If you are one of the WhatsApp users, you have a lot of company: the application has 2 billion monthly active users, and people use it to communicate with friends and family at home and abroad.
The application has great privacy protection, end-to-end encryption, which means that no one but you and the person receiving the message can read its content. Even so, if you are a WhatsApp user, you may be sharing more information with your contacts or anyone who has your phone number than you think. You are also sharing a lot of information with Facebook, which owns the service.
Information shared with other users includes your “information” and photo, when you were online for the last time and whether or not you have read a message. Unless you adjust your privacy settings, any stranger with your phone number will be able to access all of this information. Also, your boss might notice if you are reviewing your messages instead of working on the presentation that you must deliver in an hour, and your friends will know if you have seen a message, but decided not to reply yet.
More importantly, for many people, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. Facebook may not be able to read your messages, but it can access the details of who you communicate with, when, how often, and from where. The company does not allow WhatsApp users to choose not to share this data.
It is also possible that, with a court order, the police will gain access to the names of the people you have called or sent messages, or they have called and sent you messages. And if you choose to backup your WhatsApp data to iCloud or Google Drive, the messages will not be encrypted there. Anyone who has access to your cloud account will be able to read all the messages you have sent through the application.
If you don’t like Facebook’s data collection, your best option may be to switch to Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app that has much better privacy practices. However, in WhatsApp you can restrict that people who have your number cannot see your location data or the information that indicates when you are online, deactivate read receipts and prevent people from adding you to group chats without your consent. Here’s how.
Prevent people from knowing if you are online
Anyone who scrolls through their WhatsApp contacts and clicks on your name You can see if you are in the application at the moment (that is, connected to the Internet with WhatsApp open in the foreground on your device) or when you were last. You can avoid it, but it works both ways: if you don’t share your “Last Time” status, you won’t be able to see other people’s status either.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Privacy> Last time. There you can change the settings so that this information is available to everyone, only to people in your contact list or to no one at all.
On an Android phone : go to WhatsApp> Menu (the 3 dots in the upper right corner)> Settings> Account> Privacy> Last time. There you can change the settings so that this information is available to everyone, only to people on your contact list or to no one at all.
Hide your profile picture
Don’t you want anyone who has your phone number to see your profile picture? This is something you can change, and making your profile photo private won’t prevent you from seeing someone else’s.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Privacy> Profile picture and select “all”, “ my contacts ”or“ nobody ”.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Privacy > Profile picture and select “everyone”, “my contacts” or “nobody.”
Hide your “information”
When you click on the name of a contact on WhatsApp, you might see a short bio or smart review, or just an absent message. WhatsApp includes some that you can choose from, such as “battery running out”, “I can’t talk, just WhatsApp”, “in a meeting”, “at the gym”, “I’m sleeping” or “just urgent calls”. You can also create your own. It is up to you, if you want it to be public, private or available only to your contacts. Putting your private “information” will not prevent you from seeing someone else’s.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Privacy> Info and select: “everyone”, “my contacts” or “nobody”.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Privacy> Info and select: “everyone”, “my contacts” or “nobody”.
Avoid being added to chats random group chats
WhatsApp allows people to add you to group chats without your permission. But you can adapt your settings to select who can add you to groups. Administrators who cannot add you to a group will have the option to invite you privately.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp > Settings> Account> Privacy> Groups and select “everyone”, “my contacts” or “my contacts except”. If you select “my contacts except”, check anyone you don’t want to be added to groups.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Privacy> Groups and select “all”, “My contacts” or “my contacts except”. If you select “my contacts except”, mark anyone you do not want to be added to groups.
Turn off your location in real time in the chat
If you don’t want people to know where you are, turn off real-time locations in chats where it’s enabled.
On an iPhone: Go to WhatsApp> Account> Privacy> Real-time location, to see a list of the chats in which you are sharing this information and eliminate those to whom you would like to restrict access to the real-time location.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Account> Privacy> Real-time location. From there, you can allow WhatsApp to access your device’s location while using the app or deny access.
Restrict access to your status updates
WhatsApp lets you share photo, video, GIF and text updates that disappear after 24 hours. These updates can be seen by mutual contacts, that is, people whose numbers you have stored in your address book and who have your number stored in theirs. You can share them with all your contacts or just with the specific people you select. You can also share it with all your contacts except a few. Changing the privacy settings in your status update will not change the status of the ones you have already posted.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Privacy> Status and select “My contacts”, “My contacts except” or “Only share with”. For “My contacts except”, check anyone who shouldn’t see these status updates. For “Only share with”, simply select the contacts you want to share these status updates with.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Privacy> Status and select “My contacts”, “My contacts except” or “Only share with”. For “My contacts except”, check anyone who shouldn’t see these status updates. For “Only share with”, simply select the contacts you want to share these status updates with.
Block people you don’t want to hear from
Blocking contacts on WhatsApp will prevent them from calling or sending you messages in the application.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Privacy> Blocked to see who you have blocked and press “Add new” to block a new contact. You can also click on the person you want to block, scroll down, and then click “block contact” near the bottom of the page.
