WhatsApp privacy improved: control last seen, photo and status exposure
You have probably read by know that Facebook paid a lot of money in cash and stock for the messaging application WhatsApp and the development team that created it.
It appears that the WhatsApp team will continue to work on the program and service just like before.
The most recent update of the application for Android -- I do not know if the update has been released to other platforms as well -- brings three privacy improvements that puts you in control in three critical privacy-related areas.
In the newest version of WhatsApp, you can change who sees your Last Seen information. It is set to everyone by default, but you can change that to contacts only or even nobody.
Last Seen highlights when a user has been last seen on WhatsApp. The feature is enabled by default which means that you can find out exactly when someone used WhatsApp for the last time.
There are workarounds to prevent your last seen date and time from being updated, but they either require you to go offline before you open WhatsApp, or use third-party apps that do so for you.
The second privacy-related change concerns the profile photo. Here you can also select to show it to everyone, which is the default option, only to your contacts, or even to nobody as well.
Last but not least, you get the same three visibility options for your status as well.
If you set the values to contacts only, then only your contacts can see last seen or status, or the photo on WhatsApp.
The version of WhatsApp Messenger in which the new privacy features are included is 2.11.169. It has not yet been pushed to Google Play, but can be downloaded instead from the company website directly.
As you may know, new versions are always published on the company website first before they find their way into the various app stores in which the application is being offered.
If you have never installed an app from outside the store, you need to enable the installation from unknown sources in the Android settings first. You will be reminded of that once you click on the apk file that you have downloaded to your system.
WhatsApp will be updated automatically then to the latest version.
You find the privacy settings under Settings > Account > Privacy then.
Verdict
The addition of these three privacy features make sense, as it puts users in control again. If you dislike the fact that your profile photo, status or last seen information are shown to all WhatsApp users -- including those you have never met or do not want the information to have -- it is save to say that this boost privacy significantly.
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Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?