People use WhatsApp to chat to their friends and family because it's easy to use and private. But the encrypted app might not be as private as you think. WhatsApp group chats can be easily found via a Google search, because the search engine is indexing links to conversations intended to be private. All it takes is a quick Google search and anyone can join a range of WhatsApp chats, including those meant to be private, according to esteemed tech site Vice which first broke the story. Private WhatsApp conversations are usually only accessible via an invite code handed out to group members by the chat moderator. But this code is simply a string of text and a URL, and it seems that at least some of these are being indexed so they are findable by anyone via Google. You can see if any of your private chats are visible by typing in chat.whatsapp.com and then adding in some detail relating to the group chat.

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, but it is now owned by Facebook, which is integrating Instagram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp at the back end. After a slew of data scandals, privacy issues and breaches, many people don't trust Facebook, so it might make sense to try something else. ESET's Moore recommends using Signal or Telegram chat apps which, he says, "focus more heavily on user security and privacy."