WhatsApp fixes one of its big problems: prevent that contact from spying on your last time or profile picture

One of the great claims in terms of privacy is finally available in the most widely used messaging application in the world: WhatsApp now allows you to choose which contacts can see the last connection time; plus profile picture, Statuses, and account information. These options are already in the settings of the mobile applications.

WhatsApp is a messaging application that perfectly performs the main task of this type of software: establish a bridge of communication between people. Any of them, surely you dial a number and have WhatsApp. Precisely, this popularity ends up playing against users since it is very easy to spy on contacts through the application. Until now.

Avoid being spied on by choosing which contacts will see your information

WhatsApp allows you to choose that nobody see your contact information or the last time someone connected to WhatsApp, an exaggerated measure when you only need to hide those private data from specific contacts. We learned at the end of 2021 that WhatsApp was working on customizable privacy settings according to the agenda. And they are already among us.

Just like WhatsApp warned through its social networks, granular privacy permissions now available in mobile apps. This is a universal feature, so they appear in both stable and beta apps. And for all platforms, be it iPhone or Android.

With the privacy improvements introduced, WhatsApp solves one of its biggest privacy problems: uncontrolled access to data that should be in the hands of users. Therefore, the privacy settings related to “Who can see my personal information“are as follows:

• time of last time. All; My contacts; My contacts, except…; No one.
• Profile picture. All; My contacts; My contacts, except…; No one.
• Info. All; My contacts; My contacts, except…; No one.
• state. My contacts; My contacts, except…; No one.

With the settings it is possible block access to private data to any contact you want. Even everyone except some privileged: for this you have to mark the entire agenda except for the chosen ones. It would be nice if WhatsApp added a fifth option: “No one, except…”.

The new settings are now available in the WhatsApp mobile applications. They do not need an update as they are activated from the server sidealthough you may have to restart the phone (or the WhatsApp app) for them to appear.

More information | WhatsApp