Reinforcing the importance of digital safety, WhatsApp has launched a safety campaign ‘Stay safe with WhatsApp’ in an effort to raise awareness around its existing safety tools and product features that empower people to take control of their online safety.
User safety being at the core of WhatsApp, the safety campaign focuses on educating users on product features that help them stay safe from online scams, frauds and account-compromising threats. According to WhatsApp one of the easiest ways to ensure you remain safe and protected at all times is to secure your WhatsApp account. From enabling two-step verification to ensuring your personal information remains private, here are WhatsApp’s top safety features to safeguard your WhatsApp account.
- Add a layer of security to safeguard your account: WhatsApp allows users to add an extra layer of security to their account by enabling the Two-Step Verification feature, which requires a six-digit PIN when resetting and verifying your WhatsApp account. This is helpful in case a SIM card gets stolen or if the phone is compromised. Never share your PIN with anyone and if you receive an email to reset the two-step verification PIN or registration code but didn’t request this, do not click on the link.
- Adjust your privacy settings to control who sees your personal details: Users can control their personal details such as – Profile Photo, Last Seen, Online status, About, Status, and who sees it – everyone, contacts only, select contacts, or no one. You can also control your online presence by selecting who can and can’t see when you’re online, for the times you want to keep your online presence private. Keeping your personal details visible to only your contacts can help safeguard your account against bad actors.
- Group privacy settings to ensure a safe messaging experience: WhatsApp’s privacy setting and group invite system allow users to decide who can add them to groups, increasing user privacy and preventing people from adding you to groups you don’t want to be a part of. If you find yourself in a group chat that’s not for you, you can choose to exit a group privately without having to notify everyone.
- Regularly check your linked devices: Review linked devices with your WhatsApp account on a regular basis, this will show you a list of all the devices from which your account has been accessed. If you find any which you cannot identify, immediately log out. If you suspect someone is using your account via WhatsApp Web/Desktop, log out of all computers from your phone.
- Block and report suspicious accounts: WhatsApp is a private and safe space for people to communicate with their loved ones and people who have your phone number. However, users sometimes receive problematic messages from unknown numbers, some of which may include suspicious links or request access to personal information, among others. Users may also receive calls from unknown international or domestic phone numbers. WhatsApp provides a simple way for users to ‘block and report’ the account to WhatsApp. Blocked contacts or numbers will no longer be able to call you or send you messages.
- Security features that work behind the scenes: WhatsApp has multiple security features that help secure your account and a lot of this work happens behind the scenes without users having to do a thing. These security features include Account Protect which alerts you to an unauthorized attempt to move your account to another device, Device Verification which provides added checks to help authenticate your account and Automatic Security Codes which helps ensure you are chatting with the intended recipient.
