The puzzle of maintaining privacy in they cyberworld remains exceedingly hard to crack.
Just a few days ago, European authorities discovered that the social networking site LinkedIn had used email addresses of millions of people for targeted advertising on Facebook.
Investigators also combed through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Yahoo databases to check data protection rules violated by the media companies.
WhatsApp, with more than a billion users, is one of the platforms that are easy to hack. And it being one of the most used messaging platforms, carrying lots of private conversations, when using it, you need to be extra careful.
We’ve already written about how people can easily access your WhatsApp account and how you can protect it from hackers.
But we also know that it’s hard to protect yourself from something you don’t know.
This article is about helping you detect when your WhatsApp is being accessed from another device.
1. Checking your WhatsApp Web sessions
WhatsApp Web has become a popular tool of communication among people who use PCs a lot since it allows continuous flow of conversation without having to access your phone.
The downside of this, however, is that someone can easily use it to access your WhatsApp chats from another device.
It takes less than a minute for someone to do this.
Read about how to use WhatsApp Web here
But you can also easily find out when someone is reading your chats from another computer.
To find out if your WhatsApp is being accessed from another device using WhatsApp Web, follow the steps below:
– Open WhatsApp on your phone
– Click on the Menu option indicated with 3 vertical dots at the top right corner.
– Then, click on the WhatsApp Web option. If you find more than one device accessing your WhatsApp, know there’s something fundamentally wrong.
From the above pictures, you can tell whether WhatsApp is active on more than one device.
Alternatively, when you are your WhatsApp Web is not active and you pull down the Notification Drawer and it indicates that WhatsApp Web is active, it is an indicator that your WhatsApp is being accessed from another device.
(See picture below)
The immediate step to take after finding out is logging your WhatsApp out of all devices it’s connected to.
See: How to run two WhatsApp accounts on one phone
The next wise thing to do is to lock your application to prevent people from accessing it without your permission.
The other thing is to check whom among your immediate neighbors accessing your account and confront them. WhatsApp Web cant be accessed by someone far from your phone.
Read also: 4 ways to restore deleted WhatsApp chats or files on Android
When account is activated in another phone
The second way you can know your account is being accessed from another device is when you’re locked out of it.
One of the ways through which someone can access your WhatsApp account is by registering your WhatsApp number on another mobile phone.
They’ll also need your phone to receive the verification code that WhatsApp sends.
When someone does this, the account on your phone is rendered invalid or inactive.
When you try to access, you’ll receive this notification: “This phone could not be verified”.
Unlike WhatsApp Web which allows activity on multiple devices, with this, you can easily know that someone is using your account on another phone.
Therefore, to manage or stop anybody from ever activating your WhatsApp number in another phone, you can re-verify your number to regain the account access and protect your WhatsApp account from getting activated on other devices through a more sophisticated method.
All you need to do is enable two-step verification. Follow the steps below to achieve this.
Go to – WhatsApp → Menu options at Top Right → Settings → Account → Enable 2 Step-verification.
When you have activated the procedure above and someone tries to activate your WhatsApp on another device, they will be asked for a security code that only you know.
Without that code, it will be impossible for another person to register your WhatsApp on another device.
This will protect your account from ever being used on another device unless it is done by you.
I hope the post was helpful. We have more in stock for you about WhatsApp. Watch this space.
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