New Delhi: WhatsApp on Wednesday announced that it will be introducing a new privacy setting to help their users in deciding as to who will be adding them to the groups. In the current version of WhatsApp, users could be added into the groups without their consent, it was reported.
Indian Government has been consistently asking WhatsApp to ask for user consent before being added to any group formed on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp in a statement had said, “WhatsApp groups continue to connect family, friends, co-workers, classmates and more. As people turn to groups for important conversations, users have asked for more control over their experience.”
It is said that to enable update, users will have to follow the given steps:
‘Settings’ on WhatsApp > Account > Privacy > Groups
Then select anyone of the given options of: ‘Nobody’, ‘My Contacts’, ‘Everyone’
If you select ‘Nobody’, the user will have to approve the invites to any of the group he is being added to. If you select ‘My Contacts’, only those WhatsApp users who are in your address book can directly add you into the groups. In these cases, the person who is inviting them to the group will have to send a private invite through an individual chat, hence asking the user for their consent. Users will have three days with them to accept the invite before it expires.
Also Read: Election Commission gives clean chit to Modi
This move by WhatsApp is of utmost significance as the Lok Sabha Elections are nearing; such a step will play a major role as check on political campaigns as they try to reach out to citizens in large numbers. Last year also, WhatsApp had restricted forwarding of messages to five chats at once.