Misinformation is a problem these days, one everyone should be aware of and do their best to not make worse. WhatsApp did take steps to try and stop the flood of misinformation when it began limiting the number of times people could pass on frequently forwarded content to five chats at once. But to hide your whatsapp number is not available because whatsapp will always show your phone. You can only hide your whatsapp status, last seen, profile picture, location, etc. In 2020, WhatsApp became such a major source of misinformation about the coronavirus that world leaders called out the app by name. No, you can never be private on WhatsApp when it comes to making a call or having a chat, your number will be shown to the person you are having a chat with or calling. To maintain security, limit data retention, and protect the privacy of. Messaging aside, it's worth considering WhatsApp's role in spreading misinformation. In WhatsApp’s terminology, your account will seemingly become inactive.
People looking for a true privacy-centered messaging app can find better options, like Signal and Threema. This means that lots of metadata, things like purchase history, location, device ID, and more-can be captured and shared with businesses advertising on WhatsApp. The flip side of this is Facebook-a company infamous for its vast and questionably ethical collection of so much data-owns WhatsApp. WhatsApp uses super strong end-to-end encryption for all texts, chats, and video calls, This is great! WhatsApp can’t read your messages or see your calls. So, what’s the deal? Is WhatsApp bad for privacy? From a technical perspective, no, not really. And then Ireland hit WhatsApp with a record $266 million fine for an alleged lack of transparency over how it shares data with Facebook. Then WhatsApp updated their privacy policy in a way that scared the pants off people, justified or not, which caused a huge jumping ship of WhatsApp users to apps like Telegram and Signal. It didn’t look good for WhatsApp, especially when Apple published the same info for their iMessage app. Facebook-owned WhatsApp caused quite the kerfuffle early in 2021 when it complained about Apple’s app store privacy labels that show all the data an app links to you.