WhatsApp is going through a rough patch. Some users would argue it has been ever since Meta acquired the once widely trusted messaging platform. User sentiment has shifted from “trusted default messenger” to a grudgingly necessary Meta product.

Privacy-aware users still see WhatsApp as one of the more secure mass-market messaging platforms if you lock down its settings. Even then, many remain uneasy about Meta’s broader ecosystem, and wish all their contacts would switch to a more secure platform.

Back to current affairs, which will only reinforce that sentiment.

Google’s Project Zero has just disclosed a WhatsApp vulnerability where a malicious media file, sent into a newly created group chat, can be automatically downloaded and used as an attack vector.

The bug affects WhatsApp on Android and involves zero‑click media downloads in group chats. You can be attacked simply by being added to a group and having a malicious file sent to you.

According to Project Zero, the attack is most likely to be used in targeted campaigns, since the attacker needs to know or guess at least one contact. While focused, it is relatively easy to repeat once an attacker has a likely target list.

And to put a cherry on top for WhatsApp’s competitors, a potentially even more serious concern for the popular messaging platform, an international group of plaintiffs sued Meta Platforms, alleging the WhatsApp owner can store, analyze, and access virtually all of users’ private communications, despite WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption claims.

How to secure WhatsApp

Reportedly, Meta pushed a server change on November 11, 2025, but Google says that only partially resolved the issue. So, Meta is working on a comprehensive fix.

Google’s advice is to disable Automatic Download or enable WhatsApp’s Advanced Privacy Mode so that media is not automatically downloaded to your phone.

And you’ll need to keep WhatsApp updated to get the latest patches, which is true for any app and for Android itself.

Turn off auto-download of media

Goal: ensure that no photos, videos, audio, or documents are pulled to the device without an explicit decision.

• Open WhatsApp on your Android device.
• Tap the three‑dot menu in the top‑right corner, then tap Settings.
• Go to Storage and data (sometimes labeled Data and storage usage).
• Under Media auto-download, you will see When using mobile data, when connected on Wi‑Fi. and when roaming.
• For each of these three entries, tap it and uncheck all media types: Photos, Audio, Videos, Documents. Then tap OK.
• Confirm that each category now shows something like “No media” under it.

Doing this directly implements Project Zero’s guidance to “disable Automatic Download” so that malicious media can’t silently land on your storage as soon as you are dropped into a hostile group.

Stop WhatsApp from saving media to your Android gallery

Even if WhatsApp still downloads some content, you can stop it from leaking into shared storage where other apps and system components see it.

• In Settings, go to Chats.
• Turn off Media visibility (or similar option such as Show media in gallery). For particularly sensitive chats, open the chat, tap the contact or group name, find Media visibility, and set it to No for that thread.

WhatsApp is a sandbox, and should contain the threat. Which means, keeping media inside WhatsApp makes it harder for a malicious file to be processed by other, possibly more vulnerable components.

Lock down who can add you to groups

The attack chain requires the attacker to add you and one of your contacts to a new group. Reducing who can do that lowers risk.

• ​In Settings, tap Privacy.
• Tap Groups.
• Change from Everyone to My contacts or ideally My contacts except… and exclude any numbers you do not fully trust.
• If you use WhatsApp for work, consider keeping group membership strictly to known contacts and approved admins.

Set up two-step verification on your WhatsApp account

Read this guide for Android and iOS to learn how to do that.

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This week on the Lock and Code podcast…

When you hear the words “data privacy,” what do you first imagine?

Maybe you picture going into your social media apps and setting your profile and posts to private. Maybe you think about who you’ve shared your location with and deciding to revoke some of that access. Maybe you want to remove a few apps entirely from your smartphone, maybe you want to try a new web browser, maybe you even want to skirt the type of street-level surveillance provided by Automated License Plate Readers, which can record your car model, license plate number, and location on your morning drive to work.

Importantly, all of these are “data privacy,” but trying to do all of these things at once can feel impossible.

That’s why, this year, for Data Privacy Day, Malwarebytes Senior Privacy Advocate (and Lock and Code host) David Ruiz is sharing the one thing he’s doing different to improve his privacy. And it’s this: He’s given up Google Search entirely.

