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Safety in WhatsApp- *Be safe* My phone has a password, does my personal life information has ?

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Our Blog had last year published an article regarding safety of your personal information on whatsapp.
This week, many Indian news publishers have been discussing this after the WhatsApp chats of bollywood members were digged out from their personal chats, during NCB verification.
Click to read one sample news:

Below you can read our original article:
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We are proud to say that we cautioned our readers with below article an year ago.
Image Source: http://www.selfprotectionltd.com/


“All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.” 
― Gabriel García Márquez

How well are we equipped to categorize these three aspects of life?

86% of people who actively use the internet are taking active steps to improve their internet privacy. Source.

Are you?

 Most people still want to remain anonymous while online, but it just isn’t a possibility today.
More than half of all internet users say that it is impossible to be 100% anonymous online and they’re probably correct. Source.
Image source: http://unisoultheory.com/index.php/2016/12/06/low-self-respect/



There is a saying which says, ‘When happy, do not become over excited; when sad, do not become over wretched (unpleasant)’. We as human beings often go to these two extremes. These two extremes have the potential to worsen our decision making. So it is very important to be cautious about our decisions and actions. We take the route of Whatsaap and other tools to express ourselves.

Even before a decade or so, personal touch, sharing and caring was very much a way of expressing our happiness and wretchedness with our near and dear ones. Now the ways of expression have changed. Today many of them take the route of social media to express oneself. This is not something bad, the tricky situation arises when we go about sharing our personal events and information to everybody on our contact list and also to people who are not even our contact. And in the worst case, we go on sharing the detail with people whom we do not know at all.

12% of internet users say that they have had people harass them while online or have had people stalking them. Source.

Stalking means unwanted or repeated surveillance by an individual or group towards another person.

Below are four different situations when our personal information gets shared:

Situation 1:

“Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.” 
― Stephen King

I work for a company ABCD.

My friend in one of his gathering meets an unknown person, and they have a friendly chat.

During the talk, the unknown person says that his neighbor has completed an engineering degree and he is in need of a job.
Out of compassion and concern without my permission, my friend shares my number to the unknown person.
The unknown person saves my number into his phone and passes on the number to that engineer neighbor.

Now understand this situation what happens at Whatsapp.

In Whatsapp, if a person has to share something, it will show ‘save contact’ option. What if unknown person saves the number into the phone, and now he can see all your WhatsApp  status. (Now there is also an option, you can control ‘who can see your status’).

And come to my personal life.

As my number is been saved by these two unknown people. Both of them have access to my Whatsapp status and profile picture (DP).

It is very strange that we share our happy, sad and very personal events on Whatsaap, without knowing that dozens of unknown and unintended people are getting my info on Whatsapp status and DP.

Situation 2:

When the Whatsapp status and DP showcased with people to whom I have shared the number but I don’t want them to look at my personal information.

When I share personal info on Whatsapp status and DP, I intend that it should reach all my well-wishers who are close to me say 100 to 200 friends and acquaintances. But the fact is, I myself have shared number with 1001 people who are just my business and facility people. And here without my control, these people have access to my personal information.

Situation 3:

In the worst scenario, my number might have been taken by someone without me knowing. So again these group of people is out of my control.

Situation 4:

In a business scenario, I might be a marketing executive or HR. This is an obvious situation where my number is been shared by 1002 people.

“Privacy is not something that I'm merely entitled to, it's an absolute prerequisite.” 
― Marlon Brando

As we don’t want a stranger to even have an eye inside my home, how can I let others peek into my personal life?

Thus it is very important for us to have control over what is being shared in our Whatsapp status and DP.

More than half of internet users [55%] are taking steps right now to avoid observation by someone or something specific. Source.

Are you taking steps?


How you can be protected by this?

1. Do not share your photos on DP. It does not matter if your DP is empty.

 2. You might capture a photo in an exclusive style which should be seen only by your near and dear ones. These kinds of photos should not be put on Whatsaap DP or other social media profiles.

 3. Do not discuss your moods on Whatsaap status.

 4. Do not discuss your plans on Whatsaap status.

 5. The world does not want to know what you ate and where you ate.

 6. Do not write your locations on DP.

 7. Be careful while sharing in Whatsaap groups. Most of the times we don’t know many of the group members.

If this helps you and your treasured ones, please share.

Further reading:
Click below-

How Government Agencies Recover Deleted Data And Private WhatsApp Chats Despite 'End-To-End Encryption'?

Author:
Maaz Mohammed A.Q
Learning strategist I Trainer I people change management I Early Childhood Education I Life skills.

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