'This is unacceptable breach of privacy': IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar initiates inquiry on alleged WhatsApp leak

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, expressed concerns about a potential privacy breach by WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Meta. He emphasized that the government takes privacy violations seriously and will thoroughly investigate the alleged incident. The specific claim under scrutiny suggests that WhatsApp accessed a user's microphone while they were asleep.

Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to address the matter, stating that such breaches are unacceptable and infringe upon individuals' right to privacy. He further asserted that immediate action would be taken to address any privacy violations, even as the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDP) is being prepared.

The Minister's statement was in response to a tweet by Foad Dabiri, an engineering director at Twitter, and highlights the government's commitment to safeguarding privacy in the digital realm.

In the tweet he said, "This is an unacceptable breach n violation of #Privacy. We will be examinig this immdtly and will act on any violation of privacy even as new Digital Personal Data protection bill #DPDP is being readied."

This is an unacceptable breach n violation of #Privacy

We will be examinig this immdtly and will act on any violation of privacy even as new Digital Personal Data protection bill #DPDP is being readied.@GoI_MeitY @_DigitalIndia https://t.co/vtFrST4bKP

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) May 10, 2023

WhatsApp has come forward with an explanation for the privacy breach. In response to the tweet by the Twitter engineer, WhatsApp stated, "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."

Sir, pls see our response: we believe this is a bug on Android, Google has said they are looking into it. Your calls and voice notes are protected by end-to-end encryption so we cannot hear the microphone in any case. We’re aligned on safeguarding privacy. https://t.co/4L8b89yzRI

— Shivnath Thukral (@shivithukral) May 10, 2023

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