WhatsApp announces an important change in the connection between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Web, the desktop version of the platform that can be used by computers with a mouse and keyboard. In these hours, an update of the WhatsApp app is being released which will prevent you from connecting your profile to WhatsApp Web without biometric authentication.
The news was in the air for some time, but up to now WhatsApp had not yet implemented it. This is an important change that greatly increases privacy, especially if you use WhatsApp Web in the office or in public. The Web version of the platform, in fact, can be used to secretly spy on a profile so that, on Twitter, WhatsApp itself points out that now no one will be able to do it anymore: ” The chats will only be for your eyes “. The downside, however, is that those who have an old cell phone that do not have biometric authentication will not be able to enjoy this novelty.
WhatsApp Web: what has changed
Until now, to use WhatsApp Web it was sufficient to open the main menu of the WhatsApp app on the smartphone, both Android and iOS and tap on “ WhatsApp Web “. This was enough to open the camera interface and frame the QR Code that is shown when opening the web address https://web.whatsapp.com/.
Now, however, immediately before framing the QR Code WhatsApp asks the user to unlock the smartphone with the biometric authentication method set on the device. That is, face unlock or fingerprint. WhatsApp specifies that this specific phrase is completely managed by the smartphone and that biometric data is not sent to its servers.
The importance for privacy
Before this news, an office colleague could easily connect his computer to our WhatsApp profile. If we went away leaving the phone unattended, in fact, the colleague could pick it up and carry out the procedure to connect our smartphone with his computer, ending up seeing our chats from his PC.
Now, this is no longer the case because biometric authentication prevents the colleague from completing the procedure, even if we have not set the biometric unlocking of WhatsApp, a function already available for some time.