WhatApp has been strengthening its privacy controls for some time now. Earlier this year, several users in India witnessed an uptick in scam calls from international numbers. WhatsApp said that international scam calls are a new way that scammers have adopted and to prevent this, the company boosted its AI and machine learning systems. To further secure users’ privacy, WhatsApp has launched the ‘Silence Unknown Callers’ feature.
International call scam: Need of call privacy feature
WhatsApp is rolling out the feature globally but its immediate use case can be seen in India. The country saw users getting scam calls from international numbers. The victims picked up the calls and then were misguided and, eventually, some of them experienced huge financial losses.
Silence Unknown Callers: A preventive measure
Silence Unknown Callers is designed to give WhatsApp users more privacy and control of incoming calls. The feature automatically screens out spam, scams and calls from unknown people for increased protection.
How Silence Unknown Callers works
Once enabled, the Silence Unknown Callers feature will automatically silence the calls from numbers that are not saved in users’ phones. These calls will not ring on the phone but a notification of the missed call will be visible in the Call list, in case it turns out to be someone important.
How to enable Silence Unknown Callers
In order to enable the new features, users can go to “Settings” and then scroll down to find Privacy and tap “Calls” from the available list. Users will see a toggle to enable “Silence Unknown Callers”. Tap in and you are done. The feature is available on both iPhones and Android smartphones.
Privacy Checkup on WhatsApp
WhatsApp also announced a Privacy Checkup feature that will help users to know about the options of protection on the app. This feature will enable users to choose the right level of protection for them — all in one place.
How to check your privacy
Users can go to “Settings” and tap “Privacy”. You will get an option to check your privacy setting. Tap on “Start checkup” and navigate through the multiple privacy options to strengthen the security of messages, calls and personal information.
Other privacy and security features on WhatsApp
WhatsApp offers various other features to keep users secure. These features include end-to-end encryption, Chat Lock to protect sensitive chats, Disappearing Messages that vanish and screenshot blocking for View Once messages.
Original source: gadgetsnow.com
