{"id":15049,"date":"2023-03-01T17:28:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T17:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete"},"modified":"2023-03-01T17:41:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T17:41:05","slug":"how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete","title":{"rendered":"How WhatsApp Can Reassign Your Old Account You Didn\u2019t Delete"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>Mobile phone companies\u2019 habit of recycling inactive numbers to new users means someone could get access to your old WhatsApp account.<\/p>\n

A user of popular social networking application WhatsApp was in for a surprise when he discovered he\u2019d been assigned someone else\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

Axios reported Tuesday that after getting a new SIM card in France, one of their readers\u2019 children opened the app only to find he was greeted by messages belonging to an entirely different person.<\/b><\/p>\n

The phenomenon, which WhatsApp reportedly described as \u201cextremely rare,\u201d can apparently occur because many phone service operators recycle old phone numbers after they\u2019ve been left inactive for an extended period.<\/p>\n

A 2017 report by the Federal Communications Commission found that \u201caccording to one source, 100,000 numbers are reassigned by wireless carriers every day.\u201d It also indicated that \u201capproximately 35 million telephone numbers are disconnected and aged each year.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

The outlet wrote that the reader contacted WhatsApp\u2019s parent company, Meta*, but was told that while \u201cthe issue was a concern,\u201d it was \u201coutside the company’s ability to fix.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem that\u2019s apparently plagued the service for years. In 2020, another outlet reported that one of its writers had experienced the same issue after purchasing a pay-as-you-go SIM card. More recently, a Vox article highlighted that the account reassignments published Tuesday indicates the issue persists to this day.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s unclear whether, for Meta, the convenience factor associated with users being able to seamlessly switch between phones would be outweighed by the occasional case of accounts being mis-assigned. So far, the tech giant has given no indication it plans to change its system.<\/p>\n

*Facebook, Instagram, and their parent company Meta are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Sierra-Leone<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. Mobile phone companies\u2019 habit of recycling inactive numbers to new users means someone could get access to your old WhatsApp account. A user of popular social networking application WhatsApp was in for a surprise when he discovered he\u2019d been assigned someone else\u2019s account. Axios reported Tuesday that after getting a new SIM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[291,293,292],"class_list":["post-15049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-sierra-leone","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"\nHow WhatsApp Can Reassign Your Old Account You Didn\u2019t Delete - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mobile phone companies\u2019 habit of recycling inactive numbers to new users means someone could get access to your old What ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How WhatsApp Can Reassign Your Old Account You Didn\u2019t Delete\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mobile phone companies\u2019 habit of recycling inactive numbers to new users means someone could get access to your old What ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T17:28:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T17:41:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1677679087.55.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"How WhatsApp Can Reassign Your Old Account You Didn\u2019t Delete\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-01T17:28:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-01T17:41:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1677679087.55.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Sierra-Leone\",\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/how-whatsapp-can-reassign-your-old-account-you-didnt-delete\",\"name\":\"How WhatsApp Can Reassign Your Old Account You Didn\u2019t Delete - 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