Meanwhile, in November, Austrian researchers plugged billions of numbers into WhatsApp’s contact search tool to create “the most comprehensive display of phone numbers ever,” along with profile photos and more.
WhatsApp is protected by end-to-end encryption, the gold standard of security, which, when properly implemented, means only you and the person you’re chatting with can read your messages. Behind the scenes, WhatsApp has also launched passkey-encrypted backups and privacy-enhanced AI technology.
But the Meta-owned app has a number of features you can use to boost your privacy and security. Here are eight of the best.
privacy check
WhatsApp’s Privacy Checkup feature is a good place to start settings under confidentialityWhich allows you to control who sees data such as your profile photo, About this information, and status. You can also add additional privacy to your profile by adjusting the last seen/online setting for nobody,
From there, you can choose who can contact you on WhatsApp by blocking unwanted calls and messages. It’s also possible to specify who can add you to groups, silence unknown callers and manage your blocked contacts.
disappearing messages
While WhatsApp is protected by end-to-end encryption, your messages may be read if you are infected with spyware or someone gains physical access to your device.
One way to help protect chats from this is with disappearing messages, which allows you to set a period of time for text to remain visible before being deleted. Messages can be set to disappear after 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days after being sent.
Disappearing messages can be set for all chats or specific conversations. To enable the feature by default for new one-to-one chats, go to settings , confidentiality , default message timer And set time limits for messages Missing,
Just keep in mind that the feature requires trust – anyone can take a screenshot of a message, so you can’t guarantee that what you sent will be deleted from everywhere all the time.
Two-factor authentication including security PIN
WhatsApp requires your phone number when you create an account, but this also exposes it to various security and privacy risks. One feature that will protect your WhatsApp account from such threats is the security PIN.
The PIN works as two-factor authentication to protect your chats from prying eyes. open whatsapp settingsTap Account , Two-Step Verification , Turn on or set PINEnter a PIN of your choice and confirm it,
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