Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, declared on Wednesday that the government would look into reports that WhatsApp monitored mobile phone users microphones even when the phones were not in use. Despite the current preparations for the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, Chandrasekhar voiced alarm about the invasion of privacy and stated that the government would take measures. A viral tweetThe probe was sparked by an accusation made by Foad Dabiri, an engineering director at Twitter, who claimed WhatsApp used his microphone while he was sleeping. In response to Dabiris tweet, Chandrasekhar condemned the breach and promised a quick investigation and action. Dabiris tweet received a lot of attention, with over 65 million views.WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6AM (and thats just a part of the timeline!) Whats going on pic.twitter.com/pNIfe4VlHV— Foad Dabiri (@foaddabiri) May 6, 2023Whatsapps reaction to the allegationWhatsApp reacted to the allegations, saying they had spoken with the Twitter programmer and that the problem was caused by an Android fault that altered data in their Privacy Dashboard. They claimed that users retained complete control over their microphone settings, with WhatsApp merely using the microphone during voice calls or when capturing voice notes or videos, all of which are secured by end-to-end encryption.Image: PixabayThe Twitter developer posted images of his phone, showing how WhatsApp accessed and exploited his microphone while he was sleeping. Several users, including Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla Inc., expressed worry over the screenshots. Musk expressed suspicion in WhatsApp, citing the departure of WhatsApp founders from Meta/Facebook, the launch of the #deletefacebook campaign, and their contributions to the development of Signal, implying that they were concerned by what they discovered about Facebook and changed to WhatsApp.Not the first time WhatsApp has been scrutinised by the Indian governmentWhatsApp has been scrutinised on several fronts in India. The messaging app experienced a two-hour service breakdown in October of the previous year, provoking the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to request an immediate explanation. Furthermore, Indian WhatsApp users noticed an increase in incoming foreign spam calls, mainly from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. According to Statista, India is the largest market for WhatsApp, with over 487 million participants.
