WhatsApp private group links were accessible on Google search (again)

It seems like an old problem has come to rear its ugly head again. WhatsApp Private Group links are popping up on Google Search. This is something that caused quite the stir back in February 2020. Anyone who typed in the search phrase “chat.whatsapp.com” would get hundreds of thousands of private group link results.

The issue was said to have been solved when Google stopped indexing the group links and WhatsApp asked its user not to share private group links on the web. It appears that all of that hasn’t worked as per the findings of  Rajshekhar Rajaharia, an internet security researcher.

This is a big problem because if anyone came across a group chat link they could have access not only to the group by the private contact details of the people in that group. Thankfully though, according to a report by Business Standard, the links have been removed by Google.

As with all things that happen twice, we should guard against it happening again with the following:

• Do not share your private WhatsApp group links unless you know or you are familiar with the person.
• Refrain from sharing private WhatsApp group links on the internet.
• Reset your invitation link periodically, you can do by following instructions in the link here.
• The safest measure of all is adding people into a group manually rather than sending them an invite link.