Security researchers have said that they managed to scrape phone numbers linked to over 3.5 billion active WhatsApp accounts, including nearly 750 million (75 crore) users in India – the highest count globally.

They were also able to extract publicly displayed WhatsApp profile photos of 62 per cent (or 46.5 crore) Indian users, along with other profile details such as the ‘About’ text, companion-device usage, business account information, and more.

These findings are part of a new research paper published on Tuesday, November 18, by a group of computer scientists from the University of Vienna in Austria, who said that they were able to compile these large datasets of WhatsApp account information by taking advantage of the instant messaging platform’s contact-discovery feature.

A WhatsAp

See Full Page