The Daily Express published a report on a serious error discovered in the WhatsApp application for Android users.
It opens the microphone.
According to the newspaper: "If you use WhatsApp on an Android device, you may want to change one very simple setting. It has recently been discovered that this popular chat service may have a worrying error that may allow someone to access the microphone on certain devices without the user's knowledge. What's more, this error works even when the application is not open or actively being used."
"The problem was first discovered by Twitter engineer Foaud Dabiri, who then posted a picture of what he found on social media. The picture reveals that his WhatsApp was active while he was asleep and not using his smartphone."
Dabiri tweeted: "WhatsApp was using the microphone in the background while I was sleeping and since I woke up at 6 am (this is just part of the timeline!) what's happening?"
Over the last 24 hours we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp.
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023
We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate. https://t.co/MnBi3qE6Gp
WhatsApp responded quickly to the message through its parent company Meta's core system, saying: "Over the past 24 hours, we have been in touch with the Twitter engineer who posted an issue with Pixel phone and WhatsApp. We believe this is an Android operating system bug that leads to bad information attributes in their privacy panel, and we have requested that Google investigate and resolve it."
Settings Steps
It is still not clear exactly where the error came from or how many phones were affected, but anyone concerned about the bug should now turn off access to the microphone inside WhatsApp.
• Open the "Settings" application on your phone.
• Scroll down and click on "Privacy."
• Open "Permission Manager."
• Scroll down to "Microphone" and click on it, then look for "WhatsApp."
• You should see a new screen that says "Microphone Access for This App" with three options: "Allow only while using the app," "Ask every time," and "Don't allow."
• Select "Ask every time" or "Don't allow," but keep in mind that clicking "Don't allow" will prevent you from sending voice notes and making calls.
Foaud Dabiri was using a Pixel device when he discovered the bug, and there is currently no word on whether the issue only affects these devices made by Google or other Android devices.