Mark Zuckerberg says he wants the app to be as 'secure as face-to-face conversations'. PA
Mark Zuckerberg says he wants the app to be as 'secure as face-to-face conversations'. PA
Mark Zuckerberg says he wants the app to be as 'secure as face-to-face conversations'. PA
Mark Zuckerberg says he wants the app to be as 'secure as face-to-face conversations'. PA

New WhatsApp privacy tools hide 'online' status and group exit notifications


Sophie Prideaux
  • English
  • Arabic

WhatsApp is adding more features to boost user privacy.

Later this month, users will be able to leave group chats without other members being notified. People can set controls to limit who can see their “online” status.

The updates will also prevent people from being able to screenshot any messages set to “view once”.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, which owns WhatsApp, announced the changes in a Facebook post. “New privacy features coming to WhatsApp: exit group chats without notifying everyone, control who can see when you're online, and prevent screenshots on view once messages,” he wrote.

“We'll keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations.”

Currently, users are unable to hide their online status. There are options to turn off "read" notifications and the “last seen” status, but the app always shows when a user is online.

Similarly, all members of a group can see when someone exits.

Both changes are among the most-requested updates from WhatsApp users.

Ami Vora, WhatsApp’s head of product, said the app’s ongoing aim is to “empower people to have more control and privacy".

"Over the years, we’ve added interlocking layers of protection to help keep conversations secure and the new features deliver on our commitment to keep messages private,” she said.

Vora said the company is also running a series of global campaigns to educate people about the app's privacy features — beginning in India and the UK.

WhatsApp's ever-growing changes

Concerns over WhatsApp’s security were raised at the beginning of this year, when it announced an update to its privacy policy. The new policy went into effect on February 8, after which those who did not accept the updated terms were no longer be able to use the app.

However, the app was quick to reassure its users the updated policy would not affect the privacy of conversations.

The company says the app still protects and secures users’ private messages. Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook will be able to see messages or listen in on phone calls or voice messages.

“WhatsApp does not share your contacts with Facebook. WhatsApp groups remain private,” the company wrote.

“Personal messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. We will never weaken this security and we clearly label each chat so you know our commitment.”

WhatsApp said it does not keep logs of who users are messaging or calling. While many mobile carriers and operators do store this information, WhatsApp said “keeping these records for two billion users would be both a privacy and security risk and we don’t do it".

The company also noted that it can’t see what location you share with someone through WhatsApp. Shared locations, like private messages, are protected by the app’s end-to-end encryption service.

As an added layer of privacy, WhatsApp said it allows users to set their messages to disappear from chats after they are sent. Users will also be able to download the data that WhatsApp saves.

Our legal consultants

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses

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Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal. 

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.” 

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series

All matches at the Harare Sports Club:

1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10

2nd ODI, Friday, April 12

3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14

4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16

UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed

List of alleged parties

 May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members

May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party

Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff

Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson

Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party

Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters

Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz

Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

Huddersfield Town permanent signings:

  • Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
  • Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
  • Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
  • Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
  • Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
  • Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
  • Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
  • Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
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Rating: 4/5

 

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

 

Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris

 
The specs
  • Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
  • Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
  • Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
  • Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
  • Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
  • 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
  • Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash

Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.

Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.

Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.

Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.

Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.

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RESULTS

Welterweight

Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) beat Mostafa Radi (PAL)

(Unanimous points decision)

Catchweight 75kg

Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR) beat Leandro Martins (BRA)

(Second round knockout)

Flyweight (female)

Manon Fiorot (FRA) beat Corinne Laframboise (CAN)

(RSC in third round)

Featherweight

Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB) beat Ahmed Al Darmaki

(Disqualification)

Lightweight

Izzedine Al Derabani (JOR) beat Rey Nacionales (PHI)

(Unanimous points)

Featherweight

Yousef Al Housani (UAE) beat Mohamed Fargan (IND)

(TKO first round)

Catchweight 69kg

Jung Han-gook (KOR) beat Max Lima (BRA)

(First round submission by foot-lock)

Catchweight 71kg

Usman Nurmogamedov (RUS) beat Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)

(TKO round 1).

Featherweight title (5 rounds)

Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)

(TKO round 1).

Lightweight title (5 rounds)

Bruno Machado (BRA) beat Mike Santiago (USA)

(RSC round 2).

Champions parade (UAE timings)

7pm Gates open

8pm Deansgate stage showing starts

9pm Parade starts at Manchester Cathedral

9.45pm Parade ends at Peter Street

10pm City players on stage

11pm event ends

SUZUME
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Updated: August 10, 2022, 2:42 PM`