Chatting on WhatsApp is more than just sending simple text messages.
Today, this app can also be used to send photos, audio and video messages to other users of the app. Furthermore, it is possible to share contact details, bank details as well as location details.
With the huge amount of personal data that passes through WhatsApp, it will be a very inappropriate step for you to take the security and privacy matters of WhatsApp for granted.
WhatsApp has more than 700 million users who use the app actively on a monthly basis and this crowd exchanges more than 30 billion messages on this platform. Despite the recent introduction of the end-to-end encryption of messages on WhatsApp, being secure with your data will keep you a step ahead of hackers and sneaky people.
Lock WhatsApp
One way to safeguard your WhatsApp account is through the use of a PIN or password. You won’t get this ability to lock your WhatsApp account with a passcode on the app; however, you can make use of a third party application known as Lock for WhatsApp and do just that. Other similar apps include Chat Lock and Secure Chat.
Stop WhatsApp photos from appearing in your photo album
The last thing you want is the photos you are sharing on WhatsApp to appear in your phone’s photo album, which might be embarrassing when they pop up unexpectedly, when you were showing some of your best holiday moments to your friends.
iPhone users have an easy go here: simply go to your iPhone’s “Settings>Privacy>Photos” and from there, uncheck “WhatsApp” from the list of apps that send images to the photo album. For the users of Android devices, you’ll have a longer route to this, but also very simple.
You’ll need a file explorer application such as ES File Explorer and using this app, locate WhatsApp folders known as “Images” and “Videos” and within each of these folders, create a file and name it “.nomedia.” This file will stop your phone’s gallery from scanning these folders.
Deactivating WhatsApp when phone is stolen
WhatsApp offers its users with tips and tricks on how to get out of tricky problems like when you lose your phone. One good thing with WhatsApp is that it can only be used on one device, using one number. Thus, the only thing you can do when you lose your phone is deactivate your WhatsApp account on that particular device.
To do this, you’ll need to first of all replace the lost SIM card. Activate WhatsApp using the newly replaced number and by doing so, you’ll successfully block the use of WhatsApp on the stolen device. This means that the person using your stolen phone will not access your WhatsApp account.
Restricted access to your avatar
Using your WhatsApp profile picture, a lot can be found out about you, especially if you have used the same picture before, maybe on your Facebook account, LinkedIn, Twitter or even on a logo of your company. It is possible to download a picture and search for more information about it from Google. You can stop this by restricting those who can view your picture. Go the privacy menu and change the sharing status of your profile picture to “Contacts only” or you can opt for “Nobody.”
Always log out of WhatsApp Web for PC
WhatsApp recently launched a PC client for its platform and using this version, you can access WhatsApp instant messaging services on a PC. When on a shared PC, ensure to log out of this client as anyone can access your messages since they’ll still be relayed to the client whenever you are not logged out, even if you are away from the PC.
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