WhatsApp has claimed that its messaging platform is being used by Israel-based cyber-spies for tracking and snooping on activists and journalists in India.
But India's IT Ministry on Sunday said it found ‘certain gaps’ in WhatApp’s reply to the spyware issue. The ministry has now decided to write to the company over its response to the alleged data breach.
"WhatsApp has replied. We will be reaching out to them for many gaps in their reply. Everything in detail is not there. Definitely, we will be writing to them soon," said an official at the ministry.
However, sources in WhatsApp pointed out that the global office of the messaging platform has responded to the government attaching a note it filed in May as well as a September letter to the government, media reports said.
Even though WhatsApp did not clarify at whose behest the phones of the journalists and activists were targeted, the Israeli company NSO Group had said earlier that it only sells its software Pegasus to government agencies.
A spokesperson for India’s Ministry of Home Affairs denied the allegations, saying the reported attempts to blame India for the reported breach are completely misleading.