3 New Privacy Features Coming to WhatsApp
WhatsApp users have for long agonized over their online activity being advertised to other WhatsApp users without their consent. Meta seems to have heard you and updated its privacy features accordingly.Starting August 2022, you won’t have to sneak out of a WhatsApp group at 2 AM in the hope that no one will notice. Here are the details.
WhatsApp to Introduce 3 New Privacy Features
WhatsApp has added new features, long demanded by users, that should help you keep your messages secure and enhance your privacy online.
1. Leave Groups Silently on WhatsApp
Starting later in August 2022, it will be possible to exit a WhatsApp group privately without alerting everyone in the group. Instead, only the admins will be notified.
This will definitely eliminate the drama or embarrassment that comes with leaving a group, and the inevitableDMsfrom people wanting to know why you abandoned them. If you are like this writer, who likes to leave a party quietly, this feature will be a welcome relief.
2. Choose Who Can See When You’re Online on WhatsApp
WhatsApp started by letting everyone see when you are online. Then, it made it possible tohide your online statusfrom everyone. Then, it made it so that only people who are in your contacts list, and people you have messaged with before, could see you online.
Now WhatsApp will make it possible for you to pick and choose who can and can’t see when you are online. One can only hope that those among your friends and family that you haven’t white-listed into this exclusive club won’t take offense.
3. Screenshot Blocking For WhatsApp’s View Once Messages
View Once, or disappearing photos, is a feature that has become popular for a wide array of reasons, not the least of which is that it goes a long way in preventing revenge porn by jilted lovers who happen to have your private photos. However, there was always the risk that someone could screenshot the disappearing photo.
WhatsApp will now enable screenshot blocking forView Once messagesfor an added layer of protection. This feature is currently undergoing testing. WhatsApp is yet to announce when it will go live.
Why Has WhatsApp Rolled Out These Privacy Features?
According to a post onMeta Newsroom, these three new features on WhatsApp will give you more control with added interlocking layers of protection.
However,People Magazinereports that these changes are in part driven by a new WhatsApp global privacy report that found:
72% of people value being able to speak in an honest and unfiltered way, with 45% not being able to engage without doing so safely and 59% worried that their private messages will be shared without their knowledge or consent.
One also cannot underestimate the impact ofincreasing legal scrutiny of big tech by regulators and courts. The more secure the app can make itself, the more liability and negative publicity it avoids from future, undetermined, legal suits related to crime or abuses perpetrated on the app.
Also, WhatsApp prides itself on itsend-to-end encryption, and it is surely aware of the need to mitigate thecompetitive threat from other platforms like Signal, which have very robust privacy protections as well.
Wait a Few Weeks to Use WhatsApp’s Latest Privacy Features
WhatsApp has pointed out that these features are still undergoing tests and are not yet live on the app, so do not be frustrated when you cannot find them.
We are willing to wait because these features will certainly improve your WhatsApp experience, not to mention safety.
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