Tag Archives: whatsapp

Whatsapp New Privacy Policy 2021 – Is It Really That alarming? Should you switch to Signal?

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Whatsapp cannot access or see your messages, they are End to End Encrypted, that means only the sender and the receiver can see or read the plain text form of the message. Whatsapp Uses The Signal Protocol designed by Open Whisper Systems to encrypt their Messages (Encryption Protocol From the Signal App).

Recently Whatsapp users across the globe started getting a popup while using Whatsapp stating that there’s an update to their Privacy and policy, which users need to agree before 8th of February to continue using Whatsapp or else users should uninstall Whatsapp From their Phones. The new privacy policy brings some significant changes to how Whatsapp collect and use users data. You can read Whatsapp new Privacy Policy from here

The news of Whatsapp updating their terms and conditions have caused quite a controversy and tons of people switching from Whatsapp to a more secure solution like The Signal Messenger which is an open-source non-profit messaging app which offers better encryption and privacy.

In this article, we will cover all the details about the new updated privacy policy from Whatsapp and how it will affect us, users. We will also debunk all the myths that are floating around about the new update. We will also take a look at Signal Messenger and show you how it’s better from Whatsapp and other alternatives.

Whatsapp New Privacy Policy Update

Whats In The Whatsapp New Privacy Policy

Before going into the details, we’ll debunk the biggest myth that is floating around since the new privacy policy update. Whatsapp cannot access or see your messages, they are End to End Encrypted, that means only the sender and the receiver can see or read the plain text form of the message. Whatsapp Uses The Signal Protocol designed by Open Whisper Systems to encrypt their Messages (Encryption Protocol From the Signal App). Some medias claiming that Whatsapp is no longer safe to convey your private messages is completely false.

The new updated privacy policy from Whatsapp aims at transparency on how Whatsaap collects and uses users data. Whatsapp will now share these data with facebook and could link this collected data with your facebook/instagram profiles to serve you more relevant ads.

Here are the list of information collected by Whatsapp

  • Your Account Info – Profile Picture, Mobile Number, Name, About
  • Undelivered/Forwarded Messages (Encrypted) – Frequently forwarded and Undelivered Messages are kept for 30 days, these messages are not in plain text form
  • Your Contacts – All the saved contacts in your phone
  • Status – Text or Media Status
  • Transactions And Payments Data – UPI and Payments data from Whatsaap Pay
  • Usage And Log – When you are offline/online, When about is updated, the time you use the app.
  • Location Information – Accurate/Approximate Location
  • Businesses On WhatsApp – Business can share your messages with them to a third party
  • Third-Party Service Providers – Share the above-collected data with Facebook and other third parties
Whatsapp showing Battery Info (Courtesy: WABetainfo)

All the above information were previously collected by Whatsapp, the only notable new change is their transparency about sharing their information with Facebook and third party. Here is the link to where you can read the previous privacy policy from Whatsapp and you can see for yourself which data they were previously collecting and sharing with third parties.

Conclusion About The Whatsapp New Privacy Policy

Even though Collecting these data by Whatsapp means less privacy, the recent controversy regarding Whatsapp is entirely based on some myths and rumours floating around about Whatsapp. As Whatsapp is a closed source app we can’t be 100% sure what happens behind the app.

So the conclusion is that Whatsapp is as safe as it was before, as they are not intercepting our messages and are end to end encrypted by their claims.

But if you are extremely cautious about privacy and don’t want Facebook collecting these data you can switch to an open source solution, Namely Signal.

Why Use Signal, How is it Better From Whatsapp

Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging platform that is available on Windows, Mac, Android, IOS. As the app is open source the entire code and working of the app is publicly available on Github, This means there is transparency in the privacy of the service and the tech community from across the globe can see the source code and report any problems or any privacy violations to the community.

Signal Android App

Signal has other privacy feature that Whatsapp lacks such as Screen Security, Disappearing Messages, Encrypted Chat backup and is completely secure. Even the Whistle Blower Edward Snowden has recommended signal messenger as it is secure.

If you are this concerned about your privacy, just enquire how much data your android phone collects and sends to google and how much data your Instagram and Facebook apps collect. Warning: you might throw your phone away 😉

Still Don’t Have Whatsapp Dark Mode, Here’s How You Can Get IT

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WhatsApp was working on the long-awaited dark theme for a long time now. The wait is finally over, WhatsApp rolled out the dark theme for its beta users last day, if you are not a beta user and still want to have the dark theme, I’ll show you how.

The obvious way is to join the beta program in WhatsApp, but it is not easy as it seems, being the most popular app on the play store, the beta program is often full.

The next and the most often used way is side-loading the beta APK from other reliable sources such as apk mirror.

Don’t worry it’s perfectly safe, I’ve verified the apk from apk mirror with the one from play store and both are a perfect match.

Click HERE to go to apk mirror and click on the download button to download the WhatsApp beta apk.
After downloading, click and install the apk, no need to uninstall the existing WhatsApp, it’s just an update.

After the latest beta has been installed, open settings, chats, theme and select Dark.
Now your dark theme will be activated.
Share it with your friends who still can’t get the dark mode.

A Simple Check To See Whether Your Whatsapp Has Been Hacked?

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Which is the most commonly used messaging app in this 21st century, there will be only one answer, Whatsapp!

Whatsapp is as a matter of fact one of the most secure messaging apps. With it’s end to end encryption which ensures only the sender and receiver can decrypt and read the message. As every secure service does, the most vulnerable part of whatsapp is the end user (you), yes you are the most vulnerable security flaw in whatsapp. Since whatsapp was acquired by the tech giant facebook, it has little or no Security flaws.

The so called “hack” we’re gonna talk about today is actually a feature of whatsapp that is often misused. Whatsapp Web, It is a feature of whatsapp that allows users to open a copy of your whatsapp on your PC for convenience. Most people don’t know that such a feature exist, that’s the risk factor. People can create a copy of your whatsapp without your knowledge if they get your hands on your phone.

Whatsapp Web

Whatsapp is also aware of this misuse going on, so that’s why whatsapp doesn’t allow you to visit Whatsapp Web through your phone even if you enable Desktop Site. But there are applications available on the Playstore that allows the same. The “hack” works when the hacker gets the victim’s phone for even a minute, the hacker opens the victim’s whatsapp and select whatsapp web from the options, and he uses the application on his mobile device to open Whatsapp Web and scan the Qr code on his phone with the Victim’s phone. Now he has the copy of the victim’s whatsapp. If you don’t have the proper knowledge, you won’t even know that this hack is/was going on.

No more waiting, we’ll show you how you can stay aware of this sort of hacks and what to do if you think you have been hacked.

First thing you have to know is, whatsapp show’s a constant notification if your Web whatsapp is active, that’s one way we can find out, the other is to open whatsapp and select the options on the top right corner (the 3 vertical dots) and select Whatsapp web, if your camera pops up to scan a Qr code, you’re safe nobody is accessing your whatsapp web.

Instead of the scanner if you get a prompt like this shown below, someone is accessing your whatsapp (maybe it could be you who opened whatsapp web sometime and forgot to log out).

If you don’t remember you using whatsapp web it could probably be someone else, click log out from all devices immediately.

You have to stay aware of what’s going on your phone to prevent falling for this sort of hacks…