WhatsApp is working on a new security feature that will make it harder for people to determine your location from calls. The new privacy feature which will protect your IP address in calls, is currently under development and will be available in the near future according to WABetaInfo.
With the ever evolving-threat of bad actors who may want to exploit systems to gain user data and information, social media platforms and other systems are building safety measures to ensure the privacy and security of users are protected.
WhatsApp already has security measures in place to protect its users from bad actors and other third parties from accessing their information and data shared. Such safeguards include the end-to-end encryption used in most of its features as well as additional layers of security and enhanced privacy controls. The messaging platform recently introduced a call-related privacy feature that lets users silence calls from unknown numbers.
The new call privacy feature seeks to further enhance this security and privacy by relaying your IP address through WhatsApp servers when you use WhatsApp Calls. This will make it harder for anyone to determine your location based on your IP address. According to WABetaInfo, the new privacy feature will be right within the Calls privacy settings tab.
It is important to note that this feature will potentially downgrade the call quality when in use as WhatsApp will be securely relaying your connection through its servers when you are on a call.
As pointed out in the screenshot above, the feature will be optional when it rolls out. This is probably because users will have to weigh the trade-off between enhanced security and a potential minor downgrade in call quality when they select this feature.
