WhatsApp has been accused of “listening in on people” while the company is threatening to leave the UK over its own privacy concerns.
The popular messaging app could vanish from the country due to a row over the UK’s online safety bill saying it would rather leave than comply with legislation it believes “compromises” the privacy of all users.
At the same time their have been claims that WhatsApp has been active when people have not been using it.
Twitter engineer Foad Dabiri shared a screenshot of his microphone usage from his Google Pixel phone and it appeared to show WhatsApp listening in.
"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?," he wrote on Twitter.
While it sparked a indignation including a claim from Elon Musk that WhatsApp could not be “trusted” it appears to be down to an Android bug and not a case of spying.
"We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate," WhatsApp wrote in a statement on Twitter.
"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."
Meanwhile WhatsApp is urging the Government to rethink the Online Safety Bill.
Peers are carrying out a line-by-line scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill, aimed at tackling illegal and harmful content by imposing new legal requirements on big tech companies.
Under the proposed new laws Ofcom would have the power to impose requirements for social networks to use technology to tackle content such as sexual abuse or terrorism.
WhatsApp claims the bill does not protect end-to-end encryption, a method of secure communication that prevents anyone but a sender and recipient from seeing messages.
It stated in an open letter: “The UK government is currently considering new legislation that opens the door to trying to force technology companies to break end-to-end encryption on private messaging services. The law could give an unelected official the power to weaken the privacy of billions of people around the world.
"We don’t think any company, government or person should have the power to read your personal messages and we’ll continue to defend encryption technology.
"We’re proud to stand with other technology companies in our industry pushing back against the misguided parts of this law that would make people in the UK and around the world less safe.”
It said the bill would be an “unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen and the people with whom they communicate around the world.”
WhatsApp said that people’s ability to communicate securely would be “undermined” by “indiscriminate surveillance of personal messages”.
It added: “The Bill provides no explicit protection for encryption, and if implemented as written, could empower Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services - nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users.
A Home Office spokesperson told The Mirror: “We support strong encryption, but this cannot come at the cost of public safety. Tech companies have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to the unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse on their platforms.
“The Online Safety Bill in no way represents a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.
“Where it is the only effective, proportionate and necessary action available, Ofcom will be able to direct platforms to use accredited technology, or make best endeavours to develop new technology, to accurately identify child sexual abuse content, so it can be taken down and the despicable predators brought to justice.”
