WeChat promised that it would withdraw the background fetching protocol in its next update, and it is finding an alternative to 'optimize the quick picture sending function.īut WeChat's statement didn't fully address privacy concerns. 'We do not collect, save, or upload any images from a user's album without the user's authorization,' a Tencent spokesperson wrote in a statement shared with Protocol. WeChat stressed in its statement that the processing is on-device, and that app was able to do this because users gave their consent by authorizing WeChat to access their albums. WeChat explained this protocol allows users to share photos faster in chats, causing a preview of the last photo in a user's album to pop up. When an app receives those change messages, the iOS 15 system records the activity as if it were photos being read on a user's phone. The protocol allows an app to track changes within and outside the app. The company explained that an Apple protocol, which web users identified as the PHPhotoLibrar圜hangeObserver, notifies app developers of changes that occur in their user' photos libraries. WeChat, one of the most frequently used apps in China with over 1.2 billion users, immediately responded through Chinese media. In a survey launched by Sina Tech on Weibo, 94% of some 30,000 respondents said they are not comfortable with apps reading their photo libraries. A related hashtag has received 200 million reads. By the time of this writing, his post has been shared over 50,000 times, and nearly 220,000 people have liked it. His original Weibo post trended on the platform's hot search chart last Friday. Judging from the log, the apps read the photo library even while the user is asleep.'Ĭhinese web users reacted strongly to findings. They have no idea when the apps fetch their private data.

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