WhatsApp banned 74 lakh accounts in India over safety concerns | Digit

The Meta owned social media platform is one of the most used messaging applications currently available. The app generates over 64 billion messages every day and the current rate of active WhatsApp users in India is 487.5 million. Hence, it’s obvious that the platform faces a lot of security and privacy threats for the users.  

What does the WhatsApp Safety Report say

WhatsApp came out with their monthly user safety report which suggested that the platform in the month of April banned more than 7.4 million or 74 lakh accounts and over 2.4 million of these accounts were proactively banned. While the number of grievances reported in the month have reduced compared to March, the number of safety concerns have increased. 

In March the grievances accounted for 4720 while the safety concerns were 10 and in April grievances accounted for 4,377 while the safety concerns were 21. And in the last six months the safety concerns are precisely 69. 

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WhatsApp has been actively taking efforts to have a better privacy guardwall for the users and millions of users trust the application for its end-to-end encryption. Recently, there was an official announcement by the app that a new feature for private conversations will be rolled out where the users can have unique usernames. 

WhatsApp is primarily a messaging platform which deals with conversations between people who know each other and have each other’s contact details in order to converse. However, with data breach the probability of scams and fraudulent activities has increased in the past few years resulting in bans on accounts.

Having said that, there are many safety concerns that come under light for WhatsApp users so let’s explore the top five safety concerns for Indian WhatsApp users. 

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Top 5 WhatsApp safety concerns

1. WhatsApp Web Malware

With the extensive user base that WhatsApp flaunts, there are shortcomings for the users when it comes to using the platform on the web. WhatsApp Web enables the user to use the platform on their PC and laptop. This gives cyberattackers a chance to install malware threats in links disguising as WhatsApp links or there can also be instances of phishing attacks where the personal information is extracted through WhatsApp’s website imitation. To avoid this you should stick to using just the WhatsApp app as much as possible. 

2. Unencrypted Backups

While the messages that are sent on the applications are end-to-end encrypted which suggests that only the receiver and the sender can decode the message. However, in order to back up your messages and media WhatsApp allows chat backup where the chats are stored in Google Drive or iCloud. 

To prevent any of your private data to fall into wrong hands while in the cloud, WhatsApp has now rolled out the feature where you can choose end-to-end encryption backup. This will keep your conversations private, especially transactional messages and others. 

3. Facebook Data Sharing

Since the agreement with the European Union in 2014 Meta has gone back on the data sharing guidelines between WhatsApp and Facebook. In 2019, Facebook started storing the data of WhatsApp users in hidden profiles and merged all its messaging platforms. 

In 2021, the platform even forced the users to opt-in for the data sharing or else they would be deprived of multiple features. This is where the rise of Telegram was experienced in the market. However, the platform eliminated the penalties but still urges the users to opt for it making the data sharing a vulnerable activity for the millions of users in India. 

4. Hoaxes and Fake News

Undoubtedly, WhatsApp is viewed as the biggest source of fake news and misinformation. The platform faced a lot of wrath in the year 2017 and 2018 especially in India and Brazil. Where fake cases of abduction were circulating in India and in Brazil the elections were being manipulated with misinformation. 

The pandemic era was not that good either. The frequency of fake news made the platform take action in ways where the platform put restrictions on forwards and now you get a tag on the message saying ‘Forwarded Many Times’ which has helped in identifying the messages. Due to the encryption policy it was difficult for the platform to identify who was the source of the message and hence the platform opted for these options instead . 

5. WhatsApp Status

WhatsApp status started off as a one line update and now has become an imitation of Instagram and Snapchat stories. With WhatsApp stories anyone who is in your contacts can see your status. However, you can change the settings for this where you follow the steps;

Settings > Account > Privacy > Status and in there you can choose from:

• My contacts
• My contacts except
• Only share with

However, the platform does not give any information when the status is being saved by anyone. A user can screenshot, screen record or use third party WhatsApp status save apps to use that information in their favour, breaching your privacy but these are people you have the contacts of. Blocked contacts cannot access your status on WhatsApp. 

So these were the top five safety concerns for WhatsApp, let us know what you think the platform can do better to make the privacy and security guidelines more effective. Let us know at [email protected]