WhatsApp has denied reports claiming that contacts of 500 million users, including in India, were put up for sale on the internet.
Rejecting the report by Cybernews, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, “The claim written on Cybernews is based on unsubstantiated screenshots. There is no evidence of a ‘data leak’ from WhatsApp.”
Also read: How to use WhatsApp polls feature on desktop
According to the instant messaging platform, the purported list is a set of phone numbers and not “WhatsApp user information.”
“Additionally, the reporter of the Cybernews article has also tweeted that there is no evidence of a data hack/ leak on WhatsApp,” the WhatsApp spokesperson added.
Cybernews earlier reported that a seller put the database of nearly 500 million WhatsApp users for sale. The report said the data were gathered by the hacker through scraping.
Also read: 500 million users’ data at risk