Facebook’s messaging service is teeming with rumors. Service soon to be paid for, private discussion groups which become public … Let’s disentangle the true from the false.
The years go by, but the fear of seeing private discussions suddenly fall into the public domain and become accessible to all remains more than ever present. Especially that smart kids take the opportunity to fuel this fear by disseminating misleading messages on social networks in order to create panic movements among ordinary users. This is the case recently for WhatsApp, which is the subject of several “bad buzz” currently.
Lately, you have seen messages signed by a certain Marco Sentein. He affirms that “WhatsApp changed privacy settings last night without warning. This means that all groups you are in are now open to everyone. So please change your settings.”. A statement that came out of nowhere and which is not based on anything tangible but which creates doubt. Just like this fantasy of a soon paying WhatsApp. Since 2012, nearly ten years therefore, the courier has repeatedly said that this is not at all on the agenda.
WhatsApp denies any privacy or settings changes
Asked by The Parisian, a spokesperson for the Facebook group, which owns the instant messaging service WhatsApp, denies outright the false announcement of changes to privacy settings, relayed numerous times by users through the message transfer system. “The your privacy settings have not changedtarget = “_ blank”>. You and only you can modify them“, explains one at Facebook.
However, some messages clearly play on the fear of seeing private exchanges between two or more people made public. Or that you are added, without your consent, to newsgroups for the purpose of scamming you. We can read in some messages circulating on WhatsApp: “These group settings include Everyone by default so that people you don’t know can add you to a group without you ever knowing. These can include crooks, loan sharks, etc.“
Check your privacy settings for reassurance
WhatsApp is very clear: it is technically impossible to join a group without being invited and detected by the people already present. It is also impossible to be integrated into a group without its consent. If in any doubt, you can always go to Settings (bottom right of the app) then click on Account and Privacy. In the Groups option, you have the option of restricting invitations to your contacts only (you will always have the option of accepting or not joining a group, regardless of the option chosen).