WhatsApp: "Advanced Chat Privacy" to protect sensitive communication
In the future, "Advanced Chat Privacy" will provide more privacy in WhatsApp and protect sensitive content from being passed on.
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WhatsApp is getting a new function that is intended to provide better protection of privacy: “Advanced Chat Privacy”. Sensitive conversations and information will remain between the conversation participants and cannot be shared.
(Image:Â Meta)
WhatsApp explains the new function in a blog post. According to this, privacy is based on end-to-end encryption (E2EE) of personal messages and calls so that only the sender and recipient can see, hear or share them. WhatsApp has grafted further layers of privacy onto this, such as “self-deleting messages” or “chat lock”, a password protection for chats.
Enhanced privacy for chats
Now, with “Advanced Chat Protection”, a kind of copy protection for chats is to be added. The advanced privacy setting will be available for chats as well as in groups. It will prevent other people from removing content from WhatsApp chats if a little more privacy is desired.
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When this option is activated, participants cannot export the chat, media is not automatically downloaded to the smartphone and messages cannot be used with AI functions. WhatsApp is confident that this will create greater trust that no one will be able to leak anything that is said in the chat.
As WhatsApp groups are increasingly an extension of “real-world networks”, WhatsApp sees the greatest benefit in groups where not everyone knows everyone else, but where more confidential matters are discussed. WhatsApp cites conversations about health problems in support groups as an example. The function is to be rolled out to everyone with the latest version of WhatsApp. The function can be activated by tapping on the chat name and selecting “Advanced Chat Privacy”.
WhatsApp has slowly added better protection against third-party access over the years. In 2021, for example, the option was added to transfer WhatsApp's automatic chat backups with end-to-end encryption to Google Drive or iCloud, for example, which means that only the sender and recipient – can read them in the backup case, usually one and the same person –.
(dmk)
