#News

Date: April 05, 2024

Track everything WhatsApp knows about you

The Facebook-owned instant messaging app, WhatsApp, knows a lot about the users through the data they have either submitted or through the chats they have with other users. The chat-messaging app has a global popularity now and thus for every minute requirement, we reach to the app to talk to others. WhatsApp is so popular among masses that we don’t even care while sharing the most crucial information with others. Well, it is all right to share the data (most crucial excluded), you will be shocked to know that the messaging app stores even minute information of every user who is on the WhatsApp.

And, the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal tells a horrifying story that none of the users would like to hear again. The scandal revealed that the accounts data of at least 80 million users were compromised, which is not acceptable at all. The incident sparked a global debate among the users on the safety of their data.

The way parent company, Facebook has the data about the users, WhatsApp also stores crucial user information of billions of global users. And, the good news is, users can download the data by browsing through some of the settings. It’s because of European Union’s data privacy rule that users are able to download the data WhatsApp has through an account. The rule is known as European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which allows users to download their data and transfer the same. The rollout is set to come into the effect from 25 May and for getting the data, the users need to set the directions as detailed here.

Here are the steps that users can request to download the data:

• Open your WhatsApp accounts

• Reach to the WhatsApp setting section

• Click on the account

• Reach to the tab “Request account info”

• Click on the request report

The user's screen will update to the request sent and WhatsApp will notify the users to wait for 3 days but users may receive the data within a few hours. While a user’s request remains pending, certain action may cancel users’ request for the same. And, these actions include:

• Deleting the user account

• Changing user number or the device, or

• Re-registering the user account

In case, a request gets canceled accidentally, users can register another request.

Once, the request is available, WhatsApp notifies users on their phone with “Your account info report is ready to download.” WhatsApp will also notify the users on the time that the report will take for a complete download until the reports are deleted from their servers. Here are the settings to download the report:

• Open WhatsApp account

• Reach to the WhatsApp setting

• Click on the account

• Request account info

• Download report

This is all to get the reports that WhatsApp stores about a user. In case, you wish to know the same. Apply the settings to get your reports.

By Arpit Dubey

Arpit is a dreamer, wanderer, and a tech nerd who loves to jot down tech musings and updates. With a logician mind, he is always chasing sunrises and tech advancements while secretly preparing for the robot uprising.