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Univ. of New Haven Cyber Lab: WhatsApp Collects Phone Numbers, Call Duration, and More

Posted by timothy on from the mere-metadata dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A recent network forensic examination of popular messaging service WhatsApp at the University of New Haven's Cyber Forensics Research & Education Group is offering new details on the data that can be collected from the app's network from its new calling feature: such as phone numbers and phone call duration, and highlights areas for future research and study. The researchers provided an outline of the WhatsApp messaging protocol from a networking perspective, making it possible to explore and study WhatsApp network communications. (Also noted at The Register.)

34 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. App that apps apps turns out to app apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What a surprise!

    Apps!

    1. Re:App that apps apps turns out to app apps! by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      FFS, this should surprise NO ONE.

      The default behavior for almost everything these days is to suck up as much information as possible no matter what the Terms Of Service say.

      I'd be surprised if it didn't also log the GPS coordinates, movement, and anything else it can grab.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    2. Re: App that apps apps turns out to app apps! by Holi · · Score: 1

      BTW, did you know that every men's room has your mother's phone number written on the wall? Really? Everyone else knew.

      Duh, Why else do you think I put it there?

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  2. Nobody gives a shit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously, everybody knows that WhatsApp was shite, is shite and will forever be shite. It does not matter. Everybody uses it, so everybody keeps using it. You would have to pay people to make them switch. It's not going to happen.

    1. Re:Nobody gives a shit. by hjf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's unbelievably slow, heavy, feature lacking. Useless web ui "whatsapp web" that takes ages to load and still requires you to have whatsapp open on your phone in order for it to work.

      You can't refuse to join groups: you're forcefully added and multimedia shit downloaded to your phone without your permission.

      Whatsapp also works very hard against "modders" and COMPLETELY REFUSES to let you run multiple phone numbers on a single phone: one person-one phone. Company number AND personal number? Fuck you. Dual sim phone? Fuck you very much. It's like facebook: ONE PERSON, ONE PROFILE. Multiple profiles? HACKER!!!!!! DELINQUENT!!!!

      Telegram is far lighter, runs on a lot of platforms and overall feels a lot more well built than this shit. Lose your phone? no problem, telegram is still open on your tablet, computer, or whatever device you want it to run on.

  3. Re:On Android by interval1066 · · Score: 1

    I love that phrase: "(X) isn't possible on my particular brand of poison."

    --
    Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
  4. Intelligence Collection by transfire · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Probably because Facebook is part of the Israeli intelligence apparatus. This is the same data collected by Amdocs, the Israeli company that handles virtually all records for land lines (http://www.tomflocco.com/fs/HouseHidesIsraeliTelSpying.htm)

  5. it's a messaging app! by wnfJv8eC · · Score: 1

    Didn't my phone come with one preloaded? Why on earth would I need to get a new app to do what my phone already supports?

    1. Re:it's a messaging app! by Flavianoep · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because in Brazil, a each SMS message (about 150B) costs about US$ 0,13, but for about US$ 0,20 money you can use 50MB of data for a day. People uses Whatsapp here because it's cheaper.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    2. Re:it's a messaging app! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In The Netherlands, literally 90% of smartphone users has Whatsapp.
      So there it is a defacto standard messaging app, just like SMS is but "free".

    3. Re:it's a messaging app! by Flavianoep · · Score: 2

      You need someone's phone number to send them Whatsapp messages.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    4. Re:it's a messaging app! by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Does your phone give you free international SMS and MMS, including video?

    5. Re:it's a messaging app! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Really? Then why does this exist?

    6. Re: it's a messaging app! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      In the USA, I can't get why people would use Whatsapp, having SMS virtually for free.

      In most of the rest of the world, only technically inepts or ignorants would use SMS, because for most people a mobile call cost the same or less than a single fucking SMS.

      And Whatsapp is so simple and featureless that you can explain it in five minutes to your grandma, and from then on the only trouble she would have will be finding the right key on her Android keyboard. Install an use, no user IDs, no password, no nothing, and all your family and friends appear thee automagically.
      In Spain you can pay 1 euro a month for 100Mb of mobile Internet, and SMS usually cost 18 cents a message. As you can imagine, nearly nobody uses SMS anymore. It is cheaper by far buying a cheap smarphone and Whatsapp than buying a dumbphone and send SMS. A lot of people uses their smartphones basically as Whatsapp terminals: no calls, no SMS.

      People here calls people with no Whatsapp who sends SMS "amigos caros" ("expensive friends"), because message exchanges with them usually skyrocket your mobile charges.

    7. Re:it's a messaging app! by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Didn't my phone come with one preloaded? Why on earth would I need to get a new app to do what my phone already supports?

      It lets you make free internet phone calls. You can also send free text messages. If you have a basic plan, you don't get many free minutes/texts, so it's a useful free (as in beer) service if you have many people you want to call or text a lot.

