Exec shares tips on how to keep your WhatsApp account safe from surveillance

Published On: December 21, 2023

Highlights

WhatsApp has a couple of features that adds another layer of security to your chats and calls.
These features are available on Android and iOS.
A WhatsApp exec has listed some of them that can help you if you think you’re a target of surveillance.

WhatsApp is one useful messaging app when it comes to communicating with people personally or professionally. But because it’s widely used by people, it becomes vulnerable to security risks and hacks. WhatsApp does offer end-to-end encryption but there are some more features that can help in keeping your messages more secure.

Show Full Article

WhatsApp features to prevent surveillance

Uzma Barlaskar, a WhatsApp executive shared tips on how to keep your account secure. These tips are specifically for people who might be targets of surveillance. But these features can be used by anyone who wants that extra layer of security for their WhatsApp account.

Here are the WhatsApp security features you can start using right away.

The WhatsApp exec advises users to turn on ‘Disappearing Messages’ for all your chats. WhatsApp lets you set messages to disappear after 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days. This way there will be no history of the chat if the feature is turned on.
Another feature that you can turn on is ‘Chat Lock’ for sensitive chats. As the name suggests, this feature lets you lock chats that can be opened only by you. You can even use ‘Secret Codes’ to completely hide certain chats.
If your WhatsApp chats are important, and like to preserve the data, you should turn on E2EE backups. You can do this by going to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup > End-to-end Encrypted Backup.
The last feature that you need to turn on is ‘Silence Unknown Callers’ and ‘Call Relay’. For the first feature, go to Settings > Privacy > Calls > Silence Unknown Callers. Call Relay is a relatively new feature that basically protects your IP address in calls. This way hackers won’t be able to get access to your location. You can find this feature by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced.