Vodafone Number now recycled linked to someone elses whatsapp

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Ford5610!!

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I had an old Vodafone number, that my 12 year old uses in a phone, so that we can contact each other via whatsapp if needed from home. I haven't topped up vadafone, as phone is linked to house internet.

I was trying to ring my child this morning and again this evening after school times, as I was away with work. No reply. Eventually this man answered the phone. He now has received a new vodafone work phone obvisously with this number and when he downloaded the whatsapp, he could see our family whatapp messages, contact details of other family members and could call me by my name as I was ringing via Whatapps. The man was fine and he couldnt understand what was happening that this data/info was available to him.

Who is responsible for clearing off data when recycling a vodafone number? Should vodafone not know it was linked to a whatsapp account, that was active?
Is whatapp responsible for letting this happen in the first place. I am annoyed that somone was able to read our data/family content and also that no notification was made to advise us that the number was recyled. Any advice welcome
 
Oh , that is not good. There are GDPR implications with the provider here, I am sure.
I would be taking this very seriously if it was me!
You could have shared very pesonal information, photos etc via that chat.
 
Interesting issue.

If Vodafone issues a person with a number and they cease to use it, then should Vodafone be prevented from ever issuing that number again?

Doesn't seem right.

Brendan
 

Are old Mobile Phone numbers Re-issued

Just trying to contact a person from the past. I ring the number I have and some one else seems to be using the number.Just wondering is it possible for a phone number to be reissued to some one else. If for example i stopped/cancelled my mobile number tomorrow- Could my number ne issued to...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
This is what What's App says

Change to a new phone number
    • Download WhatsApp on your new phone and register your new phone number.
    • Delete the WhatsApp account associated with your old phone number.
If you forgot to delete your account associated with your old phone number and don’t have access to your old phone, all of your account information tied to that phone number will be deleted if the new owner of your old phone number activates WhatsApp on a new phone after 45 days of inactivity.
Note: If you give away or return your old phone to your mobile provider, make sure to wipe it of all your data beforehand, including the SD card if applicable. This ensures none of your private data, such as your WhatsApp chat history, will fall into someone else's hands.
 
AFAIK you have to top up by €5 every 6 months with VF to keep the number active
Understandable as some people buy multiple sims these days to avail of cheap phone offers and never end up using them
The whatsapp issue is something I had not thought of - good to know o_O
 
This ensures none of your private data, such as your WhatsApp chat history, will fall into someone else's hands.
Unfortunately, it has fallen into the hands of someone else. We didnt intend changing the number. There are 6 in our family on a family whatsapp group. The gentleman kindly left the group today when we came aware of what had happended.
 
I would go to town on this, it is a serious breach of privacy and numbers should not be recycled.
Brendans news article is just one example of the impact of this. There could be many more scenarios that could be on the spectrum from slightly embarassing through to political/security/gdpr leak of information.
 
AndroidMan said:
I would go to town on this, it is a serious breach of privacy and numbers should not be recycled.
Brendans news article is just one example of the impact of this. There could be many more scenarios that could be on the spectrum from slightly embarassing through to political/security/gdpr leak of information.
Click to expand...
This has nothing to do with Vodafone. Why wouldn’t they recycle a number that has not been in use (and inactive on the phone network) for months or years?
If you don’t have the actual phone number anymore, don’t use it for services like WhatsApp.
Vodafone has zero control outside their network on the usage of phone numbers. They aren’t responsible for WhatsApp .
 
newirishman said:
This has nothing to do with Vodafone. Why wouldn’t they recycle a number that has not been in use (and inactive on the phone network) for months or years?
If you don’t have the actual phone number anymore, don’t use it for services like WhatsApp.
Vodafone has zero control outside their network on the usage of phone numbers. They aren’t responsible for WhatsApp .
Click to expand...
I think you miss the point. If I get run over by a bus tomorrow, in X months time, I dont want my number to be recycled and for somebod else to be able to recover my whatsapp messages. This is a breach of my privacy, even though I may not be around to argue that fact.
 
Numbers have always been recycled if you don't top up the phone within a certain length of time. In fairness it makes sense, you must pay something for the use of the number I suppose. Don't know about the whatsapp problem though.
 
AndroidMan said:
I think you miss the point. If I get run over by a bus tomorrow, in X months time, I dont want my number to be recycled and for somebod else to be able to recover my whatsapp messages. This is a breach of my privacy, even though I may not be around to argue that fact.
Click to expand...
GDPR doesn't apply to dead people.

If you stop paying the rent, you no longer have use of the phone number, nor can you control the actions of its owner.
 
So if I use phone number 567 for What's App and no longer use the number, I should take delete the What's App account associated with the number?
 
Folks, the problem here is WhatsApp using a phone number (something that is Transferable to a third party) rather than an email address (which is generally not transferred under any circumstances ) as the login credential. The solution simply is that whatsapp should require an email verification as well as the phone number to transfer to a new device. Good luck trying to get them to enforce that.
 
I imagine Vodafone sent a number of text messages stating the number would be disconnected if not topped up. At least they should have.

After that it's really the OPs responsibility. After all they are the ones who:
1) agreed to the terms of their phone providers service.
2) set up the WhatsApp account and linked it to that number.


Brendan Burgess said:
So if I use phone number 567 for What's App and no longer use the number, I should take delete the What's App account associated with the number?
Click to expand...
No need to do that you can migrate it to a new number.

Settings >> account >> change number
 
Normally you backup your Whatsapp data to Google Drive on Android and iCloud on iPhone.

The backup isn't with Whatsapp.

How did the new owner of the number restore the backup from iCloud or Google Drive?
 
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