WhatsApp ‘click to chat’ links no longer on Google; but here’s how to protect your number

Days after a security researcher found thousands of phone numbers tied to WhatsApp accounts indexed on Google Search, the search engine has stopped showing data from the wa.me URL. The researcher had claimed chat links generated via WhatsApp’s “click to chat” feature are available with just a simple Google search and numbers were showing in plain text, a potential “privacy issue”.

The individual chat links are generated using WhatsApp’s “click to chat” feature, which allows users to start a chat with someone without having to save their number in their phone’s contacts list or phone book. The feature is often used by businesses to help their customers connect with them on WhatsApp just by clicking on a simple click.