts, which collects data from our address book without discriminating between users and non-users, and hosting copies of this data on their servers
In short, one more call to attention to the operation of WhatsApp, which is still the payment application most downloaded in the App Store in Spain, and the application free most downloaded on Google Play All this now competing against LINE, a communication application with more functions and at no cost
