WhatsApp Strengthens User Privacy With New Cyberattack Protection Feature
In Focus
- Strict Account Settings limits exposure of private user details
- The security feature will be rolling out globally in the coming weeks
- Users can only be activated on their primary devices
Meta’s messaging platform WhatsApp has unveiled Strict Account Settings, a security feature designed to protect users against complex cyberattacks. According to Gadgets360, the WhatsApp cyberattack protection feature applies automatic restrictions to protect users. WhatsApp plans to roll out the new restrictions globally in the coming weeks.
New Security Feature Protects User Privacy
WhatsApp’s cyber protection feature is designed to limit exposure of private user details to unknown contacts once activated. These details include profile photo, last seen, and online status. The security feature also locks links to user profiles to their contacts only.
WhatsApp said this lockdown-style feature will be critical for public figures and journalists, who face high cyberattack risk.
“Strict account settings are an optional, lockdown-style security feature that, when enabled, reduces your vulnerability to cyber attack by limiting functionality. Your account is locked to more private settings, and your chats with others outside your contacts will have limitations,” WhatsApp stated in a post on its website.
The latest WhatsApp security update means unknown contacts cannot add a user to a group. Only saved or pre-selected contacts can do so. Meta introduces the new security feature months after it introduced an Instagram Notes-like feature on WhatsApp. The feature changes how brief, status-style messages appear on the platform.
How WhatsApp’s Strict Account Settings Work
Among the restrictions that the Strict Account Settings feature applies are silencing calls from unknown contacts and blocking attachments and other media formats from unknown senders.
“If you turn this on, certain account settings will lock to the most restrictive settings, and it will limit how your WhatsApp works in some ways, like blocking attachments and media from people not in your contacts,” WhatsApp stated in a post on its website.
When users turn the Strict Account Setting security feature on WhatsApp, they automatically:
- Deactivate settings like link previews
- Activate the block setting to keep messages from unknown contacts from reaching them
- Turn on a two-step verification process
- Activate security notifications that alert them when a contact’s code changes
Meta is activating the new security feature on the messaging app months after Italy’s competition watchdog halted implementation of its WhatsApp Business terms over antitrust concerns.
How to Activate the WhatsApp Security Feature
To activate the Strict Account Settings feature, users should go to the “Settings” section. From there, they should click on the “Privacy” button, then “Advanced”. According to Meta, the security feature can only be activated in the primary device, not on companion platforms such as WhatsApp for Windows or Web.
The Strict Account Settings is part of WhatsApp’s wider plan to boost the security of at-risk users against spyware and cyberattacks. The messaging app also unveiled a programming language known as Rust. WhatsApp’s Rust rollout will protect user videos, photos, and messages from security breaches.
