Only 3 Out Of 10 Malaysians Make Use Of Privacy Features In Messaging Apps, Says WhatsApp

Only 3 Out Of 10 Malaysians Make Use Of Privacy Features In Messaging Apps, Says WhatsApp

How good is Malaysians when it comes to ensuring their data privacy? WhatsApp has recently conducted an online quiz to find out. The result: 7 out of 10 Malaysians are aware of privacy’s importance, and would ensure their chat is end-to-end encrypted. However, only 3 out of 10 actively enable privacy features on messaging platforms.

In the survey, WhatsApp has also revealed the behavior of Malaysian users when they gets engaged into unknown conversations. If the conversation comes from an unknown number offering freebies, 8 out of 10 will block and report messages; however, when invited into unknown group chats, only 3 out of 10 would leave the chat immediately. Worse yet, only 2 out of 10 understands how to prevent strangers from adding themselves into unknown groups (by changing the ‘Who can add me to groups’ setting from ‘Everyone’ to ‘My contacts’).

Additionally, the survey reveals that 5 out of 10 Malaysians use Disappearing Messages feature, which allows the message to self-destruct after a set period (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days). Similarly, 6 out of 10 actively uses the View Once feature when sharing sensitive information, i.e. photos containing financial information.

So, what can you do to improve your privacy practices? WhatsApp has a few suggestions (and features) for that: Chat Lock (locks chat behind password protection), Silence Unknown Callers, Disappearing Messages and Encrypted Backups, to name a few. Users can do their privacy check-up through the app, by going to Settings > Privacy > Privacy Checkup and start from there.

Pokdepinion: There’s definitely some ways to go to increase privacy awareness – especially when scams are all over the place these days.