Dutch developer Maikel Zweerink has released a software kit that lets anyone see whether WhatsApp users are online, even if their status is set to “private.” He says the following: According to him, his software can track the following properties of any WhatsApp user: Online/Offline status, profile pictures, privacy settings and status messages. This is actually pretty serious, since it potentially allows anyone with a phone number not tied to a WhatsApp account to spy on users of the messaging app, eve on those protected with strict privacy settings. As a matter of fact, the developer made the project opensource on Gitlab, probably in order to force the Facebook-owned WhatsApp to move faster and remedy the problem as soon as possible. Zweerink further explains: The developer says he created WhatsSpy Public “for you to realize how broken the privacy options actually are.” This sounds really worrying, especially when you consider the fact that the app is on the track to hit 1 billion users in the near future.
