WhatsApp is rolling out a new stricter security setting to protect users from cyber attacts
TL;DR
WhatsApp introduces 'Strict Account Settings' to enhance security by limiting functionality for unknown contacts, including blocking media and calls, and restricting profile visibility. This optional feature targets journalists and public figures, rolling out soon amid ongoing privacy lawsuit allegations.
Key Takeaways
- •WhatsApp's new 'Strict Account Settings' automatically blocks media/attachments and silences calls from unknown senders.
- •The feature restricts profile details to contacts only and requires two-step verification by default when enabled.
- •Users can only activate this setting from their primary device, not from web or desktop platforms.
- •The rollout follows a lawsuit accusing Meta of false privacy claims, which WhatsApp denies as meritless.
- •This optional security layer is designed for high-risk users like journalists to reduce cyber attack vulnerability.
Days after Meta was sued over alleged false privacy claims surrounding its chat app WhatsApp, the company has rolled out a new setting to protect users against cyber attacks.
The feature, called Strict Account Settings, adds restrictions like automatically blocking media and attachments from unknown senders, and silencing calls from unknown numbers. Under this setting, link previews are turned off, and the setting to block a high number of unknown messages is also switched on.
When someone turns this option on, by default, two-step verification is turned on along with security notifications that alert someone when the code of someone they are chatting with changes.
WhatsApp also restricts your last seen and online, profile photo, about details, and links on your profile are locked to only your contacts. If you have the new restrictive protection layer enabled, only your contacts (or pre-selected people from your contacts) can add you to groups.
The company said this “lockdown-styled” feature will be rolling out in the coming weeks and is useful for journalists and public figures.
“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,” the company’s description reads.
Users can turn on this setting by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced and then turning on Strict account settings. Meta said that users can only change this setting from their primary device and not from a companion platform like WhatsApp for Web or Windows.
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The timing of the rollout comes as the WhatsApp lawsuit accuses Meta of making false claims about WhatsApp security protections. It alleges that the company “stores, analyzes, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications.”
WhatsApp head Will Cathcart rejected these claims and said it is a “no-merit, headline-seeking lawsuit.”