WhatsApp Plus

[ricktas]

Just a bit of a warning for those that use WhatsApp. ( I don't)

There is a new App going round called WhatsApp Plus. It is marketed as being WhatsApp with extra features. But reading through the fine print on the App it has the following gems:

* WhatsApp Plus is a comparable form of WhatsApp with various enhanced components inside. Fundamentally, WhatsApp Plus is not an authority application for any cell phone stage, the application is still accessible as an outsider application.

* WhatsApp Plus is a finished altered form of the current WhatsApp application

* WhatsApp Plus too has an updated rendition. This updated variant has enhanced components and all the bug fixes.

They are marketing it as an updated, more fully featured version of WhatsApp, when it is no such thing, it is a rip-off version and using it means you are providing your information (login etc) and contents of your phone to most likely an unscrupulous company.

[ricktas]

PS, I have deliberately not linked to the site, or any other place that this 'version' of the App is available.

[ameerat42]

What a BUNCHER [insert epithet here]!!

On the other hand, I noted the following excerpt from the real WhatsApp FAQs - they DISCLAIM it fully (note the highlighted part):

"Why am I banned for using WhatsApp Plus and how do I get unbanned?

WhatsApp Plus is an application that was not developed by WhatsApp, nor is it authorized by WhatsApp. The developers of WhatsApp Plus have no relationship to WhatsApp,
and we do not support WhatsApp Plus. Please be aware that WhatsApp Plus contains source code which WhatsApp cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information
is potentially being passed to 3rd parties without your knowledge or authorization.

Please uninstall your application and install an authorized version of WhatsApp from our website or Google Play. After the 24 hour count down ends you will be able to use WhatsApp."

I recall seeing this along the way when posing a query on Whatsapp in a recent post but I did not take any notice of it,
so TA for the warning, Rick.

[arthurking83]

From my understanding of WhatsApp .. it has to be one of the worst cases of unsecure communication you can use!

Not that I'm paranoid of people spying on me(personally), but I do worry about my kids(I tell 'em they simply can't use it or have it!) .. you just never know who's doing what where and when.

(I don't use it either)For me, I really don't care about being spied on. If someone wants to know what my breakfast or coffee arrangements are and who I'm catching up with and where I am .. really? great. All the more power to them!
I'll smile as they spy on me!

It's the spam and malware links that worry me about crap software like that, and if my kids bring malware into my home network, they get kicked off!

Sample WhatsApp security problems

One of the things I really don't like about these messaging apps is their use of YOUR contacts data!
That will include people that want nothing to do with those messaging apps, so in using these apps, all your contacts in your list also become part of the apps database list.

kik is another that does this.
Person A uses kik and allows it access to their contacts list. Kik now has Person Bs information. Person B wants nothing to do with kik tho.
So through no fault of their own, Person B is now part of the kik database of new people to spam .. almost all these companies will share the data they collect with other third parties!

The problem is many/most folksies just don't care(about the security issues).
And what will eventually happen is that this highly connected world we 'all' seem to want to live in will implode at some point in the future.
At some point in the future most connection apps will have some serious security issue(s), and many of these folks will have been hacked/spied on/duped in some way and they will all mostly end up tuning out(of the connected world).

[ameerat42]

[]
Yes, but what about the days of smoke signals
--Anybody could intercept and read them

Of course, people soon learnt the trick of sending them at night and using smokeless fires...

Well, comms has ever been a security risk
[/]

[arthurking83]

[]
Yes, but what about the days of smoke signals
--Anybody could intercept and read them

Of course, people soon learnt the trick of sending them at night and using smokeless fires...

Well, comms has ever been a security risk
[/]

Anybody could read them, but not many could decipher them correctly! They were encrypted with a larger app called WIND.
WIND would scramble the smoke signals, so one had to have the correct protocol for 'breaking WIND' correctly at the receiving end to make sense of the smoke being created at the source end.
The toxicity of being able to break WIND correctly was a burden on the recipients so they had to look at new alternatives!

Anyhow ... I reckon what killed the smoke signals industry was the invention of the small portable gas bottle with hob attachment!
No need to make fires any more, what with all that gathering of wood, rubbing of sticks .. dancing about and preying to the relevant deities for the fire/smoke to create! .. too much work they reckon!

[ameerat42]

Yeah! I remember, there was a BIG STINK about it

[Mark L]

WhatsApp, what's that?
Ignorance continues to create bliss.
Unlike AK who remembers the good old days, I still live them.

Anybody could read them, but not many could decipher them correctly! They were encrypted with a larger app called WIND.
WIND would scramble the smoke signals, so one had to have the correct protocol for 'breaking WIND' correctly at the receiving end to make sense of the smoke being created at the source end.
The toxicity of being able to break WIND correctly was a burden on the recipients so they had to look at new alternatives!

Anyhow ... I reckon what killed the smoke signals industry was the invention of the small portable gas bottle with hob attachment!
No need to make fires any more, what with all that gathering of wood, rubbing of sticks .. dancing about and preying to the relevant deities for the fire/smoke to create! .. too much work they reckon!

We still haven't found a way to reconcile what is best, wind or gas. We ham it up around here so have stuck with the smoke stuff.