The platform’s new way to enforce privacy and consent
Meta may be releasing yet another layer of privacy protection to WhatsApp that will prevent people from taking screenshots of your profile photo on the service.
This upcoming feature was discovered in the most recent WhatsApp beta on Android by WABetaInfo. It’ll be housed within the Privacy section of the Settings menu, according to tomsguide. Having access to the blocking tool, they attempted to take a screenshot of a profile picture however they were prevented from doing so. The publication was met with a notification at the bottom of the screen stating they couldn’t take a screenshot “due to app restrictions”.
As explained in the report, WhatApp introduced the option to stop users from saving “others’ profile photos” about five years ago. It was supposed to prevent bad actors from sharing images without the owner’s consent; however, screenshotting completely bypasses this. WABetaInfo argues that directly blocking the ability to screenshot allows WhatsApp to further reinforce “the concept of user privacy and consent” on its service.
