Sci-Tech
What are the latest WhatsApp privacy and security features?
New features would allow the users to prevent unauthorised access to accounts and protect against mobile device malware
By Web DeskApril 15, 2023
A representational image of a mans hand holding a smartphone with the WhatsApp logo on its screen. — AFP/File
A representational image of a man’s hand holding a smartphone with the WhatsApp logo on its screen. — AFP/File
One of the major reasons why WhatsApp is a go-to app when it comes to privacy is that it keeps the secrecy and security of the users its top priority.
The latest features the platform has announced in an additional layer of privacy include account protection, device verification, and automatic security codes, WaBetaInfo reported.
These features would allow the users to prevent unauthorised access to accounts and protect against mobile device malware.
The features — named account security features — will be added to the app in the coming months. They will be released to everyone in the future.
WhatsApp announced these new features while highlighting the importance of using two-step verification and end-to-end encrypted backups. These can be turned on by the users themselves.
Account protection, which is a new feature, is very important as it would prevent unauthorised attempts to move WhatsApp accounts to another device. This would stop hackers from trying to infiltrate the accounts.
Through this feature, users will be required to verify their account from their old device before transferring it to a new device.
The second feature is device verification which would prevent mobile device malware from using someone’s WhatsApp account to send unwanted messages.
“WhatsApp has added checks to authenticate user accounts in order to protect them if their device is compromised,” the app tracker said.
The third feature is called security codes which would make the whole verification process easier and more accessible for users. The process would have a key transparency “that allows users to automatically verify their secure connection when clicking on the encryption tab”.
These features will be released on both Android and iOS. They might be available for some beta testers soon.
Kevin Lewi, who is a research scientist at Meta, shared in a Twitter thread that the messaging app has announced its plans to deploy key transparency.
Lewi said that WhatsApp cares about the privacy of its users, adding that “we want to simultaneously keep a publicly-auditable log, but in a privacy-preserving way so that nothing is exposed – not even any metadata such as patterns of how often individuals update keys.”
