Whatsapp

The news: Facebook-owned WhatsApp was fined $270 million for breaking the European Union’s data privacy rules, per The Verge. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) found that WhatsApp failed to properly inform EU citizens how it handles their personal data, particularly how it shares that data with parent company Facebook. The DPC ordered WhatsApp to update its privacy policy informing users about personal data sharing. This will bring it into compliance with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which governs how tech companies gather and use data in the EU. The GDPR came into effect in May 2018, and WhatsApp was one of the first companies hit with a privacy lawsuit under the regulatory regime. WhatsApp will appeal the decision. “We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told The Verge.  How we got here: WhatsApp’s porous privacy policy and how it shares user data with Facebook have raised the ire of regulators in various countries—and its run-ins with the EU on GDPR privacy breaches expose a consistent trend of flouting privacy regulations to sustain Facebook’s wider monetization objectives. WhatsApp sued the Indian government in…

WhatsApp allows you to easily back up all your chats to Google Drive. In order to use Google Drive backup, you will need a Google account activated on your phone as well as Google Play services installed on your phone. You also get the option to change your Google account, but if you do that you will lose access to any backups that you saved in the previous account. Here’s a quick guide on how you can back up your WhatsApp chats to Google Drive and restore them. WhatsApp: How to back up chats to Google Drive Step 1: Open WhatsApp on your Android smartphone and head to the settings section. Step 2: Now tap on Chats > Chat backup > Back up to Google Drive. Step 3: Select a backup frequency other than Never. Alternatively, you can also choose to manually back up your chats to Google Drive at any time. Step 4: Once you choose a backup frequency, select the Google account you would want to back up your chat history to. If you don’t have a Google account connected, you can tap on Add account when prompted and enter your login credentials. Step 5: You now need…

WhatsApp iOS would soon redesign its chat bubbles into a more "rounded" look, something which the company has avoided for the past years since it acquired Facebook. Now, WABetaInfo has revealed that it would soon come for the instant messaging application, bringing a fresh look for the application.  The instant messaging application has been setting up its service to bring several features for its applications, even on iPads and Androids. These are several of the actions being made by the company to regain the public's trust, particularly because it has certain anomalies with regard to privacy and data.  WhatsApp iOS Chat Bubble Redesign (Photo : Alexander Shatov from Unsplash)There is a new mod malware circulating in WhatsApp which could deliver ads and sign up the victims for premium subscriptions. Here's how you can avoid this Trojan in your Android device. It was unprecedented that WhatsApp would be active in bringing new features for the application, particularly because its main problem consists of losing the trust of the public concerning data. However, it has been making moves on bringing several services, which are also seen among other messaging apps.  According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp iOS would bring new changes that can be seen with the…

A security vulnerability in popular messaging app WhatsApp’s image filter function discovered by Check Point Research could have exploited more than two billion users worldwide if left unpatched. It is estimated more than 55 billion messages are being sent daily over WhatsApp, with 4.5 billion photos and one billion videos shared per day.  Check Point Research recommends for WhatsApp users to always keep their apps and operating systems updated. Image Filter Function According toe CPR, the vulnerability was rooted in WhatsApp’s image filter function. Image filtering is a process through which pixels of the original image are modified to achieve some visual effects, such as blur or sharpen.  During their research study, CPR learned that switching between various filters on crafted GIF files indeed caused WhatsApp to crash. CPR identified one of the crashes as a memory corruption.  CPR promptly reported the problem to WhatsApp, who named for the vulnerability CVE-2020-1910, detailing it as an out-of-bounds read and write issue. Successful exploitation of the vulnerability would have required an attacker to apply specific image filters to a specially crafted image and send the resulting image. Coordinated Disclosure CPR disclosed its findings to WhatsApp on November 10, 2020. WhatsApp verified and acknowledged the…

Another function, Report and Block is useful for annoying spam messages you might receive on WhatsApp. Using this feature notifies WhatsApp’s database of suspicious numbers to stop others receiving similar messages. Go to Contact Info, Report Contact, Report and Block.Transfer from Android to iPhoneIn the past, it wasn’t possible to easily transfer WhatsApp messages between Android and iPhone, because the end-to-end encrypted chats are stored on the device itself rather than in the cloud.But in August this year, WhatsApp announced message history and content can now be transferred between Android and iOS, starting with the new Samsung Galaxy foldables. It works via a QR code when the Android and iOS devices are physically connected via a USB-C to Lightning Cable – the phone number just needs to be the same on both devices.Unlinking devicesIf you are changing your phone, you’ll want to unlink your WhatsApp account and delete the data. If you have a new number, simply delete the old WhatsApp account and re-register. Before you return your old phone or sell it, wipe all the data including the SD card to avoid your information ending up in the wrong hands.WhatsApp has also launched a multi-device beta which allows you…

Afghans trying desperately to escape the new Taliban regime are relying on a network of contacts across the world to find alternative ways out of the country after the airport closed. Composed of former soldiers, ex-diplomats, businessmen and friends of Afghanistan, those in the networks worked tirelessly to coordinate between local Afghans, the militaries overseeing the Kabul airlift, the US State Department, the Foreign Office and other governments willing to host Afghan refugees. Labelled a “WhatsApp Dunkirk” the groups were able to help specific Afghans bypass the enormous crowds at the airport gates to be helped over the walls by serving British and American soldiers inside Kabul airport. But once the last flights departed Kabul airport – which was left without air traffic control and remains closed to civilian aircraft – these networks shifted to finding new routes out of the country. With rumoured flights out of a dirt airstrip south of Kabul purported to cost upwards of $30,000 per seat – far beyond the means of most Afghans – those desperate to get out began looking to Afghanistan’s land borders. Afghanistan refugees arrive on an evacuation flight at Heathrow before Kabul airport closed Credit: PA Some Afghans then turned to…

WhatsApp stickers: Netflix’s thriller series, Money Heist, has created quite a buzz around the world. The show will return for its fifth and final season on September 3. While the first part of Season five will arrive in September, the second part of Money Heist season five will arrive in December this year. Now, just as Money Heist season five begins, WhatsApp stickers, dedicated to this show, have been released.WhatsApp today rolled out an animated sticker pack called Sticker Heist to its users across the globe that shows various characters from Netflix’s second most popular non-English series Money Heist. The animated sticker pack contains a total of 17 stickers and it includes various characters from the very famous Dali face mask to Professor, to Professor and Lisbon meeting, to Tokyo, Bogota, Rio, Stockholm, Arturo, Alicia Sierra and even Nairobi.The newly introduced WhatsApp sticker pack weighs in at just 658KB and it has been designed by Mucho Pixels. The best part about this sticker pack is that it is available for download on both WhatsApp’s Android and iOS-based apps across the globe. Also read: Looking for a smartphone? Check Mobile Finder here.If you are a Money Heist fan, here is a…

A screengrab of the OA Lindungi Komuniti Facebook page. KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 ― The Orang Asli community in Malaysia have taken to creating TikTok videos to spread awareness of Covid-19 precautionary measures and vaccination among the country’s indigenous community. This is their latest effort since March 2020 to help protect the community, by creating educational materials on the Covid-19 pandemic in their own languages. One-minute impact multiplied to 26.7k Under the #OALAWANCovid campaign hosted on the Facebook page named OA Lindungi Komuniti, a contest to produce one-minute TikTok video clips on Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP) and the importance of vaccination was launched. These short video clips ― which had to be original video produced by the Orang Asli just for the contest ― were posted on the Facebook page, with the content to be judged on various criteria such as their originality, creativity and popularity. In just 17 days during the contest period from August 15 to August 31, a total of 30 participants from the Orang Asli community submitted their video clips, which were collectively viewed an impressive 26,700 thousand times, the contest organisers told Malay Mail. In fact, the video clip with the most views had…

InternetDesk: Late last year, WhatsApp introduced a new feature called Disappeared Messages. After enabling this feature, messages sent by the user and messages the user receives from others will be deleted automatically after a week. Information that this feature will soon be part of WhatsApp privacy settings. This means that every message sent by the user will be automatically deleted after a week or so. Tech sources said the same was revealed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp President Will Cathcart at a meeting. Invisibility is currently only available to users as a feature. That is, if the user clicks on the profile or group description and scrolls down, a feature called invisibility will appear. As per the latest information, the feature will be made available in the middle of the Read Receipts and Groups option in the Privacy section of the feature’s settings, according to WhatsApp beta information. This feature will soon be introduced to Android beta users for testing. It seems that users will be notified by notification as soon as it is fully available. A few days ago, he said that two new options will be added to the WhatsApp Disappearing feature. One is the option…

Ireland’s data protection authority, considered by some to be one of the laxer offices in Europe, has now scaled up its data protection with a €225 million fine against the WhatsApp messaging app owned by Facebook, Inc. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced the decision on Thursday, the result of a four-year-long investigation, and reflects a shift toward increasing data regulator activity a month after Luxembourg slapped a record-breaking €746 million fine on Amazon. Want to continue reading?Become an ALM Digital Reader for Free! Benefits of a Digital Membership Free access to 1 article* every 30 days Access to the entire ALM network of websites Unlimited access to the ALM suite of newsletters Build custom alerts on any search topic of your choosing Search by a wide range of topics Already have an account? Sign In Now *May exclude premium content You Might Like 1 minute read 1 minute read 1 minute read 1 minute read Trending Stories Mentioned in a Law.com story? License our industry-leading legal content to extend your thought leadership and build your brand. Featured Firms Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates P.C.75 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Ste 101Atlanta, GA 30308(470) 294-1674www.garymartinhays.com Law…