The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Apps WhatsApp

WhatsApp cracks down upon third party Android App amid security fears

Author

By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

January 21, 2015 | 2 min read

WhatsApp has forced the closure of an unofficial third party app on the Android platform under fears its coding could provide a security lapse for hackers to expose.

The messenger service, which was acquired by Facebook for $19bn, has for 24 hours restricted the accounts of users accessing the service through WhatsApp Plus, an unofficial third party WhatsApp client called WhatsApp Plus

WhatsApp serves 700 million users the WhatsApp Plus Google+ community admitted the developers of the app received a cease and desist from its parent app, he said: "We have received a cease and desist letter from WhatsApp and we are obligated to remove all download links and unfortunately delete this community.

“I am really sorry for this but it's out of our hands and WhatsApp has pushed us into a corner that we can't escape this time. It was a fun ride but it has come to an end. Deepest regards from Rafalense and me and all the WhatsApp Plus team for your support.”

WhatsApp explained its actions in a post on its website: “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 that WhatsApp cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information is potentially being passed to third-parties without your knowledge or authorisation.”

The incident is reminiscent of Snapchat's third party app crackdown following the exploitation of it's clients' lax security which saw users' images leaked online.

Apps WhatsApp

Content created with:

Whatsapp

Find out more

More from Apps

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +