WhatsApp can now hide your IP address during calls

MazonnaCara89@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.world – 57 points –
WhatsApp can now hide your IP address during calls for added security
theverge.com
14

If you care about privacy, you shouldn't be using WhatsApp anyway. Not when matrix/signal exist.

The problem is when you're the only one in your social group that does. No one I know wants to move somewhere else.

The more of us that take the hit the fewer people just going along.

How are you convincing your contacts to move from WhatsApp?

Switched cold on them. Basically I told people okay am shutting down WhatsApp, after that hack that allowed third parties install application on your device through bug in calling protocol, and told them am switching to Signal. If you want to reach me, either SMS or Signal. And that's it. Most people I talk to added Signal to their ever-growing list of chat applications.

But if you use anything they already have, they won't change the way they talk to you. There has to be inconvenience involved.

I don't have WhatsApp on my phone. If they want to talk to me they have to use something else. Most use Telegram.

Or the option that happens in practice: You are just forgotten and people stop contacting you.

People don't like change, and will resist it. How much depends on the person.

In many cases you just wouldn't be contacted lol

A few people I know won't switch, but most actually do use something else. And I can contact anyone via SMS anyway

From the partner conversant. Not "your other partner", Facebook/Meta

Edit: "trusted partner"

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Calls on WhatsApp are (optionally) getting even more secure for the app’s most privacy-minded users.

When activated, calls will be relayed through Meta / WhatsApp servers, thus concealing your true IP address.

This direct connection allows for faster data transfers and better call quality, but it also means that participants need to know each other’s IP addresses,” WhatsApp’s Daniel Sommermann, Sebastian Messmer, and Attaullah Baig wrote in the post.

“IP addresses may contain information that some of our most privacy-conscious users are mindful of, such as broad geographical location or internet provider.”

The other measure mentioned in the blog post is an option to silence unknown callers (first announced in June), which WhatsApp says prevents spam disturbances and also shuts down a vector for complex cybersecurity attacks.

“Protecting user privacy and security is absolutely necessary for WhatsApp to accomplish its mission to enable private communication for the world,” the blog post reads.


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