[ad_1]
CNN Business
—
WhatsApp announced several new privacy updates on Tuesday, including the ability for users to check their messages without other people knowing.
The platform will soon let people control who can see when they’re online, prevent others from taking screenshots of certain messages, and leave groups without reporting entire channels.
WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users worldwide and is owned by Facebook’s (FB) parent company Meta. In announcing the changes to Facebook (FB) and Instagram, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will “continue to create new ways to protect your messages and keep them private and secure, just like private conversations.”
WhatsApp has long promoted the use of end-to-end encryption, which means that only the sender and recipient of a message can see its contents. And like other private messaging platforms, it already allows users to send messages that disappear after a certain period of time.
However, WhatsApp came under scrutiny last year after updating its terms of service.
At the time, many users raised concerns about a section of WhatsApp’s privacy policy detailing what it shares with parent company Facebook, which has a bad reputation when it comes to protecting user data.
The update sent some people are flocking to Signal, another popular encrypted messaging platform.
Facebook has sought to dispel confusion about the policy, saying its data-sharing practices are not new and do not “affect the way people communicate privately with friends or family.”
Now, two new features rolling out to WhatsApp — which will let you choose who can see when you’re active and leave the group on silent — will start rolling out to all WhatsApp users this month.
The screenshot blocking tool, which will be available for messages intended to be viewed only once, is still being tested and will be available later, according to WhatsApp.
[ad_2]
Source link
