WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging applications. WhatsApp ensures that chats are end-to-end encrypted and completely secure. But is it really so? There were reports that many of them got into trouble after their old WhatsApp chats were leaked.
WhatsApp says that when someone sends a message on WhatsApp, the message is safe until it is received by the other person. This means that no one else can intrude on the chat between two people. It is transmitted encrypted over the WhatsApp network.
But once these messages reach WhatsApp, they are no longer protected by encryption. If someone opens your phone and checks WhatsApp, all the messages are easy to get out. That is, once a message arrives on the phone, it is your responsibility to take care of the security and privacy of the message.
When you save someone’s contact number on your phone, they can see your number if that person has saved it on their phone and your WhatsApp status display picture if they haven’t changed the settings. So you can delete unwanted contacts from your phone or block them on WhatsApp.
Make sure your WhatsApp profile photo doesn’t reveal too much about you, whether it’s a personal WhatsApp or not. It’s best to keep a simple profile photo. Make sure your profile photo doesn’t reveal too much information about your family members.
Turning on the ‘Two-Step Verification’ setting will protect you from falling victim to SIM swap fraud. It also prevents others from setting up your WhatsApp account on another phone by stealing the OTP from you and also prevents someone else from locking you out of your account. To turn it on, go to Settings and enable two-step verification.
WhatsApp can be locked using the phone’s biometric security features. In this way, lock WhatsApp. For that, open the three-dot menu- Take Settings- Select Account-Privacy- At the bottom you will see Fingerprint and select it and activate it.
Everyone (anyone on WhatsApp can add you to a group), My Contact (only people in your contact list can add you to groups) and My Contact Expect (allows others to add you to a group by excluding only certain people in the contact list). It is always better not to allow any person to add you to any group.
Some experts say that if you want to keep your WhatsApp chat information private, don’t store it in Google Drive or iCloud. Because the WhatsApp chat backups stored in this way are not encrypted. So, if some chats are important and need to be kept private, it is better to export them and save them somewhere else safely. Avoid backing up all WhatsApp chats unnecessarily as it is not very secure.
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