7 ways to really improve your privacy in WhatsApp

Do you often use WhatsApp and do you want your data to remain safe? With these seven ways you can improve your privacy in WhatsApp!

Improve privacy in WhatsApp

WhatsApp regularly releases updates that bring new features to the application. These are not only new features to make your (video) calls more fun, but also to improve the privacy of WhatsApp. Especially if you use the messaging service daily, it is important that your data, messages and documents remain well protected. These are seven ways to improve your privacy in WhatsApp!

1. Restriction on group conversations

Are you regularly added to group conversations, even though you don’t want that? In that case, WhatsApp has a smart way to guarantee your privacy. You decide who can add you to group conversations, but you have to set that yourself in WhatsApp. In that case, group administrators can only send you an invitation, so that you can choose whether you want to participate in the conversation. This is how you set it up:

With this feature enabled, you can only be added to groups by contacts stored on your smartphone. Do you still think that is not enough privacy in WhatsApp? You can also choose ‘My contacts, except…’. There you select the contacts who cannot add you to group conversations. This way you prevent yourself from simply being added to a chat with other users.

2. Hide your personal information

On WhatsApp, other users see certain information about you by default. They can see when you were last online, what your profile picture is and when you are online. Don’t you want that? In that case, you can also hide all this data from other users. WhatsApp offers several ways to protect your privacy with this information. You can find these options as follows:

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to ‘Settings’;
• Tap ‘Privacy’;
• Under ‘Last seen & online’, ‘Profile photo’, ‘Info’, select who can see this data.

In the WhatsApp settings you can set who can see personal information such as your profile photo, last seen and online status. It is advisable to choose ‘My contacts’ for all categories, so that your privacy in WhatsApp remains protected from unknown accounts. If you choose ‘Everyone’, all users can see your profile photo and other information, even if it is not saved in your contact list.

3. Use disappearing messages

One of the newer features in WhatsApp is making messages disappear. This feature automatically destroys messages after a certain period of time. There is no better way to guarantee your privacy on WhatsApp, because with disappearing messages you can be sure that they cannot be retrieved. Do you want your messages to disappear by themselves? Then enable the following function:

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to a (group) conversation;
• Tap the name above the conversation;
• Choose ‘Disappearing chat messages’;
• Finally, set a timer for messages.

Do you want to enable disappearing messages for all chats? You do this as follows:

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to ‘Settings’;
• Tap ‘Privacy’;
• Choose ‘Default timer for messages’;
• Finally, set a timer for all messages.

When setting the timer, you can choose from 24 hours, seven days or ninety days. After this period, the messages are automatically deleted. Be careful, because you cannot get them back. Both WhatsApp and your smartphone no longer have these messages. This is not only a way to improve your privacy in WhatsApp, but also by easily saving more storage space on your device. The fewer messages WhatsApp stores, the less storage space the app requires.

4. Disable preview

There are several ways to improve your privacy in WhatsApp itself, but it is also important that your data remains protected outside the application. Have you ever been on a busy train or bus? It can be annoying if someone is constantly reading on your phone. WhatsApp offers a handy solution for this, because you can hide the preview of messages. To turn off the preview:

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to ‘Settings’;
• Choose ‘Notifications’;
• Scroll down and turn off the switch behind ‘Show preview’.

Do you receive a notification from WhatsApp? The content of the message will then no longer be displayed. Instead, you see who sent the message and in which conversation it happened. In this way, WhatsApp tries to protect your privacy, because others do not immediately see what is in the messages. This is also useful if your phone is connected to CarPlay or Android Auto, even then the content of the WhatsApp messages remains hidden.

5. App and chat lock

If you want to go one step further, you can also secure WhatsApp with Face ID or Touch ID. It depends on your smartphone which security method you can choose. WhatsApp lock prevents someone from simply opening the application or a conversation. You no longer have to worry about privacy in WhatsApp, because only you have access to the application on your phone. To do this, follow these steps:

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to ‘Settings’;
• Choose ‘Privacy;
• Scroll down and tap ‘App lock’;
• Turn on the switch behind ‘Face ID’ or ‘Touch ID’;
• Tap ‘Chats’ at the bottom of the screen;
• Go to a conversation you want to protect and tap the name of the conversation;
• Finally, choose ‘Lock chat’.

Have you locked WhatsApp with Face ID or Touch ID? In that case, the application must first be unlocked before you can access the conversations. If Face ID or Touch ID is not recognized, you can also enter your iPhone’s passcode. The same goes for conversations you’ve locked. Unfortunately, it is not possible to secure all conversations at once with Face ID or Touch ID as standard.

6. Turn off read receipts

Not only is it possible to disable your online status and last seen on WhatsApp, you can also hide read receipts. Users on WhatsApp can see whether the conversation has been opened by looking at the blue or gray check marks on a message. Are the check marks colored blue? Then the message is read by the recipient. This is also the case the other way around, other users can see that you have read a message. Don’t you want that? Then disable read receipts as follows:

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to ‘Settings’;
• Choose ‘Privacy’;
• Turn off the switch behind ‘Read receipts’.

If you have disabled read receipts, the check marks next to a message will remain gray, even if you have read the message. In that case, you will no longer be able to see the read receipts of other users. Please note, because the read receipts remain visible in group conversations. The sender of a message can therefore see in a group conversation whether you have opened the conversation and read the message.

7. Advanced Privacy

WhatsApp recently added another way to protect user privacy. With ‘Advanced Privacy’ you add an extra layer of security to your conversations. This feature prevents chats from being exported, media from being automatically saved by users, and Meta AI from being used in a conversation. This is how you enable ‘Advanced privacy’ in WhatsApp;

• Open ‘WhatsApp’;
• Go to a (group) conversation;
• Tap the name of the conversation;
• Choose ‘Advanced privacy for chats’;
• Turn on the switch behind ‘Advanced privacy for chats’.

WhatsApp does not yet offer the option to enable ‘Advanced Privacy’ for all conversations at once. This means that you have to manually activate the function with every chat. Other participants in the conversation will be notified that you have enabled ‘Advanced privacy for chats’. After enabling the feature, you will be assured that the conversation cannot be exported and Meta AI will not be activated.

More about WhatsApp

Do you want to ensure that your privacy remains well protected? WhatsApp offers plenty of ways to guarantee your privacy inside and outside the messaging service. It is recommended that you enable these functions so that your data is well protected. Especially now that telephone numbers are increasingly being approached by scammers, it is wise to protect your account properly. Did you find this tip useful? Then sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter so you can get even more out of WhatsApp! See more related articles about the messaging service here:

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