In an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Privacy> Blocked contacts to see who you have blocked. To add a new contact, click on the icon in the upper right (a person with a plus sign next to it) and select the contact you want to block. You can also click on an individual contact you want to block, select the “I” icon, and scroll down to click “block” near the bottom of the page. Or you can click the contact’s name and then go to Menu> More> Block contact.
Turn off read receipts for personal chats
Don’t you want people to know when you ignore their messages or when you’ve read them and just haven’t had a chance to reply? You can disable read receipts. Just keep in mind that doing so means that you won’t be able to see other people’s read receipts. There is no way to turn off read receipts in group chats.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Privacy> Read receipts to turn them on or off.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings > Account> Privacy> Read receipts to activate or deactivate them.
Make your messages disappear
Recently, WhatsApp launched a new function: messages that disappear after 7 days. That’s not foolproof, as a week is a long time for someone to take a screenshot, and it doesn’t prevent the recipient from automatically downloading all of their WhatsApp messages, forwarding the message, etc.
If the person you are sending a message to does not open WhatsApp within 7 days, the message will disappear, but its preview may still show in notifications. And if someone replies to a disappearing message by quoting it, the quoted text can remain in the chat beyond the 7 day window.
On an iPhone: within WhatsApp, click on the contact page of the person you want to use the function with, scroll down to “disappearing messages” and press “activated”.
On an Android phone: within WhatsApp, click on the contact page of the person you want to use the function with, scroll down until “disappearing messages” and press “activated”.
Avoid backup copies of chats
Make a backup of your history Chatting on iCloud or Google Drive means that you can recover old conversations if you lose your phone, but it also means that the information is not protected by WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. Technically, Apple and Google could read the chats or hand them over to law enforcement officials.
So if you’re really concerned about keeping your communications private, disable those backups. You can also delete chats that you have already backed up. And of course you should make sure that the people you are texting are also not backing up your messages.
On an iPhone: disable cloud backups by going to WhatsApp> Settings> Chats> Backup> Automatic backup and set it to “off”. Then, go to your iPhone’s System Settings> iCloud> Storage> Manage Storage> WhatsApp> Backup and make sure it is disabled there as well. Delete old chats by going to iOS settings> iCloud> Storage to> Manage storage> WhatsApp Messenger> Edit> Delete all.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Chats> Backup> Save to Google Drive> Never. To delete old chats, log in to https://drive.google.com, click the settings icon and go to Settings> Manage applications> WhatsApp Messenger> Options> Delete data. Disconnect the application from Google Drive.
Also disable photo backups
Photos received via WhatsApp are stored in the camera roll the camera of your phone. If you use iCloud or Google Drive to back up your phone images, but don’t want to do it for WhatsApp, you can disable it.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Chats> Save to camera gallery and toggle the switch to “off” if you don’t want the photos and videos you receive to be saved on the camera roll on your phone.
On an Android phone: Go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Chats> Media file visibility and toggle the switch to “off” if you don’t want to view newly downloaded media files in your phone’s gallery.
Enable multi-factor authentication
WhatsApp offers multi-factor authentication to make user accounts more secure. Most services with multi-factor authentication require you to log in by entering a short numeric code generated from an app or sent via text message, in addition to your password. That way, if a hacker or anyone else has your password, it is much more difficult for them to access your account. WhatsApp does not use a one-time code. Instead, it allows you to set a PIN to help protect your account. It is a good idea to activate this feature.
On an iPhone: Go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Two-Step Verification, select activate and enter a PIN 6 digits. You can also add an email address to your account so you can reset your PIN if you think you might forget it, or you can skip this step.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Two-step verification. Select activate and enter a 6-digit PIN. You can also add an email address to your account so you can reset your PIN if you think you might forget it, or you can skip this step.
Report abuse to WhatsApp
If you receive a threatening, intimidating, harassing message or that violates WhatsApp’s terms of service, you can report the content to WhatsApp. (Outside the app, you can also report it to the local authority.)
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings > Help> Contact us. To report messages from an unknown number or group, tap the contact or group name, scroll to the bottom, and tap “Report contact” or “Report group.”
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Help> Contact us. To report messages from an unknown number or group, touch the name of the contact or group, scroll to the bottom and touch “Report contact” or “Report group.”
Request a copy of your account information
WhatsApp allows you to request a copy of the account information and the settings to which you have access. It takes around 3 days to get the report, a security measure WhatsApp has put in place in case a phone has been stolen and is not yet disabled. If you delete your account or change your phone number, your request will be canceled. The account download feature shows you what kind of account information WhatsApp keeps. It does not contain messages. Be aware that the police may gain access to this type of account information with a court order. If approved by a judge, the police can also place an “outgoing call log” and a “catch and trace device” on a WhatsApp account, which will record incoming and outgoing phone numbers used for calls or text messages to that account.
On an iPhone: go to WhatsApp> Settings> Account> Request account information.
On an Android phone: go to WhatsApp> Menu> Settings> Account> Request account information.
Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2021, Consumer Reports, Inc.
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with the advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works with consumers to create a just, safe, and healthy world. CR does not endorse products or services and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2021, Consumer Reports, Inc.