WhatsApp tries to downplay reports of a security flaw

If you use WhatsApp on an Android phone, you should be careful about what you talk about or share on the instant messaging app. Using a few scripts and a rogue app, anyone can peer into your chat logs and see what you talk about with your friends. A Dutch security consultant has found that WhatsApp chat logs saved on the SD card of an Android phone can be read by other apps because of the way Android allows sharing of data between apps.

WhatsApp — the popular messaging app with 465 million users acquired by Facebook for $19 billion last month — came under fire earlier this week after tech consultant Bas Bosschert published a blog post explaining how malicious developers can access your messages via the microSD card, and the post went viral (yes, we wroteabout it, too). Now, WhatsApp has responded — perhaps unsurprisingly, to refute the weight of the information. A spokesperson tells us the reports “have not painted an accurate picture and are overstated.” He also notes that the latest version in Google Play was updated with further security protection.