yo popcaan Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 If you change your number and someone else takes it after a few months, all your contacts/messages are accessible by the next person who installs WhatsApp on the same phone number unless the account was deleted manually. I got a new phone number and can access the previous owner's contacts/messages (using my smartphone!) This is ridiculous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 yea i think a few apps are probably like that, i bet groupme is the same because it ties to your number not a login Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick H. Supervisor Posted April 24, 2013 Supervisor Share Posted April 24, 2013 In fairness, there are several large security flaws with Whatsapp. I remember posting a news article about it back in October. fusi0n 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P. Administrators Posted April 24, 2013 Administrators Share Posted April 24, 2013 If you change your number and someone else takes it after a few months, all your contacts/messages are accessible by the next person who installs WhatsApp on the same phone number unless the account was deleted manually. I got a new phone number and can access the previous owner's contacts/messages (using my smartphone!) This is ridiculous! I know right :/ I reset and wiped my iPhone and deleted the WhatsApp app and was surprised to see that after my HTC 8X broke and I needed to use my iPhone 4 again, reinstalling WhatsApp immediately repopulated the messages and contacts I hadn't manually deleted from the app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnmnky Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 So it's a useful feature that can backfire if you a) don't realise b) don't remember. Maybe they should use email instead of mobile number to save details on their database like Google contacts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Montage Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 This is why I ALWAYS port my number :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XerXis Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 why wouldn't they use a combination of the number and a user chosen password to connect, it wouldn't change anything about the functionality. And they also need a way to transfer an account to a new number. If they did those two things, all problems reported here would have been solved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fusi0n Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 yeah.. i never would trust any of these apps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axel_lucas Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 Not completely secure I can say !!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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