New privacy features for Whatsapp

Whatsapp is so universal that you can hardly ignore it. Handy, but a lot of confidential information also passes through the app traffic. Fortunately, Whatsapp considers protecting the privacy of its users as the driving force behind the app. From end-to-end encryption to personalization: there are quite a few ways in which Whatsapp deals with Privacy. A number of functions are now added. You can read what these are in this article.

Silence unknown callers

Is anyone still calling on the phone these days? Call minutes are usually very cheap with most subscriptions for a reason. You can also call via whatsapp and then over the internet. Unfortunately, those cheap calls also make it easier for scammers to harass you. To give users a means of filtering out unwanted calls, there is now a Silence function for unknown callers.

Spam, scams and calls from unknown people, it doesn’t matter. Is the number not in your phone? Then Whatsapp will not let your phone ring. However, all these calls are visible in your list under ‘Calls’. This way you can check who tried to call you, if it was an important call. The function can be switched on or off under ‘Calls’ in the Privacy menu.

Privacy control

This step-by-step feature walks you through all the important privacy settings on Whatsapp. The intent is to help you select the settings that work best for you. One wants more freedom and convenience, the other prefers to close everything. In any case, it is useful to go through all the functions. There may be some you didn’t even know existed.

Older privacy features of Whatsapp

The above is therefore new and already available with the publication of this article. But are you already aware of the privacy features that Whatsapp already had? End to end encryption is the most basic way Whatsapp tries to protect user privacy. The purpose of this function is to ensure that only sender and receiver can read a message.

Essentially, a message is scrambled when sent and reassembled when received. This means that someone who wants to intercept the message cannot use it at all. Both sender and receiver have a public key and each also has a private key. This is called Public Key Infrastructure.

But there are even more features. Whatsapp offers users the option to give messages an expiration date so that they do not remain online indefinitely. Messages and media such as photos can be provided with a function that allows them to be viewed only once at the touch of a button. Useful, for example, when an employer needs a photo of your identity card, but you would rather not have such a photo lying around endlessly in your employer’s phone. Finally, there is the well-known two-step verification and the possibility to lock chats behind a password or biometric data (such as a fingerprint).

A safe place

Whether Whatsapp really values ​​the privacy of users, or whether the company mainly wants to control the nerves of investors is of course the question. But one way or another, it is very nice for users that Whatsapp is making such progress in the field of privacy.

Whatsapp says it wants to offer users a safe place. Starting this week, the company is encouraging people to contact each other securely via private message. To bring that message to the world, Whatsapp has released a short youtube video.

Whatsapp is releasing a lot of new features lately.