Twitter CEO and tech magnate Elon Musk piled on to a Zuckerberg-owned instant messaging app known as WhatsApp after people voiced concerns over invasions of privacy. Musk is now in competition with Zuckerberg as he attempts to revamp Twitter’s instant messaging to compete with other messaging apps.
The exchange started after WhatsApp acknowledged a complaint from a Twitter engineer who posted screenshots of their WhatsApp showing that the app had been turning the microphone on without his permission throughout the day, including while he was asleep.
“WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6 AM (and that’s just a part of the timeline!) What’s going on?” He said.
WhatsApp has been using the microphone in the background, while I was asleep and since I woke up at 6AM (and that's just a part of the timeline!) What's going on? pic.twitter.com/pNIfe4VlHV
— Foad Dabiri (@foaddabiri) May 6, 2023
The app acknowledged the complaint on Twitter and said that it is a bug they are working on fixing on Android phones.
“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 tweeted.
Over the last 24 hours we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp.
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 (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023
“We believe this is a bug on Android that misattributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate.”
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They further clarified that users have full control over their microphone settings and that the microphone is protected by end-to-end encryption.
“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.”
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
Musk piled on to the messaging app, which is owned by the parent company of Facebook, Meta.
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“WhatsApp cannot be trusted” He said on Twitter.
WhatsApp cannot be trusted https://t.co/3gdNxZOLLy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
Musk commented:
“Yeah. Or that WhatsApp founders left Meta/Facebook in disgust, started [the] #deletefacebook campaign & made major contributions to building Signal.”
Yeah.
Or that WhatsApp founders left Meta/Facebook in disgust, started #deletefacebook campaign & made major contributions to building Signal.
What they learned about Facebook & changes to WhatsApp obviously disturbed them greatly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
“What they learned about Facebook & changes to WhatsApp obviously disturbed them greatly.”
Other users seemed to question WhatsApp’s explanation, with one user saying that they should sue Elon Musk for defamation if his claim was correct.
One Twitter responded to WhatsApp’s tweet: “If that’s 100% true, you should sue @elonmusk for defamation of the brand, would you do that?”
If that's 100% true, you should sue @elonmusk for defamation of the brand, would you do that?
— Brajesh Sharma (@brjshshrma) May 9, 2023
“What they learned about Facebook & changes to WhatsApp obviously disturbed them greatly.” He further said.
Other WhatsApp users have described similar incidents, with one Reddit user saying that the app was attempting to access his microphone every three or four minutes.
“The green dot in the status bar is turned on nonstop all day. When I click on it says WhatsApp accessing microphone every 3-4 minutes,” the Reddit user posted.
Another said that the only way that they were able to stop it was to turn off microphone permissions in the app’s settings, making the app basically unusable.
“Anyone else facing this? The only fix I found is turning off permission in WhatsApp settings, but it’s not feasible for someone who takes a lot of WhatsApp calls.”
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