The phone numbers of several users of instant messaging platform WhatsApp's ‘click to share’ feature may have been exposed on Google search. These mobile numbers are available on Google search in plain text format, according to independent cybersecurity researcher Athul Jayaram.
“WhatsApp web portal has leaked 29,000-3,00,000 WhatsApp user’s mobile numbers in plain text accessible to any internet user. What makes this finding easy or appears to be simple is that data is accessible on the open web and not on the dark web,” wrote Jayaram in his blogpost that was reported by Threatpost.
He added, “This privacy issue could have