Texting has become the main mode of communication these days, and one could say that phone calls have almost become a thing of the past, especially amongst the younger generation.
Tons of information are exchanged between sender and receiver via messaging apps — from selfies, photos and videos of one’s day, to office gossip or someone’s sharing of their personal troubles.
Most of these conversations are likely intensely personal and private, and these conversations should stay private.
A recent quiz conducted by WhatsApp of 1,933 people in Singapore found that most Singaporeans take their privacy and security on messaging apps seriously.
For example, nine in 10 respondents said that they will report and block any suspicious activity such as messages or calls from unknown numbers offering free goodies.
Seven in 10 respondents also said that they ensure their chats are end-to-end encrypted.
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With end-to-end encryption, texts can only be read by the intended recipient — no one else, not even WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, six in 10 Singaporeans knew how to prevent strangers from adding them to unwanted group chats by changing their privacy settings from “Everyone” to “My Contacts” when determining who can add them into groups.
Disappearing messages and setting photos to view once
If you’re not aware, WhatsApp has other privacy features that users can adjust as they wish.
Disappearing messages is an optional feature that users can turn on if they require more privacy. The messages can be set to disappear after 24 hours, seven days or 90 days after they are sent.
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This was the scenario given in the survey: “You have a discreet group chat with select colleagues. You love being able to speak freely, but don’t want it to come back and bite you later.”
Three in 10 Singaporeans also prefer to set their messages to disappear in seven days.
For added privacy, WhatsApp users can also opt to set the photos they send to be viewed once — the photos and videos will thus disappear from the chat after the recipient opens them.
This appears to be a measure that Singaporeans will use when sending sensitive information — half of the people surveyed shared that they will set the image of something like credit card details to “view once”.
On the other hand, four in 10 would rather call and share their credit card details over the phone.
Easy peasy
While most Singaporeans surveyed considered themselves as private people, only two in 10 Singaporeans said that they actively enable privacy features on messaging platforms.
Bolstering your security and privacy measures on WhatsApp may sound daunting. Where does one start?
It’s actually a simple and easy process. You can begin by doing a privacy check with the following steps:
Open WhatsApp > Select “Settings” > Select “Privacy” > Start checkup.
From there, you can easily find the various tools to protect your data, which includes silencing calls from unknown callers.
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In fact, those who prefer added protection can screen lock their device — ensuring that Face ID is required to open WhatsApp on the device. Setting up a two-step verification to access the WhatsApp account is also an option.
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If you want to know more about Singaporeans’ behaviour towards privacy and security in messaging apps, check out the results of the online quiz here.
Additionally, you can read more about the full list of WhatsApp’s security features here.
This is a sponsored article by WhatsApp.
Top photo from Canva
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