It has become increasingly certain that major social media platforms have been collecting personal data of their members/subscribers and users all this while and what they have been doing with such huge volume of data is not fully known. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, all owned by the same dispensation, they all fall into the same category. But what takes the cake is that there is an app that provides you with the capability to spy on what your friends and contacts are up to, using this data collected by WhatsApp.

The app goes by the title Chatwatch and it exploits the status feature ‘last seen’ on WhatsApp to let you know when your friend or contact will be ready to chat/talk. The same applies in the reverse also; you can find out when a particular friend of yours is online/offline and so on. The app goes one step further; it can inform you how often your friends checks his/her WhatsApp messages and may even be able to make an assessment of the sleeping schedules followed by him/her.

If you thought this was it, you might be in for a surprise. This invasive app, Chatwatch, is able to keep a watch on the activities of any two of your friends/contacts and spy on them if they have been in contact with each other and for how long or how frequently. This may be in the form of an educated guess but nevertheless it is a bit scary - a recipe for disaster in planting the seed of suspicion among good friends.

The only factor to be noted is that the app is being offered on the Android Play Store for a fee and it is not a free app. This may deter some from using it. And it is learnt that WhatsApp will make efforts to have it removed from the Play Store, sooner than later. Incidentally, the app was removed by Apple from its iOS App Store earlier and it may not be surprising to see Google doing the same.

If you wish to find out what Facebook has been up to, with the personal data online, you can pay $1.99 and download Chatwatch before the app is pulled down.