Social messaging app, WhatsApp has reportedly enabled a new privacy measure that hides users’ last seen and online status from unknown contacts. This implies that you haven’t chatted with someone before; they’ll no longer be able to see information about your activity on the app.
Recall that before, you’d have to manually change your Last Seen settings to “My Contacts” if you wanted to hide your activity from unknown users. But now the feature will default to only displaying your status to your contacts.
As WABetaInfo pointed out, this also means third-party apps will no longer be able to monitor your status.
In an email to CNET, w WhatsApp spokesperson said “We are excited to be rolling out an update that improves the privacy and security of our users by making it harder for people you don’t know and haven’t chatted with to view your Last Seen and Online status on WhatsApp”
“This will not change anything between you and your friends, family, and businesses who you know and have connected with.”
This isn’t the only privacy-focused change WhatsApp has made recently. Recall that the company had recently gave its users the option to make their messages disappear by default after a day, a week or a few months.
Privacy has been a key topic for WhatsApp in 2021, with the company facing scrutiny at the start of the year after it announced changes to its privacy policy. The company was later fined $260 million for privacy violations in the EU.
And its parent company, Meta, has been under fire for valuing profits over the privacy of its Facebook and WhatsApp users.
It is believed that the recent changes appear to be intended to assuage some of those privacy concerns by concealing your activity from people you don’t know.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp is also introducing new animated stickers called Encanto that will be available for download through the official WhatsApp Sticker Store within the app.
