WhatsApp messages could reveal hidden GPS data: Forensics probe

ISTANBUL

WhatsApp messages may contain hidden GPS location data even if users do not deliberately share their whereabouts, according to a claim shared by digital forensics investigator Elorm Daniel.

Daniel said Tuesday in a post on US social media company X that a routine WhatsApp message he received from another contact on Sept. 3 was later analyzed during a forensic review, where the device revealed the sender’s exact location at the time the message was sent.

"Imagine receiving a normal WhatsApp message from someone… and later discovering that the message secretly contained their exact location, even though they never shared it," he began.

He stated that neither party shared location information intentionally, yet the message metadata reportedly contained precise coordinates.

“He didn’t share it intentionally. I didn’t request it. The device recorded it automatically,” the post said.

Daniel claimed that if a smartphone undergoes forensic imaging, a third party may retrieve the sender’s location from the recipient’s device, provided location services were enabled during the conversation.

"If your location is turned ON while chatting on WhatsApp, your exact location can be extracted from someone else’s device if theirs undergoes forensic imaging," he said.

More data may be available

According to Daniel, the same extraction process also revealed further information stored within the device. He reported that synchronized accounts and passwords, application usage histories, and detailed internal logs were recovered without any jailbreak (device root access) or software manipulation.

The claim also suggests that WhatsApp data – including group creation dates, creator identities, and membership histories – remained visible even long after Daniel had left those groups.

Media files stored on the phone were also said to contain detailed metadata. Daniel said photos, videos, screenshots, and voice recordings all included precise GPS coordinates showing when and where each file was created.

Asked for comment regarding the claim, which gains new relevance after location data for users of US media company X became available, making headlines worldwide, a WhatsApp Support Team directed the inquiry to its AI-powered support system.

A response by WhatsApp’s AI-assisted support service said: "WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption ensures that messages, including location data, are encrypted and can only be accessed by the sender and the intended recipient. However, in the context of a forensic case, it's possible that device-level metadata, such as location data, may be extracted from a device or backup through forensic analysis."

The service said the issue relates to the device, not to WhatsApp specifically. It also noted that in such cases WhatsApp’s encryption does not prevent the extraction of metadata and that such information is not protected in the same way as message content.