
WhatsApp Phone Numbers Pop Up in Google Search Results - nreece
https://threatpost.com/whatsapp-phone-numbers-google-search-results/156141/
======
Lukas_Skywalker
Apparently, the phone numbers only get indexed if a website owner includes a
"Click to Chat" widget on their website - effectively publishing the number
anyway. The only difference is that "Click to chat" only displays a QR code
which visitors scan. They are then redirected to the WhatsApp chat of the
website owner, where the number is public anyway.

Maybe WhatsApp should make clear that the "Click to chat" widget allows anyone
to see your phone number. But I don't really see any other mistake on their
part.

~~~
ldjb
In fact, Click to Chat links are not QR codes but URLs that are manually
constructed from a phone number.

[https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/chats/how-to-use-click-
to-c...](https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/chats/how-to-use-click-to-chat/)

Of course, you can generate a QR code from this URL using third-party tools,
which I think is what's happening here.

Click to Chat's stated purpose is to allow you to chat to someone whose phone
number you know, but you don't want to add them to your address book.

Clearly, some people are using it for a different purpose – to make it easier
for other people to send them WhatsApp message.

Maybe WhatsApp should be clearer about the dangers of sharing a URL containing
your phone number, but it seems like a useful feature when used for their
intended purpose.

~~~
NicoJuicy
You can just check if someone has WhatsApp by going to
wa.me/+(countrycode)(number)

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floo
The title seems to imply that this affects all WhatsApp users, when it really
only affects those putting a link with their phone number online.

Feels like clickbait.

[https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/chats/how-to-use-click-
to-c...](https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/chats/how-to-use-click-to-chat/)

------
bertman
From the article:

    
    
      “My phone number is public on the web. No need to implicate WhatsApp,” 
      one user told Threatpost, explaining that Click to Chat was convenient 
      and made it easy for his site visitors. “I did it to make it easy for 
      people to contact me. Surprisingly, I get very few spam calls,” he said.
    
      However, others were unaware their numbers were public.
    
      “No I didn’t mean to make my number public at all,” one user told 
      Threatpost. “I set up WhatsApp for my business so people should 
      text directly without getting my number.”
    

I think this illustrates the underlying problem nicely, which is imho that
people misunderstand how the "Click to chat" button works.

~~~
Etheryte
As a tangential aside, please don't use code blocks to make "quotes", they're
practically unusable on mobile devices. Code blocks don't get automatic
wrapping and you have to scroll back and forth for each line.

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dirtnugget
I mean they could have used at least some kind of ID or hash instead of the
actual number for the URL.

~~~
kevincox
It doesn't matter much because once you are in whatsapp the primary key is the
phone number.

It would be really nice if you could share a revocable identifier that could
be used instead of a phone number, but I guess this would require a lot more
code changes.

~~~
londons_explore
And a big benefit of a phone number is that if I want to contact the same
person on Snapchat, or some other service, I can.

Per service identifiers just build walled gardens and in the end hurt users.

Phone numbers are the perfect identifier because the default is 1 per person,
but you can easily get a few more if you want to be anonymous, split business
from home, have two personalities, etc.

~~~
kevincox
I'm not arguing that using phone numbers doesn't have benefits. I'm just
saying that WhatsApp intrinsically shares your number so obfuscating the URL
will provide little benefit.

At the end of the day if you want to allow people to contact you _without_
sharing your number you would need something like that I proposed. And in that
case you would explicitly be trying to isolate from your other contact methods
so your "benefits" become drawbacks.

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pearjuice
>Publishing phone number on the internet leads to it being indexed by Google

How is this news?

~~~
searchableguy
Girl drops out because of ubuntu (it came pre-installed on her laptop).

[https://youtu.be/5Qj8p-PEwbI](https://youtu.be/5Qj8p-PEwbI)

