Whatsapp took the privacy of its users into concern and hence introduced a new privacy feature to it. Users can now choose who can add them to groups. The users can now stop people from adding them in groups that are not on their contact list. You can now control who can add you and who cannot. You can also leave it to all if you want.
According to BBC, and other sources
Ahead of Brazil’s elections last year political campaigners were using software to automatically add swaths of people to politically motivated WhatsApp groups without their permission. Similar practices are also very common in India. This is a very important question on the privacy of users.
Some time ago, WhatsApp already limited the number of times a message can be forwarded. And also started mentioning forwarded message labels over them for attention.
How does it work?
If users will restrict the people from adding them into groups, they can still be added by private invitation. They’ll receive a link, which gives basic information about the group they’ve been invited to and can choose to join it if they want to. After 72 hours, the link will expire automatically.
For accessing these new settings go to Account options within the settings menu. Select Privacy, then Groups, and you’ll be able to select who exactly can add you to a group. This gives you three options, Nobody, My Contacts, or Everyone. These new group controls are launching today and will be rolling out to all users in the coming weeks.
In countries like India, where WhatsApp is very popular, it’s common for people to add you to groups without permission. This will help you to maintain your privacy.
This very nice feature assures you don’t have to be a member of unwanted and irrelevant groups.
