A specific WhatsApp status vulnerability helps stalkers to monitor other users without their knowledge. This is what transpired…
According to a recent report, WhatsApp has a status security vulnerability that allows stalkers to monitor other users. Stalkers are using WhatsApp Online Status Tracker websites to target users and gain access to their personal data, according to a study from Traced, a mobile security app. According to the latest report, these trackers may also figure out who is texting whom in WhatsApp app, without their knowledge.
The report states “Cyberstalkers typically like to collect as much information about their target as possible. They want to know where they are at any given moment; who they’re meeting; who they’re talking to; what their texts say; who they’re emailing; what they’re browsing for online. Knowledge is power, and having this level of power over someone is intoxicating, dangerous and profoundly unethical,”
Tracking Apps for Malicious Use
WhatsApp status trackers are said to be able to continuously monitor users’ status even when they are not online. Normally, WhatsApp displays a user’s status as “online” or “offline,” but these trackers are a step ahead. These trackers can keep track of users’ status even when they aren’t online.
According to the Traced report, CTO Matt Brody used a couple of these WhatsApp status trackers, which displayed the user’s exact time and date online. It’s very simple to use these apps; all you have to do is type the concerned person’s WhatsApp number into the status tracker app or website, and it will show you when and for how long the user was online.
According to the research report, one of these monitoring apps allows users to find out if their partner is cheating on them. According to the app, it claims “If you suspect a cheating spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, for example WhatsApp last seen tracker online can help you to confirm whether your suspicions are really true”.
Another use case mentioned in the report is that another tracker sends parents updates on their children’s status. There are a plethora of similar apps that enable parents to keep track of their children. These apps are frequently used to spy on people, especially spouses and partners.
Banning Stalkerware
While Google previously prohibited the advertisement of such stalkerware on the Play Store, many such tracking apps have managed to make their way onto the site. Google states, “acceptable forms of these apps can be used by parents to track their children. However, these apps cannot be used to track a person (a spouse, for example) without their knowledge or permission unless a persistent notification is displayed while the data is being transmitted.”
The research report notes that “There is, however, nothing to stop someone who wants to track an ex, a girl- or boyfriend, a spouse, from using one of these apps. Although the installation of software without the phone user’s consent or knowledge is actually against the law, it’s hardly enforceable, and if the app presents itself as a family tracker, there is no need for it to alert the user about the data it is transmitting,”
What’s odd is that WhatsApp has no way of preventing these applications and websites from monitoring its users, and, as previously said, users have no way of knowing whether they are being watched. If you can cover the “Last Seen” feature on WhatsApp, you can’t do anything about the “Online” status feature.
Commenting on this issue Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said, “This is just sloppy work on the part of WhatsApp and a typical example of what happens when companies don’t think about abusive relationships when they’re making their design decisions. WhatsApp should have given users the power to turn off their online status from the very beginning, and they need to fix this ASAP.”