Government sources say the information provided by tech giant WhatsApp claiming its officials met the Indian government in the last five months was “pure technical jargon”.
Moreover, government sources are also saying that WhatsApp had given information to CERT-IN in May but did not mention Pegasus or the extent of the breach. The information mentioned was only about technical vulnerability. And that the information had nothing to do with the fact that the privacy of Indian users had been compromised. Government sources also circulated a screenshot of the information shared with CERT-IN by WhatsApp.
“WhatsApp officials have met the Indian government in the last five months. This incident is in August…. then why did WhatsApp not inform us that time? Looking at our demand, now the US, UK, and Australia have also raised pitch for traceability. So this is too much of a coincidence. This could be an attempt by WhatsApp to build pressure on countries to push back on growing global opinion for traceability using this example,” a source said.
Further, Pegasus allegedly exploited WhatsApp’s video calling system with installing the spyware via giving missed calls to snoop on 1,400 select users globally that included almost 30-40 people in India.
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