Anyone in the world can see your whatsapp status and photo

I have recently read a technical article about Whatsapp Web allowing you to check anyone's online status and profile photo, even if you are not friends or a known contact on Whatsapp. To do that, you will only need to open WhatsApp Web in your browser and run a script.

Status of WhatsApp numbers

After entering a range of phone numbers, the script will scan each number and extract the Whatsapp status and profile photo. Clicking on the profile photo will launch the full image. That lovely photo with your beloved, or your children or grandchildren - anyone in the world can see them.

High quality version of your private WhatsAppp photo can be seen by any strangers

How To Secure Your WhatsApp Information

The best way to prevent leakage of any private information is to simply not share anything. Since most of us cannot do that, the next best step is to share your private information to only known contacts in WhatsApp. 

1. Open up the WhatsApp app in your smartphone
2. Go to Settings ➤Account ➤Privacy and change the following:
1. Last seen
2. Profile photo
3. About
3. Change from the default option of "Everyone" to "Nobody"

Further Securing WhatsApp

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a guide on using and securing WhatsApp here. The gist of the article is:

• Avoid using WhatsApp Web
• Do not use Google Drive to backup your messages, some of them could be unsecured
• How to check to ensure your contacts are who they say they are
• All communication should be fully encrypted (no one else can see your messages, except on yours and your recipient's phone)

Signal Private Messenger

As an alternative that provides a higher level of security and privacy, use the Signal messenger.  Unlike WhatsApp which is owned by Facebook and is more concerned with knowing about you as much as possible, Signal is built from the ground up to ensure full privacy. For example, you can make sensitive messages disappear permanently.