A report claims WhatsApp and Signal's delivery receipts can be used to track your location - but so far, that's all it is: a claim.
The report, which surfaced this week, describes a supposed flaw in how delivery receipts work, the small confirmation that shows a message was received. The claim is that this receipt reveals timing data precise enough to infer a person's daily routine and general location, without the recipient ever opening the message. No security researcher is named, no proof-of-concept has been published, and neither Meta, which owns WhatsApp, nor Signal has commented on or confirmed the mechanism. As it stands, the story rests on a single account rather than documented, reproducible research.
If true, this would matter: delivery receipts are a feature almost everyone with these apps uses every day, and both platforms build their reputations on encryption and privacy. That is exactly why a report this thin, about apps this widely trusted, is worth flagging rather than repeating as fact - vague claims about ubiquitous software spread fast and are hard to walk back.
We have seen "secret flaw" stories about encrypted messengers before; most either evaporate or turn out to be old, already-patched issues dressed up as news. Until someone publishes the how, file this one under unconfirmed.