WhatsApp’s privacy policy has triggered major concerns among users about how WhatsApp and its owner Facebook will be using user data for ads. This has made a lot of WhatsApp users switch to Signal messenger. Signal gained a lot of praise of late after it came to the forefront that it collects almost no personal details compared to Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Having said that there are few hidden settings in Signal which enables more privacy and makes it almost difficult for third parties to track messages at all. Here are 11 things you can do on Signal to make your chats secured entirely. While some of the features are there on WhatsApp as well it is not as effective.
Register on Signal using a virtual phone number :-
Signal doesn’t track your contact book or links your phone number to create your digital profile. Of course, it requires a phone number for initial registration, but the good news is that you can use a virtual phone number to verify the OTP. Use any virtual phone number app like TextNow to register on Signal and then enable a PIN to take control of your account.
Don’t use a display picture and don’t use your real name :-
While signing up on Signal, don’t put your own photo as a display picture and don’t use your real name to get the utmost privacy. You can do the same on WhatsApp too but the fact that you have been using WhatsApp for so long, the metadata is already stored and linked to your digital profile. So, even if you decide to suddenly change your name and photo it would be less effective.
Enable PIN and Registration lock under Privacy settings :-
Your Signal account is not linked to your phone number. The beauty of using Signal is that the account is linked to a PIN that only you are aware of. This makes tracking users difficult. For added security, go to Privacy settings and turn on ‘Registration lock’. This prevents unauthorised access to your Signal from a different device.
Disable ‘Use system contact photos’ option under Appearance :-
Go to ‘Use system contact photos’ option under Appearance Settings and disable it. This will prevent your default contact book pictures from showing on Signal.
Disable Read receipts and enable ‘Always Relay Calls’ :-
Under Privacy settings, disable Read receipts and turn on ‘Always Relay Calls’ option to prevent revealing your IP address to your contact. Turning off Read receipts simply eliminates unwanted metadata information…Read more>>
Source:-techiyogiz
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