WhatsApp is rolling out a new privacy measure that will hide your “Last Seen” status from other unknown accounts that have never chatted with you before. This way, strangers won’t be able to see when the last time you were online on WhatsApp was – or even if you’re currently online.
As noted by WABetaInfo (via The Verge), this change has already taken effect for some accounts as a few users recently reported that they can no longer see other users’ WhatsApp statuses.
WhatsApp Support later explained to a user (who shared the response on Twitter) that the app would no longer show “your last seen and online presence” to unknown accounts due to new privacy and security measures. The company says that nothing changes for users who have your phone number saved in their address book or who have chatted with you before.
To improve the privacy and security of our users, we’re making it harder for people you don’t know and haven’t chatted with from seeing your last seen and online presence on WhatsApp. This will not change anything between you and your friends, family, and businesses who you know or have previously messaged.
In addition to this new measure, WhatsApp has been testing a new privacy option that will let users choose specific accounts to hide the “Last Seen” status from. This feature was first reported back in September and is now available to WhatsApp Beta users on iOS and Android.
It’s unclear when the update will become available to all users.
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