WhatsApp, one of the most popular instant messaging apps across the world, recently sued the Israeli spyware firm, NSO group over cyber attacks against human rights activists (lawyers, journalists, and academics) and demanded a permanent injunction against the NSO. Ever since the news broke out, downloads of WhatsApp have dropped down by 80%, reports Business Standard.

SEE ALSO: WhatsApp Confirms Several Indian Lawyers, Activists And Journalists Were Targeted By Israeli Spyware

The data around the report has been sourced from mobile analytics and intelligence firm, Sensor Tower. As per the report, download number between October 17 and 25 (week before the WhatsApp-NSO Group issue) was 8.9 million and it dropped down staggeringly to 1.8 million between October 26 and November 3. While other instant messaging apps like Signal saw a 63% rise in its downloads in India.

Pegasus, which has been called the most sophisticated smartphone attack ever exploited a loophole in the video calling feature on WhatsApp. Anybody who bought the Pegasus software could easily get access to a person’s phone or device data. WhatsApp sent a special message to approximately 1400 users that it has a "reason to believe” that the app was impacted by this attack and to directly inform the users about what happened. Furthermore, WhatsApp didn’t reveal any identities or the number of people who were a victim of this attack.

SEE ALSO: Getting A Call On WhatsApp? Be Careful It Might Be Infected

WhatsApp claims that it informed the Indian authorities of the vulnerability back in May this year and also provided vulnerability reports. India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) revealed today that it had published an advisory on the malware attack, three days before WhatsApp informed the Indian authorities. It further added that it rated the severity of the vulnerability as “high” and as one that can be exploited via “video call”. But, the alert by WhatsApp which was delivered to the agency did not have any mention of ‘Pegasus’.

NSO had denied any allegations of the attack and mentioned that it only offers "technology to licenced government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime". The firm further added that Pegasus is not "designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists."

It’s not too surprising that users are moving from WhatsApp and looking for other app alternatives. Given that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, a firm that has committed a long range of user-privacy related sins, it’s kind of obvious that people would want to be safe than sorry.