Keeping WhatsApp Users Safe in Indonesia
WhatsApp is an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services in preventing abuse and promoting online security. At WhatsApp, the safety of our users is at the core of everything we do.
WhatsApp has made significant product changes to help enhance security and privacy. Besides continuous product innovations, over the years we have also consistently invested in state-of-the-art technology, artificial intelligence, data scientists, experts, and in processes, to support user safety.
The private nature of WhatsApp
Privacy and security is in our DNA, which is why we built end-to-end encryption into our app in 2016. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, status updates and calls are secured to help protect them from falling into the wrong hands.
End-to-end encryption helps ensure only you and the person you're communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, with nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. This is because with end-to-end encryption, your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. All of this happens automatically with no need to turn on any special settings to secure your messages.
Preventing abuse in Indonesia
WhatsApp has no direct visibility into the content of personal messages sent on our service. Hence, we rely on behavioral signals from accounts and available unencrypted information including user reports, profile photos, group photos and descriptions. We deploy a combination of security measures and processes to help keep our users safe. We apply spam detection technology to spot and take action on accounts engaging in abnormal behavior to stop spam.
Resources for WhatsApp users in Indonesia, including how to submit complaints or reports of abuse, can be found here (contact_id@meta.com). Users in Indonesia can also submit reports via the Ministry of Trade’s WhatsApp chat (+62 853 1111 1010) or the Ministry of Communications & Informatics (Kominfo) reporting line (aduankonten.id).
Working with law enforcement
WhatsApp continues to work closely with law enforcement agencies and carefully reviews law enforcement requests based on applicable laws and our policies. In coordination with the Government of Indonesia we have provided law enforcement training on how to use WhatsApp to respond to citizens and to make legal requests in the process of investigating a crime. More information on the process can be found here.
Product features to keep you safe
- Two-step verification: We recommend users add an extra layer of security to their WhatsApp account by enabling two-step verification, which requires a six-digit PIN for resetting and verifying your WhatsApp account, in the event of your SIM card being stolen or your phone being compromised.
- Block and report: Unlike traditional SMS, WhatsApp provides a simple way for users to block accounts and make reports to WhatsApp if they encounter problematic messages. We encourage users to report problematic contacts to us. In addition, we now provide the option for users to keep reported messages on their phone if they want to share them with fact checkers or law enforcement officials. Users can also now report accounts to WhatsApp by flagging a specific message. Users simply need to long press a message to either report or block a user.
- Lock your WhatsApp with Touch ID or Face ID: WhatsApp offers its users the ability to add another layer of security to their accounts with Touch ID and Face ID for iPhone, and fingerprint lock for Android.
- Group privacy settings: WhatsApp’s privacy settings and group invite system allow users to decide who can add them to groups. This significant change increases user privacy and helps prevent users from being added to unwanted groups. Users can also exit a group privately without notifying the entire group. Only the admins will be notified.
- Guidelines for users to protect themselves from scams by taking simple steps like turning on two-step verification, not sharing their PIN, never clicking on suspicious links, and never sharing personal details with someone they do not know or sending money to anyone without verifying that it is genuinely that person, even if the phone number is in their contacts.
- Forward limits: We have set limits on forwarding messages, making us one of the few messaging services to intentionally constrain sharing. These labels help users identify forwarded messages and the number of times you can forward them. If a message has already been forwarded, you can forward it to up to five chats and if a message has a “forwarded many times” label, it can only be forwarded to one chat at a time. We have also introduced new group forwarding limits where messages that have the “forwarded label” can only be forwarded to one group at a time, rather than five.
- Control your online presence: For the moments you want to keep your online presence private, users can select who can and can’t see when you’re online.
- Disappearing messages: We have launched ‘Disappearing Messages’ to let users send messages that disappear from WhatsApp. Once enabled, new messages sent in the individual or group chat will disappear twenty-four hours, seven days or ninety days after the time they are sent, depending on the duration users select. We launched the feature ‘View Once’ - photos and videos that disappear from the chat after they’ve been opened, giving users even more control over their privacy. We have also enabled screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection.
- Admin controls: We have made a number of changes to WhatsApp groups that empower users with additional controls. For example, we launched a setting that enables administrators to decide who can send messages within groups.
- End-to-end encrypted backup: Users can now add the same layer of end-to-end encryption to protect their chat backups on iCloud or Google Drive. With end-to-end encrypted backup, messages and media are stored in the cloud and secured by a password or a 64-digit encryption key.