      The fact that they collect your data is hardly a surprise, and is no more or less sinister than facebook or google doing the same. If you want total privacy, don't use unencrypted messaging on the internet.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    8. Re: it's a messaging app! by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      By contrast, in the UK most people have either practically, or else actually unlimited texts (SMS) with their mobile phone contracts. (Unless you only have the bare minimum monthly payment option). The same is true of phone calls.

      Whatsapp is still popular because you can send free videos/photos, and make free overseas calls, since monthly plans don't include limitless multimedia messages or calls abroad.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  6. My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by Assoluto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...Being tracked by Zuk

    I'm generally pretty privacy concious (use a VPN for all browsing, self destructing cookies, fake accounts everywhere, no account for Facebook, Twitter, etc). However, with your phone it's impossible to avoid being tracked by Google and Facebook. I have no mobile data plan and keep my Wifi off most of the time, but I still suspect they get a lot of data on me.

    Windows has gone in the same direction and it's impossible to use that without being tracked by Microsoft. Linux is the only remaining option for anyone with concerns about privacy. Sadly, most people don't have any concerns about privacy and don't realise how they can be harmed and exploited through their data.

    I think the privacy war is over, and we lost.

    1. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      owever, with your phone it's impossible to avoid being tracked by Google and Facebook

      What? If you don't have a Facebook account, you don't have their apps. If you don't have their apps, they aren't tracking you.

      If you install a different OS, Google will not track you.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    2. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Except that isn't true.

      http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/31/facebook-tracks-all-visitors-breaching-eu-law-report
      https://www.google.com/analytics/

    3. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Sadly, most people don't have any concerns about privacy and don't realise how they can be harmed and exploited through their data.

      i dunno, i've been using the internet since it's inception and i've never been harmed. what exactly are you talking about?

    4. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Oh, you mean you surf the web from your phone and you don't block facebook/google. The same shit happens on your desktop. Block facebook's and google's domains then (or at least all of facebook and Google's analytics).... just like you should on your desktop.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    5. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by GNious · · Score: 1

      Did you look into using a phone based on something else than Android, Windows, or iOS?

    6. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If you install a different OS, Google will not track you.

      As we're talking about phones, the only alternative OS is Apple. And they track you worse than anyone.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    7. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Sadly, most people don't have any concerns about privacy and don't realise how they can be harmed and exploited through their data.

      i dunno, i've been using the internet since it's inception and i've never been harmed. what exactly are you talking about?

      You're probably not a drug dealer, paedophile or gun-smuggling terrorist, unlike most people on slashdot.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    8. Re:My Whatsapp status is permananently set to... by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Or one of the non-Google Android branches. But iOS is far less tracky than Google, as far as I can tell

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
  7. Does it still need repeating? by Solandri · · Score: 1

    If you aren't paying for a service, you aren't the customer. You're the product being sold.

    1. Re:Does it still need repeating? by Flavianoep · · Score: 1

      It's worse, when you first use Whatsapp it's offered free for a year, after which you have to pay a modicum yearly to keep using the service, yet I've never heard of anyone paying to use it, and you are still the product being sold.

      --
      Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
    2. Re:Does it still need repeating? by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      If you aren't paying for a service, you aren't the customer. You're the product being sold.

      queue the guy that thinks he's dropping some profound knowledge on the unenlightened masses. everyone knows that. we know it, and we're okay with it.

    3. Re:Does it still need repeating? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If you aren't paying for a service, you aren't the customer. You're the product being sold.

      So? No one's forcing you to use these free services.

      Why is there this feeling that you are entitled to everything for free?

      Until we turn into something like Iain M Banks's post-scarcity Culture there really are no free lunches.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  8. LOL by campuscodi · · Score: 2

    Can someone replace the Net-Security link with the original source: http://www.newhaven.edu/news-e... Those infosec professionals just copy-pasted the original text on their website and are passing it as their own.

  9. Re:On Android by gweihir · · Score: 1

    The hallmark of a truly small mind.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  10. Let them have it by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    I use whatapp on my 50$ fire and I had to use a used simcard to activate it, since apparently whatsapp "doesn't work on tablets" but I didn't know that. :-)

    I had bought a a few dozen used prepaid simcards on ebay just for these purposes, to receive a single SMS before throwing it away.
    Lots of sites have begun to use such systems and this is the way to circumvent that.
    It's cheaper than burner phones.

    1. Re:Let them have it by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I use whatapp on my 50$ fire and I had to use a used simcard to activate it, since apparently whatsapp "doesn't work on tablets" but I didn't know that. :-)

      I had bought a a few dozen used prepaid simcards on ebay just for these purposes, to receive a single SMS before throwing it away. Lots of sites have begun to use such systems and this is the way to circumvent that. It's cheaper than burner phones.

      Unless you're James Bond, who could be bothered?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  11. Weak encryption by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    If researchers were able to crack encryption, it means crooks can do it too.

    Not only this app spy on its user on behalf of its creator, but it can also be used by third parties.