She’s right, of course, because this is not how it is supposed to work. Basically, with this bug, anyone who is using your old phone number will be able to access your chat history in the app. We have to say that this is downright scary as any stranger who has our old number will have complete access to entire chat backup, in spite of the fact that WhatsApp allows users to change phone numbers without uninstalling and reinstalling the app.
Fuller tweeted further, “And now I’m wondering how many other times it’s happened? Like does whoever has my old number now have MY WhatsApp history?”. She also mentioned that her smartphone, as well as the SIM card that she was using, was new. We should mention that recycling phone numbers is a common trend in the telecom industry and from what it looks like, Fuller’s ‘new’ phone number was actually a recycled one. However, if our guess is right, the previous user did not migrate his number on WhatsApp, and probably that’s why WhatsApp just restored his chats when Fuller installed WhatsApp in her new smartphone. We don’t think that any of this would have happened had the previous user migrated their account to their new number first. However, this incident tells us how important it is to migrate our chats to a new number when we get a new SIM. For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
