CYBER THREAT INTEL: WhatsApp’s New Event Feature—Here’s What You Need to Know

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Gibraltar: Friday 16 August 2024 at 11:20 CEST

CYBER THREAT INTEL: WhatsApp’s New Event Feature—Here’s What You Need to Know
Syndicated via  CYBERInsights/CyberVoice  First for SME Cybersecurity  PR

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Gibraltar: 16 August 2024

WhatsApp’s Events feature makes planning easier but comes with significant security concerns

WhatsApp is set to roll out a new feature over the coming weeks, known as ‘Events.’ With this feature, you can create event notifications in your group chats, including details such as the name, location, and start date and time.

“While this feature offers users attractive convenience, there are some privacy concerns, especially surrounding how dates and locations are collected and stored by Meta,” says Mukesh Choudhary, the co-founder and CTO of software development company Finoit “We’ll address and explain some of these risks so you can make an informed choice about whether or not to use WhatsApp Events.”

What Is WhatsApp Events? Mukesh explains “WhatsApp Events allows users to create and manage events such as work meetings, social gatherings like birthday parties or bachelorette parties, or virtual get-togethers, directly within their group chats,”

To create an event, you simply tap the + button in your group chat and select “Event.” You can then fill in details such as the event name, an optional description, start date and time, location, and a WhatsApp call link for voice or video calls. Once the event is set up, all group members receive a notification.

Guests can RSVP directly within the chat, making it easy to track attendance. Additionally, event details can be accessed through the group’s information page, and participants receive timely reminders as the event approaches.

What Are The Security Concerns?

“WhatsApp’s new event planning feature enhances convenience for users, but raises important privacy concerns,” Mukesh says.

“The feature captures and stores details such as event dates, times, and locations, which could be leveraged to gain insights into a user’s behavioural and social patterns. Given Meta’s bad track record with user privacy issues, this could be cause for significant concern.”

Meta’s access to this private data is worrying for several reasons. Marketing companies can use data about your behavioural patterns to send you more targeted advertising, which most of us find invasive and uncomfortable. Companies like Meta are also often the target of large-scale privacy breaches, which could see sensitive information about your social circle and the locations you visit fall into the hands of criminals.

Meta’s Troubled Data Handling History And Current Privacy Scandal
Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, has faced significant scrutiny and legal action over its data handling practices. European regulators have previously accused Meta of illegal data collection and privacy violations under GDPR rules. For instance, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has criticized Meta for gathering extensive and sensitive information about users, including their sexual orientation and their emotional state, often without their explicit consent.

This scrutiny has been intensified by Meta’s history of transferring personal data across borders. In May 2023, the EU fined them a staggering €1.2 billion for transferring user data from Europe to servers in the USA, the largest fine ever handed down under GDPR laws.

“Meta is even now embroiled in legal battles with European and British consumer rights groups and is under yet more scrutiny from EU regulators over its controversial plan to use users’ data to train its LLM, or large-language model, a form of AI,” says Mukesh. “Taking all this together, I can’t say I feel entirely secure about handing details of where I’m going and who I’m meeting over to Meta.”

About Finoit

Finoit is a software development company that works with SaaS and software start-ups to build scalable and secure software products and AI solutions using modern technologies. With over 13 years of experience and proven credibility, the company has worked with over 100 software start-ups to build successful products and has many notable success stories. Mukesh Choudhary is the co-founder and CTO of Finoit Technologies