
WhatsApp group chats can be found on Google - leephillips
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/whatsapp-google-group-chat-private-link-messages-search-public-a9354391.html
======
ColinWright
The story has been submitted several times here on HN, but the community
doesn't seem to care:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22386788](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22386788)
9 comments;

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22397130](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22397130)
1 (content-free) comment;

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22389718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22389718)
no comments;

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22386186](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22386186)
no comments;

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22383487](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22383487)
no comments.

The consensus seems to be: Working as intended.

~~~
Tomte
I find it hard to care, unless I've misunderstood it.

You post a group chat's invite link to a public web site, and then you wonder
how Google finds it?

There's no chat content visible to Google, isn't it? It's just the invite link
that "leaks" the group name or so?

~~~
ColinWright
I don't use WhatsApp[0] so I don't know how these things work. But here is a
summary from the article:

> _People can create a group chat in WhatsApp;_

> _People can then be invited to join that;_

> _There is a reasonable expectation that only those invited can join;_

> _That turns out not to be the case;_

> _Group chats can be found via Google search;_

> _Random, uninvited people can then join;_

> _Those who were invited might find that surprising._

So the way WhatsApp is described, people might expect that their groups chats
are invitation only and end-to-end encrypted. Personally, even though I don't
use WhatsApp at all, I'd be _deeply_ annoyed to discover that a "private"
group chat, joined through being sent an invitation, was potentially
discoverable via a Google search and could be joined by people other than
those to whom an invitation was sent.

I think non-technical people, and some technical people, will find it very
surprising.

================

[0] I don't use WhatsApp because the terms of service require that I permit
them to slurp my address book, and I have contact details for people who
really don't want their details leaked.

~~~
Tomte
I'm still unclear about who is posting the link:

WhatsApp itself, somewhere under whatsapp.com?

Or random users on whatever web sites, Facebook etc.?

If the latter (and that's how I understood it): if you give people an invite
link, that link can be used to access the group. Obviously. Works as intended.

If you don't want random people to show up, don't post the link publicly, give
it only to trusted people you actually want in the group.

~~~
ColinWright
As I say, I don't use WhatsApp, so I don't know. However, quoting from another
report on this:

> _If you want to comb through Google Search to find out if your private
> WhatsApp group is indexed, just start with a “chat.whatsapp.com” string and
> then enter in some information specific to your chat. Vice did this and was
> able to find several chat groups related to sharing porn as well as a chat
> that describes itself as being for NGOs accredited by the United Nations.
> These chat groups listed out members’ names as well as contact information,
> in some cases phone numbers._

\-- [https://www.androidauthority.com/private-
whatsapp-1085998/](https://www.androidauthority.com/private-whatsapp-1085998/)

So I don't know who's sharing these links, or what the mechanism is for doing
so, but I'm pretty sure people won't be expecting the groups to be found via a
Google search. As such, whatever the mechanism may be, dismissing this as
"Works as intended" seems to me to be breathtaking arrogance.

Your opinion may differ, but I think muggles would be surprised by this, and
potentially it's only being kept in the dark about it that's stopping them
from being very angry.

~~~
Tomte
> dismissing this as "Works as intended" seems to me to be breathtaking
> arrogance.

I really don't like your arrogant dismissal. I've tried to understand the
issue, after three articles it's still unclear.

But let's step back for a second. How would you expect it to work? How could
anyone else be at fault than the one posting the link on public web sites (and
it doesn't look like it's WhatsApp).

Say, I'm posting a link to your LinkedIn profile here on Hacker News. How do
you propose that LinkedIn(!) stops following other people that link to your
profile?

Assuming you didn't want to have that posted, wouldn't you take umbrage with
me? What mechanism do you expect WhatsApp to implement to make sure that

(a) a link can be followed by the right people, after sharing it publically

and (b) the link cannot be followed by the wrong people

and (c) the link is enough to enter the group, so no password, because that#s
the whole point of that feature – and a password would be shared just
alongside the link anyway.

~~~
ColinWright
Let me put it this way.

People tout WhatsApp as being secure, and yet when it's working allegedly as
intended, people who have not been invited to join a group chat can
nevertheless so so. Genuinely, do you not find that surprising?

You ask:

> _How would you expect it to work?_

I would expect it to work over secure channels, and not over links that can be
discovered and indexed by Google.

Look, I don't have knowledge to debate this. I've mentioned it to several non-
technical people I know who use WhatsApp and they genuinely are surprised.
They thought it would be secure, they thought that creating private chat
groups would be, you know, _private_.

As I've said repeatedly, I don't know how it works, I don't know where the
muggles' expectations are deviating from those of the technically literate,
but I do know that people are finding it surprising that their allegedly
private groups chats are not, in fact, private.

Clearly your expectations are different.

But I'll stop now, since I'm failing so spectacularly to explain my concerns.

~~~
Tomte
> I would expect it to work over secure channels, and not over links that can
> be discovered and indexed by Google.

How on earth? The web and links are pretty much the only thing we have to
point people towards internet services.

And I just checked, in the app, directly under the link, there is the
following sentence: "Every WhatsApp user can follow this link to enter the
group. Share it only with people you trust" (my translation, English wording
probably differs).

> Look, I don't have time to debate this.

So instead of finding out what's happening (it's still not clear!), you'd
rather use your time to FUD your friends and acquaintances.

> I've mentioned it to several non-technical people I know who use WhatsApp
> and they are surprised.

Of course, if you coloured it with your opinion and speculation, like you did
in this thread.

~~~
ColinWright
>> I've mentioned it to several non-technical people I know who use WhatsApp
and they are surprised.

> Of course, if you coloured it with your opinion and speculation, like you
> did in this thread.

So it's spreading FUD to tell them _the exact thing that 's there in the app?_
Pointing out that links to group chats have been found on Google searches is
spreading FUD?

Pretty sure we must be starting from different premises, and that it's
unlikely this will go anywhere. You've made it clear that you think it's
reasonable for it to work the way it days, I've tried to make it clear that
people are surprised that links to group chats are being found via web
searches. I've also tried to make it clear that I think their level of
surprise is reasonable.

Not sure there's much more to say.

