A new research paper is boldly claiming to have scraped the personal data of 3.5 billion WhatsApp users. The researchers from the University of Vienna (via The Register) say that the data acquired would, "to our knowledge, classify as the largest data leak in history, had it not been collated as part of a responsibly-conducted research study." But this "leak" may not quite be what it seems.
The researchers claim to have scraped phone numbers, timestamps, "about" text, profile pictures, and public keys for E2EE encryption, the release of which, "would entail adverse implications to the included users."
