--- title: Zomato Privacy Flaw: How the ‘Friend Recommendations’... description: A security researcher discovered that Zomato's 'Friend Recommendations' feature uses a unilateral contact-sync model, allowing anyone with a target's phone... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/zomato-privacy-flaw-how-the-friend-recommendations-feature-enables-location-stalking-ifs0yncsm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Zomato Privacy Flaw: How the ‘Friend Recommendations’ Feature Enables Location Stalking | daily.dev og:description: A security researcher discovered that Zomato's 'Friend Recommendations' feature uses a unilateral contact-sync model, allowing anyone with a target's phone... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/zomato-privacy-flaw-how-the-friend-recommendations-feature-enables-location-stalking-ifs0yncsm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/iFs0YNcsm.png og:image:alt: Zomato Privacy Flaw: How the ‘Friend Recommendations’ Feature Enables Location Stalking og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Zomato Privacy Flaw: How the ‘Friend Recommendations’ Feature Enables Location Stalking **[InfoSec Write-ups](https://daily.dev/sources/infosecwriteups)** · 13 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A security researcher discovered that Zomato's 'Friend Recommendations' feature uses a unilateral contact-sync model, allowing anyone with a target's phone number to silently extract their restaurant order history and food preferences via the API — without the target's knowledge or consent. By querying restaurant coordinates and mapping delivery radius overlaps, an attacker can infer a user's approximate home location. The researcher built a working proof-of-concept in 3 hours and reported it to Zomato, who closed the ticket in 12 minutes labelling it 'Intended Behaviour.' The post details the full 5-step API exploitation chain (sync-contacts, get-contacts, get_listing_by_usecase, menu endpoint, and res_info), explains how seed lists from prior data breaches could enable mass enumeration, and provides steps to opt out of the feature. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I Reverse-Engineered Zomato’s Food Rescue Feature — Here’s What I Found Inside](https://daily.dev/posts/i-reverse-engineered-zomato-s-food-rescue-feature-here-s-what-i-found-inside-0iad3gc0o) · InfoSec Write-ups · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [WhatsApp Leaks User Metadata to Attackers](https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-leaks-user-metadata-to-attackers-kotvm2zjp) · Dark Reading · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Digital Travel App TripBFF Exposed Location Data Way Too Accurately](https://daily.dev/posts/digital-travel-app-tripbff-exposed-location-data-way-too-accurately-ebzgqu20q) · InfoSec Write-ups · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#osint](https://daily.dev/tags/osint) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/zomato-privacy-flaw-how-the-friend-recommendations-feature-enables-location-stalking-ifs0yncsm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Zomato Privacy Flaw: How the ‘Friend Recommendations’ Feature Enables Location Stalking","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/zomato-privacy-flaw-how-the-friend-recommendations-feature-enables-location-stalking-ifs0yncsm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/zomato-privacy-flaw-how-the-friend-recommendations-feature-enables-location-stalking-ifs0yncsm"},"datePublished":"2026-03-11T06:07:35.723Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T06:08:13.675Z","description":"A security researcher discovered that Zomato's 'Friend Recommendations' feature uses a unilateral contact-sync model, allowing anyone with a target's phone...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/612ab435e884df2013844dbd52c5e000?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/612ab435e884df2013844dbd52c5e000?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"InfoSec Write-ups","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"InfoSec Write-ups","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/f0dc21b5bbfd46fda36f7b4b53dd1705","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/infosecwriteups"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/zomato-privacy-flaw-how-the-friend-recommendations-feature-enables-location-stalking-ifs0yncsm","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,privacy,osint","timeRequired":"PT13M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"InfoSec Write-ups","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/infosecwriteups"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Zomato Privacy Flaw: How the ‘Friend Recommendations’ Feature Enables Location Stalking"}]} ```