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WhatsApp is introducing a new 'Strict Account Settings' feature to enhance user protection against cyber attacks. This update includes automatically blocking media from unknown senders, silencing calls from unknown numbers, and restricting profile visibility to contacts.
AI 生成摘要
WhatsApp推出名為「嚴格帳戶設定」的新功能，以加強用戶對抗網絡攻擊的保護。此更新包括自動封鎖未知發件人的媒體、靜音未知號碼的來電，以及將個人資料的顯示範圍限制為僅限聯絡人。
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Days after Meta was sued by over alleged false privacy claims by its chat app WhatsApp, the company has rolled out a new setting to protect users against cyber attacks.
The feature, called Strict Account Settings, adds restrictions like automatically blocking media and attachments from unknown senders, and silencing calls from unknown numbers. Under this setting, link previews are turned off, and the setting to block a high number of unknown messages is also switched on.
When someone turns this option on, by default, two-step verification is turned on along with security notifications that alert someone when the code of someone they are chatting with changes. The company
WhatsApp also restricts your last seen and online, profile photo, about details, and links on your profile are locked to only your contacts. If you have the new restrictive protection layer enabled, only your contacts (or pre-selected people from your contacts) can add you to groups.
The company said this “lockdown-styled” feature will be rolling out in the coming weeks and is useful for journalists and public figures.
“Strict account settings are an optional, lockdown-style security feature that, when enabled, reduces your vulnerability to cyber attack by limiting functionality. Your account is locked to more private settings, and your chats with others outside your contacts will have limitations,” the company’s description reads.
Users can turn on this setting by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced and then turning on Strict account settings. Meta said that users can only change this setting from their primary device and not from a companion platform like WhatsApp for Web or Windows.
The timing of the rollout comes as the WhatsApp lawsuit accuses Meta of making false claims about WhatsApp security protections. It alleges that the company “stores, analyzes, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications.”
WhatsApp head Will Cathcart rejected these claims and said it is a “no-merit, headline-seeking lawsuit.”
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Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.
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