Whatsapp Storing Phone numbers of non-users, Accused of Privacy Violation by Canadian, Dutch Authorities
Whatspp has been accused of mishandling personal information of its users by Canadian and Dutch privacy officials for the manner in which it goes about scanning the phone books of users’ phones.
Whatsapp scans users’ phone books or contact list to find who all can the users chat with from that list. The investigation carried out by Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) have found that the messaging company, after receiving all the numbers from a user’s contact list, doesn’t delete the number of non-users but, stores them in a hash form. This practice violates the privacy policy of both the countries.
“Once users consent to the use of their address book, all phone numbers from the mobile device are transmitted to WhatsApp to assist in the identification of other WhatsApp users,” the report reads.
