WhatsApp’s new privacy measures to protect users from unauthorized third-party apps

WhatsApp currently seems to be working on making it more challenging for strangers to spy on your online status. The messaging service started this process a few weeks ago when beta users were allowed to hide their “Last seen” status from specific contacts, but it seems that the developers want to make it harder for strangers that you are the default. When was the last time you were online?

According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is changing the default “last seen” visibility on Android and iOS from “Everyone” to “My Contacts”. The new default behavior has also been confirmed to the Twitter user via WhatsApp support and it looks like the service is being offered to everyone automatically.

The change means people and businesses you have never chatted with will not see your status and vice versa. While it is possible to set your personal online logs to be visible only to contacts or to anyone, WhatsApp by default allows anyone to see everyone’s “last seen” status in the past.

It can be deadly for third-party apps that allow strangers to monitor someone else’s online status, providing them with detailed information about their chatting habits and sleep and work rhythms as well. Because these services rely on publicly available online status data, they quickly become useless.

At the moment, it seems possible to revert your “Last seen” status to be visible to everyone in the settings, but with WhatsApp changing the default behavior in this way, we should not be surprised if at some point that option is removed. However, we recommend not sharing your online status with anyone for privacy reasons, so this is definitely a good chance.

WhatsApp is currently working to make its service more private, at least for other people. In addition to the option to hide your online status from specific contacts in beta, the company also recently introduced the option to make your messages disappear after a certain time limit for all chats.