The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has stated that the government will investigate allegations of privacy breaches by WhatsApp, the messaging service owned by Meta. The investigation is in response to a claim made by Foad Dabiri, an engineering director at Twitter, who accused WhatsApp of accessing his microphone while he was sleeping.
According to Dabiri, “WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6 AM.”
Even Twitter CEO Elon Musk offered his take on the development. He simply said, “WhatsApp cannot be trusted.”
WhatsApp responded to the engineer’s complaint on Tuesday, stating that they have been in contact with him for the past 24 hours regarding an issue he had with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp. The company also emphasised that users have complete control over their microphone settings.
Users have full control over their mic settings
Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video – and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023
WhatsApp clarified its microphone usage policy, stating, “Once permission is granted, WhatsApp only accesses the microphone when a user is making a call, recording a voice note, or video. Furthermore, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that WhatsApp cannot listen to them.”
This complaint against WhatsApp comes at a time when the messaging app has already been under scrutiny by the government.