WhatsApp Introduces 3 New Security Features Over Privacy Issue

New Delhi: WhatsaApp has announced three new security features to make the popular communication app more safer and protective against potential threats for users. In the blog post, the company announced on April 13 adding three security features – account protect, device verification, and automatic security codes in the app in order to provide extra layers of privacy and more control of over the messages.

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Account Protect

Account protect feature will provide an additional security of your device if you need to switch your WhatsApp account to a new device. From now onwards, WhatsApp may ask you on your old device to verify that you want to take this step as an extra security check. This feature can help alert you to an unauthorized attempt to move your account to another device.

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Device Verification

Mobile device malware is one of the biggest threats to people’s privacy and security today because it can take advantage of your phone without your permission and use your WhatsApp to send unwanted messages. To help prevent this, WhatsApp has added checks to help authenticate your account - with no action needed from you - and better protect you if your device is compromised. This lets you continue using WhatsApp uninterrupted. 

Automatic Security Codes

Our most security conscious users have always been able to take advantage of our security code verification feature, which helps ensure you are chatting with the intended recipient. You can check this manually by going to the encryption tab under a contact’s info. To make this process easier and more accessible to everyone, we’re rolling out a security feature based on a process called “Key Transparency” that allows you to automatically verify that you have a secure connection. What it means for you is that when you click on the encryption tab, you’ll be able to verify right away that your personal conversation is secured.

What is End-To-End Encryption Of WhatsApp?

End-to-end encryption is the foundation of private messaging on WhatsApp, helping to ensure that only the sender and reciever can read what’s sent and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. “It is among the most widely used deployments of end-to-end encryption and relies on public key cryptography first developed in the 1970s,” WhatsApp added in the blog.