Recently introduced on Whats app is a facility whereby if you video or voice call someone who is in your address book (and you are in theirs) you can use a readily available 3rd party programme to isolate the IP address and geo locate it.
Only an issue with calls, NOT messages
(in plain english someone can potentially identify where you live via whats app if you are using your router at home.)
Simple fix
Whats app settings
Privacy
Advanced settings
Toggle on “protect IP address in calls) |
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Do you have a link or anything that has more info about this?
I follow security issues for things like messaging pretty closely and I can't find any securities advisories, or even a news article about this issue. |
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So this isn't really accurate.
WhatsApp uses a peer to peer system for voice calls and this necessitates each end user exchanging IP addresses.
This isn't new and it isn't a vulnerability.
Yes an industrious sleuth could find your IP address if they tried hard enough.
This is also true of your every day surfing habits. Anyone with enough time on there hands could find your IP.
There's a couple of things to unpack there.
1. An IP address isn't going to expose your home address. It's only accurate enough to geolocate with within a certain area.
2. Modern router's use DHCP (dynamic IP assignment) meaning your IP changes.
WhatsApp offer a setting to route your call through their servers to mask your IP address and the privacy conscious should certainly avail of this.
I'd say if your that privacy conscious you should already be using Tor/VPN etc
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I was just about to post something similar.
IPs cannot track you to your exact location, and yes, using a 3rd party program you can pull IPs from WhatsApp, but the same select group that are capable of, and would so something like that, can also get your IP in a whole manner of far easier ways...
This is not something you should really be worried about tbh. |
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By *DW1983Man 10 weeks ago
Aberdeen, Leeds, Sheffield |
Sounds like one of those cases where "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing". Someone learns half a story, tells people all about what they learnt, and it's all over the internet as the basis for a conspiracy theory, which usually still carries on even after others with more knowledge come along and explain how it actually works... |
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