WhatsApp has taken the world by storm.
Anyone who is even the slightest bit social would know about WhatsApp and about how it can be used to keep in touch with your contacts. The social messaging app lets you send free text messages to anyone, anywhere using your Wi-Fi or your cellular data connection. It takes up very little of your bandwidth, and that is why you can see a growing number of users using it to keep in touch with their contacts at all times. WhatsApp can also be used to exchange media files and send audio messages. However, the recent takeover by Facebook has raised questions about privacy.
Does WhatsApp Compromise Your Privacy?
WhatsApp is an Ad-free application that allows you to communicate with your loved ones without any interruptions or distractions. So far, it has not had any major hacking attacks that would compromise the safety of its users’ private and confidential information. This indicates that WhatsApp has robust encryption and safety measures in place that allow you to communicate with people without having to fear the loss of your private information.
So How Is Your Safety Compromised?
Like a lot of other messaging applications, WhatsApp allows people to view when you read the last message. It also shows the last time you were seen online. While this usually seems like a harmless information that is being given out from your end, the fact is that this information can be really detrimental to you, especially when someone wants to misuse it. Also, letting everyone know your online history can be a little intrusive.
How to Get Around It?
The great thing about WhatsApp is that it is in your control and is highly customizable. While the default settings showed the last time you were online and sends read receipts to the people who message you, you have the ability to turn this feature off. On both Android and iOS, there is a way to turn off this feature. Simply go to WhatsApp settings and access your account. From there, click on the privacy option and select ‘last seen’. Set that option to ‘Nobody’. Now every time you log on to WhatsApp, no one will be able to know the last time you were online. On Android and iOS, there are also several other third party applications that hide the OS timestamp so that people do not know when you were last online, or when you read their messages last. On Android, there is a simple app called ‘Last Not Seen’. This app will help you remove the timestamp from all messaging services, including WhatsApp.
Are There Any Other Threats?
There are no other known threats to WhatsApp. If you have a good antivirus installed on your device, chances are your phone will neither be hacked, nor be misused. A good antivirus will also keep all your apps safe, so that your private data is kept safe from prying eyes. You should also ideally learn as much as you can about various apps, so that you can make use of their privacy settings to your best advantage.
Related ItemsWhatsApp
