Hours after Whatsapp chief Will Cathcart called out Elon Musk for posting ‘totally false’ information that “WhatsApp is not secure,” the Meta-owned instant messaging app has launched Strict Account Settings – a lockdown-style feature, aimed at protecting users protect “from the most sophisticated of cyber threats. ”
How WhatsApp Strict Account Settings feature works
Once updated, users can enable the feature by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced.
WhatsApp says that Strict Account Settings feature is being rolled out gradually over the coming weeks. The feature comes a day after an international group of plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp, accusing the company of defrauding billions of users by allegedly maintaining ‘backdoor access to private communications that the company claims are “end-to-end encryption” (E2EE). The lawsuit claims that WhatsApp can “store, analyze, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp users’ purportedly ‘private’ communications”.
As per WhatsApp, if users turn this feature on, certain account settings will lock to the most restrictive settings, limiting how WhatsApp works in some ways. For example, it will block all attachments and media from people not in your contacts. Meanwhile, WhatsApp’s official account posted, “This is a frivolous lawsuit and any claim that people’s WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false. WhatsApp has been end-to-end encrypted using the Signal protocol for a decade and no one but the intended recipient can read your personal messages.”