A serious accusation had to be made in response The WhatsAppafter accusations on social media from her Elon Musk on Twitterthat the messaging platform was using the microphone of its users’ cellphones.
This claim followed similar reports online from owners of Samsung and Pixel phones. Confused users asked “Why is my WhatsApp using the microphone all the time?” and “WhatsApp uses microphone when not in use” in a series of posts posted on Facebook reddit And in websites to mode From Google and Samsung.
WhatsApp responded on Tuesday, saying the problem was caused by an Android “bug” that “misattributes information” to the Privacy Panel.
The privacy panel, found in your Android phone’s settings, lets you see which apps are using permissions. This includes things like access to your location, microphone, and camera, which many apps require to function properly.
WhatsApp added that it had asked Google to investigate and “address” the issue.
In a follow-up tweet, WhatsApp said it can only access the microphone with permission “when a user is on a call or recording an audio or video note.” It stated: “These communications are protected with end-to-end encryption so that WhatsApp cannot listen in on them.”
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