WhatsApp to advertise new privacy features on UK billboards and TVs after government criticism | Science & Technology News
WhatsApp is rolling out three new privacy features along with a billboard and TV ad campaign across the UK.
The new one WhatsApp privacy features that will allow people to exit group chats without notifying everyone, to control who can see when they are online, and to prevent screenshots of automatically delete “View Once” messages.
They are described as ways to keep user messages “as secure as a live chat” by Meta managing director Mark Zuckerberg and is being rolled out alongside a global advertising campaign starting in the UK and India.
When people on WhatsApp leave the current group chat, the entire conversation will receive a notification that they have exited, potentially attracting unwanted attention. The company says now only administrators will receive notifications.
The app also broadcasts to all of the user’s contacts when they’re online and open the app, something the user will be able to choose to share.
WhatsApp previously warned users to “only send photos or videos with ‘Watch Once’ media enabled to trusted individuals” because it is possible to take a photo or screen-record the media before it disappears.
Some see the move as another feature WhatsApp copied from Snapchat after introducing statuses in 2017.
In a post announcing the new WhatsApp updates, Zuckerberg wrote: “We’ll continue to build new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as live chats. “
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The advertising campaign, which includes a billboard on the Wandsworth Roundabout in south-west London, comes as Meta has faced growing criticism over its privacy features being abused by hackers. who seek to evade law enforcement.
Last month, two senior technical directors at GCHQ, the UK’s cyber intelligence agency, published an analytical paper. How social media platforms expose children to sexual abuse Online.
Earlier this year, a government-sponsored advertising campaign called No Place To Hide aimed to highlight the challenges end-to-end encrypted messaging poses to police when investigating related crimes. regarding child sexual abuse.
Meta has repeatedly stated that it believes end-to-end encryption is the only way to ensure that users can securely message each other without being eavesdropped by third parties.
Mr. Zuckerberg announced plans to transform privacy on the platform After the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2019 by making Meta itself unable to read the content of messages shared by users, similar to how it could not access the content of WhatsApp messages.
However, these changes have yet to be implemented on its other platforms due to concerns that they will blind law enforcement to childcare and abuse incidents on its platforms. and can provoke a secret government order.
