WhatsApp (one word, not two) is an extremely popular messaging app, particularly for people who travel a lot. Why? Because it’s all based on phone numbers, so it’s easy to connect to other people, it works on slow wi-fi networks and fast cellular connections just as easily, and there’s a slick web-based interface. It’s also agnostic so you don’t have to worry about iPhone vs Android, and every message is encrypted end-to-end so even zealous government agencies can’t monitor your conversations.
The program, owned by Meta (the same company that owns Facebook and Instagram), is particularly popular in India, Brazil, Mexico, throughout Africa, and much of Latin America, with a big footprint throughout the Middle East too. Suffice to say, your son’s made a smart choice with WhatsApp.
It is, however, a program that you need to set up properly to ensure you have maximal privacy, whether it’s a sporadic message from your son or a program you end up using every single day. Two main areas are of concern, in my opinion, so let’s have a peek.
WhatsApp: Limiting Group Additions
I’ll be using WhatsApp on my iPhone for this tutorial, but the interface is basically the same on Android phones too. Start by launching the app and tapping on Updates along the bottom row.
Since I don’t use WhatsApp a lot, it’s showing me accounts that I might want to follow. Once you’re using it more actively, you’ll see new messages from friends, organizations, institutions, and groups here.
On the bottom row is the first important tap in our security journey:Â Settings. Tap on it.
You can change your account avatar – if it’s still a listed option – but be aware that this feature is going away soon. Instead, tap on Privacy.
You’ll definitely want to go closely through these settings to ensure that they match your preferences, but the one we’re specifically interested in is Groups. Notice that mine is set to “Everyone”.
You really don’t want to leave it as “Everyone” because there are scammers and other folk on WhatsApp, like everywhere else on the Internet, alas, and they make a habit of creating scammy groups and adding people by guessing phone numbers. Adult content, gambling, crypto scams, even attempts at digital blackmail can occur, and all are terrible. To avoid this, simply change the setting from Everyone to My contacts.
Want to tighten that down even further? Choose “My contacts except…” and specify which people cannot add you to groups. Easy enough.
WhatsApp Privacy Checkup
With that critical setting changed, why not back up a screen and tap on the Privacy Checkup link?
This is an easy and helpful way to go through many of the other settings to ensure that the program aligns with your own privacy preferences and is reasonably self-explanatory.
WhatsApp Backup Privacy and Encryption
The only other must-change option with WhatsApp is related to backups. By default the program creates and uploads an occasional backup of all your chats and conversations. By default, that’s not encrypted so is therefore readable to anyone who has access to the file. Not great privacy. Instead, smart users enable backup encryption.
Where does it back up this data? If you’re on an iPhone, the backup will appear in your iCloud archive, and if you’re on Android, it’ll be on Google Drive.Â
Back up in Settings to the top, and this time choose Chats:
You can have a lot of fun by going into “default chat appearance”, but that’s a bit of a tangent for our purpose. Instead, tap on Chat backup.
What you want to enable is End-to-end encryption. A tap and…
It’s a bit confusing because “end-to-end encryption” seems to be more about individual chats, but as the splash screen makes obvious, it’s about the backup of all your chats. Definitely something worth encrypting.
I will reiterate the warning that if you forget your password and lose your phone, you cannot recover your backup from the cloud. Ready to proceed? Good. I’m going to tap on Create password and enter a simple 10-char password. You can also choose to set up a passkey, which is even more secure, if you prefer. Either way, once you do, it’ll be ready to set things up in WhatsApp:
Looks good. Ready to proceed. Create.
Done. Mission accomplished. Now you can go back and poke around with a few of the other possible settings to ensure it’s all ready to go with messages from your son.
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