{"id":1018156,"date":"2026-07-01T11:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/?p=1018156"},"modified":"2026-07-01T11:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:34:41","slug":"this-could-be-a-disaster-ankur-warikoo-jasveer-singh-and-vijay-shekhar-sharma-warn-about-whatsapp-usernames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/2026\/07\/01\/this-could-be-a-disaster-ankur-warikoo-jasveer-singh-and-vijay-shekhar-sharma-warn-about-whatsapp-usernames\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis could be a disaster\u201d: Ankur Warikoo, Jasveer Singh and Vijay Shekhar Sharma warn about WhatsApp usernames"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp has one of its biggest identity changes since the messaging service became a global communication platform. Instead of relying entirely on mobile numbers, users are able to connect through unique usernames, giving people a way to communicate without revealing their phone number. For many users, reportedly, the change promises greater privacy, especially when interacting with businesses, communities, or new contacts.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the announcement has also prompted questions about whether the same system that protects personal information could make it easier for fraudsters to impersonate trusted individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp has one of its biggest identity changes since the messaging service became a global communication platform. Instead of relying entirely on mobile numbers, users are able to connect through unique usernames, giving people a way to communicate without revealing their phone number. For many users, reportedly, the change promises greater privacy, especially when interacting with businesses, communities, or new contacts. Yet the announcement has also prompted questions about whether the same system that protects personal information could make it easier for fraudsters to impersonate trusted individuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,88,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1018156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-telecom-the-times-of-india","category-the-times-of-india"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1018157,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018156\/revisions\/1018157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}