When Ruiz requested the data that Google had collected about him last year, he saw that the company had recorded an eye-popping 8,000 searches in just the span of 18 months. And those 8,000 searches didn’t just reveal what he was thinking about on any given day—including his shopping interests, his home improvement projects, and his late-night medical concerns—they also revealed when he clicked on an ad based on the words he searched. This type of data, which connects a person’s searches to the likelihood of engaging with an online ad, is vital to Google’s revenue, and it’s the type of thing that Ruiz is seeking to finally cut off.

So, for 2026, he has switched to a new search engine, Brave Search.

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast, Ruiz explains why he made the switch, what he values about Brave Search, and why he also refused to switch to any of the major AI platforms in replacing Google.

Tune in today to listen to the full episode.

Show notes and credits:

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

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Google has settled yet another class-action lawsuit accusing it of collecting children’s data and using it to target them with advertising. The tech giant will pay $8.25 million to address allegations that it tracked data on apps specifically designated for kids.

AdMob’s mobile data collection

This settlement stems from accusations that apps provided under Google’s “Designed for Families” programme, which was meant to help parents find safe apps, tracked children. Under the terms of this programme, developers were supposed to self-certify COPPA compliance and use advertising SDKs that disabled behavioural tracking. However, some did not, instead using software embedded in the apps that was created by a Google-owned mobile advertising company called AdMob.

When kids used these apps, which included games, AdMob collected data from these apps, according to the class action lawsuit. This included IP addresses, device identifiers, usage data, and the child’s location to within five meters, transmitting it to Google without parental consent. The AdMob software could then use that information to display targeted ads to users.

This kind of activity is exactly what the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was created to stop. The law requires operators of child-directed services to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. That includes cookies and other identifiers, which are the core tools advertisers use to track and target people.

The families filing the lawsuit alleged that Google knew this was going on:

“Google and AdMob knew at the time that their actions were resulting in the exfiltration data from millions of children under thirteen but engaged in this illicit conduct to earn billions of dollars in advertising revenue.”

Security researchers had alerted Google to the issue in 2018, according to the filing.

YouTube settlement approved

What’s most disappointing is that these privacy issues keep happening. This news arrives at the same time that a judge approved a settlement on another child privacy case involving Google’s use of children’s data on YouTube. This case dates back to October 2019, the same year that Google and YouTube paid a whopping $170m fine for violating COPPA.

Families in this class action suit alleged that YouTube used cookies and persistent identifiers on child-directed channels, collecting data including IP addresses, geolocation data, and device serial numbers. This is the same thing that it does for adults across the web, but COPPA protects kids under 13 from such activities, as do some state laws.

According to the complaint, YouTube collected this information between 2013 and 2020 and used it for behavioural advertising. This form of advertising infers people’s interests from their identifiers, and it is more lucrative than contextual advertising, which focuses only on a channel’s content.

The case said that various channel owners opted into behavioural advertising, prompting Google to collect this personal information. No parental consent was obtained, the plaintiffs alleged. Channel owners named in the suit included Cartoon Network, Hasbro, Mattel, and DreamWorks Animation.

Under the YouTube settlement (which was agreed in August and recently approved by a judge), families can file claims through YouTubePrivacySettlement.com, although the deadline is this Wednesday. Eligible families are likely to get $20–$30 after attorneys’ fees and administration costs, if 1–2% of eligible families submit claims.

COPPA is evolving

Last year, the FTC amended its COPPA Rule to introduce mandatory opt-in consent for targeted advertising to children, separate from general data-collection consent.

The amendments expand the definition of personal information to include biometric data and government-issued ID information. It also lets the FTC use a site operator’s marketing materials to determine whether a site targets children.

Site owners must also now tell parents who they’ll share information with, and the amendments stop operators from keeping children’s personal information forever. If these all sounds like measures that should have been included to protect children online from the get-go, we agree with you. In any case, companies have until this April to comply with the new rules.

Will the COPPA rules make a difference? It’s difficult to say, given the stream of privacy cases involving Google LLC (which owns YouTube and AdMob, among others). When viewed against Alphabet’s overall earnings, an $8.25m penalty risks being seen as a routine business expense rather than a meaningful deterrent.

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