Whatsapp: Stiftung Warentest recommends users to change several settings

Created: 02/10/2022, 15:25

By: Sandra Kathe

Many users worry about security and data protection on Whatsapp.

Stiftung Warentest gives tips.

Berlin – With 2 billion users worldwide and around 100 billion messages sent every day, Whatsapp is one of the most used apps in the world.

But the applicable data protection guidelines of the Facebook company Meta, which also owns the Whatsapp brand, are increasingly causing criticism.

Whatsapp: Stiftung Warentest recommends users to change four settings

For example, Stiftung Warentest recommends users to check their Whatsapp settings and thus ensure maximum privacy when using the app.

However, if you follow all the recommendations, you have to make massive cutbacks in the usability of the app, reports hna.de.

If you want to view or change your current Whatsapp settings, first open the app on your smartphone.

The settings menu is accessed via the symbol with three superimposed dots.

The data protection settings can then be reached by clicking on Account and then on data protection.

Data protection settings on Whatsapp: three levels of visibility

The first setting that Stiftung Warentest recommends paying more attention to is the visibility of the profile picture and info text, which can be set to “Everyone”, “My Contacts” or “Nobody”.

Users also have the same setting options for the "Last seen" display.

Here you can hide the timestamp that other Whatsapp users see under the display name when they open the Whatsapp chat with the user in question.

If you switch off the "Last online" setting, you will no longer see the time stamp for other users either.

Read tick on Whatsapp: Privacy settings for more privacy

The display of the blue “read” tick, which tells other users whether the recipient has already seen their message, can also be switched off separately.

If you do not want Whatsapp, where there were changes to the profile pictures in January, to transmit this data, you can access the data protection settings here and choose from the three usual options.

Stiftung Warentest recommends changing at least four settings for Whatsapp.

© Yui Mok/DPA

If you switch off the function, you will only see the blue ticks in group chats.

There, a message always appears as blue when all group members have read a message.

Users can also set WhatsApp status messages to be visible to everyone using the app, to their own contacts, or to no one.

Similar to stories on the social media networks Facebook or Instagram, this function makes it possible to upload a photo, video or text update that is visible to the selected group for 24 hours.

You can also set WhatsApp messages to be deleted within 24 hours when chatting with a specific person.

Whatsapp security: Restrict access to data and camera with app settings

If that doesn't go far enough for WhatsApp when it comes to data protection, you can set other restrictions in addition to the settings within the app, which you can access via the smartphone's settings menu.

Here you look for the app settings in the list and select the Whatsapp app there so that the permissions that were granted to Whatsapp when the app was first started on the smartphone are displayed.

Here you can withdraw the app's access to the contact details of the smartphone, the cell phone camera, the voice recording function or the data and image storage.

However, if you take this step, you must be aware that you will lose many functions of the app and, for example, will no longer be able to send pictures or voice messages.