Is it possible to build a database of "whatsapp" users?

Question

Database

Good day.

Yesterday I gave up and installed the whatsapp application for Android, I think it makes no sense to talk about the application. After installation, they offered me to register, by default, indicating my first and last name from my Google account, if I'm not mistaken. After completing the registration, I saw most of my contacts in the application and the most surprising unknown numbers recorded under different names (bank / neighbor / buy a video card, etc.) also ended up in the contacts of the application, but already under their own names and the most amazing with their photos . Having added to the contacts unknown to my device, the numbers of a colleague also received names and photos!

It turns out with the help of the application you can raise the database of subscribers for further dirty deeds?
Spam, search for my number by first and last name. I'm not saying that I hide such information. I worry more about my sisters and girls I know, who are already tired of changing phone numbers from all sorts of inadequate people.

The question still remains open, is it possible or not to raise the whatsapp database? Nevertheless, I would like to receive notifications and allow (prohibit) adding another person to contacts as a user of any social network, and so I can add my number to the notebook and write it down as I want.

Vacation is still far away and there is absolutely no time to check it all. Has anyone already tried it? Are there any results online? Can I have links? Google didn't come up with anything. Or maybe it will be boring and interesting for someone to dig and find out how whatsapp works?

As I understand it, it is possible to send a set of mobile numbers to their server in turn in some ranges (8,000,000 00 00 - 8,999,999 99,99) and so on and collect the base in some time? Plus it can be updated.

Thanks in advance.

ps. I didn’t add it as an article, for now I’m just interested in this topic as a question.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this is possible. WhatsApp does not use encryption, and it is quite easy to forge requests on a regular computer. Someone is probably already doing this, I'm sure.

Answer 2

Whatsapp is tied to a phone number, then an account is created. Accordingly, if you saved a phone number called "Nikolai Petrovich Accounting", but in fact it is "Anya the third", then in Whatsapp you will see her public profile linked to the number - there will be a profile picture and a name that the person himself chose. Building a base this way is quite difficult, if not impossible.

Answer 3

By the way, the recently updated Google Talk=>Google Hangouts seems to approach number binding more correctly from a security point of view, where you need to send additional requests to allow communication.