© hindustantimes.comBesides May alert, WhatsApp sent another in Sept on 121 Indians breached
WhatsApp has responded to the notice issued by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and said it notified the government in early September that 121 Indians were targeted by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, The Indian Express reported on Sunday citing unidentified officials.
The Centre on Thursday had asked Facebook-owned WhatsApp to explain the nature of the privacy breach and the steps taken to protect Indian users by November 4. In response to the notice, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has attached both the vulnerability note filed in May and the September letter to the government.
IT Ministry officials confirmed the September letter to the newspaper from WhatsApp, which said personal data of Indians was likely accessed by the spyware. However, they claimed the letter was “still too vague”. They said the letter was “not very, very firm”, and that it did not have enough details.