WhatsApp Leaked 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers
Techlore Surveillance Report: Weekly News for Your Digital Freedom
This week's Surveillance Report covers WhatsApp's massive phone number enumeration flaw that exposed 3.5 billion users' data through poor rate limiting - potentially the largest data exposure in history. I also examine Google's new Android sideloading restrictions threatening open app distribution, the EU's concerning Digital Omnibus proposal that could significantly weaken GDPR protections, and disturbing attempts in Wisconsin and Michigan to ban VPN usage under the guise of age verification.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Welcome to Surveillance Report 245
00:29 WhatsApp's Phone Number 'Leak'
06:08 Surveillance Report Back @ Techlore Announcement
08:01 Google's Attacks on Android Freedom
12:48 EU Saga Part 1: Chat Control
15:56 EU Saga Part 2: Digital Omnibus
20:22 Our Sponsor: EasyOptOuts!
21:50 EU Saga Part 3: Cookies Finally Crumble!
23:28 WhatsApp Interoperability Now Live
26:26 USA's VPN Ban
29:48 Cloudflare Outage
30:50 Data Breaches & Service Updates
34:18 Our Sponsor: EasyOptOuts!
34:56 Final Words!
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Episode Sources
Highlight
- https://www.wired.com/story/a-simple-whatsapp-security-flaw-exposed-billions-phone-numbers/
- https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/6712070553754-Phone-Number-Privacy-and-Usernames
Google’s ‘Sideloading’ Saga
- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/google-will-block-sideloading-of-unverified-android-apps-starting-next-year/
- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/f-droid-calls-for-regulators-to-stop-googles-crackdown-on-sideloading/
- https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html
- https://www.androidauthority.com/android-power-users-install-unverified-apps-3615310/
Chat Control
- https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/115552705437735549
- https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/115571721648039969
- https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/115575902901048016
- https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/eu-chat-control-proposal-still-poses-high-risks-despite-removal-of-mandatory-scanning-experts-warn/
- https://www.mullvad.net/en/blog/2025/11/14/mullvad-vpn-present-and-then/
- https://fightchatcontrol.eu/
Digital Omnibus
- https://noyb.eu/en/eu-commission-about-wreck-core-principles-gdpr
- https://edri.org/our-work/forthcoming-digital-omnibus-would-mark-point-of-no-return/
Cookie Crumble
WhatsApp Interopability
Winsconsin’s VPN Ban
Cloudflare Outage
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/cloudflare-hit-by-outage-affecting-global-network-services/
- https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/
Data Breaches & Updates
- https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a69384313/hyundai-data-breach-details/
- https://nerds.xyz/2025/11/logitech-cybersecurity-incident-zero-day/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/jaguar-land-rover-cyberattack-cost-the-company-over-220-million/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pennsylvania-ag-confirms-data-breach-after-inc-ransom-attack/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/doordash-email-spoofing-vulnerability-sparks-messy-disclosure-dispute/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/princeton-university-discloses-data-breach-affecting-donors-alumni/
- https://www.404media.co/ai-porn-secret-desires-chatbot-face-swap/
- https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/ai-window/
- https://nerds.xyz/2025/11/firefox-145-better-privacy-pdf-notes/
- https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/tab-groups-updates/
- https://www.blender.org/download/releases/5-0/
- https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tails-7_2/
- https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-1502/
- https://novacustom.com/product/shiftphone-8-1-with-iodeos/?wcmlc=USD&reloaded=1
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-fixes-new-chrome-zero-day-flaw-exploited-in-attacks/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/thunderbird-adds-native-support-for-microsoft-exchange-accounts/
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