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How to Hide From Advertisers With iOS 14.5's New 'App Tracking Transparency' Settings

4/28/2021

iOS 14’s headline features in that it is making headlines by pissing off advertisers--is “App Tracking Transparency,” a setting that lets users opt out of all tracking, including the data an app collects when you’re not using it (much to the chagrin of advertising platforms like Google and Facebook).
the recent iOS 14.5 update makes the feature even better, adding new settings that let you change tracking permissions for every app you’ve installed. How to use App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14.5You need to update to iOS 14.5 (or iPad OS 14.5) to use the new App Tracking Transparency settings, but once the update is installed, the feature is turned on by default. You’ll notice it take effect whenever you install a new app—a pop-up notification will now ask if you want to let the app track you. You can also review which apps are allowed to track you and change their permissions at any time in the iOS settings app:

Go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking.
Apps that request tracking permissions are listed under “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
Tap one of the apps from the list to allow or restrict tracking permissions.

If you’d rather turn off tracking for all iOS apps, you can disable “Allow Apps to Request to Track” under Settings > Privacy > Tracking. This setting will also automatically apply to any new apps you download in the future.
Note that disabling tracking will affect how an app works, and there’s a chance doing so could break features in some apps, while others may refuse to work at all. Generally, however, the most common effect is that you’ll see less relevant ads—something an app will warn you of if you disable its tracking permissions. You can always restore tracking permissions if that proves to be an issue for you (and you don’t mind being tracked). And if an app isn’t working with tracking disabled and you still don’t want to be tracked, you can always delete that app. iOS 14.5’s App Tracking Transparency isn’t the only privacy-focused feature Apple has recently rolled out to its users. The App Store now tells you what kinds of data iOS apps track before you download them, and the latest versions of Safari prioritize anonymity and make you difficult to track.

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How to hide your mobile number on WhatsApp Groups

4/14/2021

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The way we expose our personal cell phone number connected to our daily use accounts like Banks, Work and sometimes sensitive accounts which we do not want to share with any one and we accidentally share by accepting default settings in WhatsApp and further is by joining WhatsApp groups being administered by unknown people. By this I mean any group we join will consist of the population who is known and unknown to us. This results in exposing your personal cell phone number to users who joined the group for advertising or hacking purposes.

I will guide you through a simple process to hide your number in WhatsApp Groups.

1.Open Whatsapp application on your android or iPhone
2.Now click on the 3 vertical dots on the top right side of your screen

3. Now from these options, select settings

4. Now select Account option

5. And now you have to select Privacy option in WhatsApp

6. When you are on a Privacy page, you will see About option, click on it

7. In About Option you will get 3 options:

Everyone
My Contacts
Nobody

Everyone: if you select Everyone option, then everyone will able to see your WhatsApp number in WhatsApp groups.
My Contacts: if you select My Contacts, then every person which is added in your contact list will able to see your number in WhatsApp groups.
Nobody: and the last option is Nobody, if you select Nobody, then nobody will able to see your WhatsApp number, whether they are in your contacts or not.

I personally use My contacts option in the about section because everyone in my contacts is known to me and there will be no problem if the see my WhatsApp number.

Now if you join a WhatsApp group or your friend adds you in a WhatsApp group, your number will be hidden, according to which option you choose in about option.

Few important things to remember

If you don't share your last seen, you won't be able to see other users’ last seen.
If you turn off read receipts, you won't be able to see read receipts from other users. Read receipts are always sent for group chats.
If a contact has turned off read receipts, you won’t be able to see if they’ve viewed your status updates.
There’s no way to change you can see when you’re online or typing....

This complete process is also available on FAQs by WhatsApp

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April 14th, 2021

4/14/2021

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Your WhatsApp account can be suspended by anyone who has your phone number

If you're a frequent user of WhatsApp, you may want to keep an eye on a disturbing hole discovered in its security this weekend. It's possible for an attacker to completely suspend your WhatsApp account, without any recourse for the individual user, and all they need is your phone number. At the time of writing there's no solution for this issue.
This newly-discovered flaw uses two separate vectors. The attacker installs WhatsApp on a new device and enters your number to activate the chat service. They can't verify it, because of course, the two-factor authentication system is sending the login prompts to your phone instead. After multiple repeated and failed attempts, your login is locked for 12 hours.
Here's where the tricky part comes in: with your account locked, the attacker sends a support message to WhatsApp from their email address, claiming that their (your) phone has been lost or stolen, and that the account associated with your number needs to be deactivated. WhatsApp "verifies" this with a reply email, and suspends your account without any input on your end. The attacker can repeat the process several times in succession to create a semi-permanent lock on your account. The attack is a proof-of-concept from a pair of security researchers, Luis Márquez Carpintero and Ernesto Canales Pereña. The results are disturbing, but at the very least, this method can't be used to actually gain access to an account, merely to block access by its legitimate owner. Confidential text messages and contacts are not exposed.
There's no indication that this technique is being used in the wild. But when pressed for comment, WhatsApp was evasive, and did not indicate that it's working to resolve the hole in its security. A representative said that providing an email address with your two-factor authentication credentials can help avoid this hypothetical scenario, but that still puts the responsibility on WhatsApp for actually following its own best practices.
WhatsApp warns that using this vulnerability violates its terms of service. Which isn't much of a deterrent, since it can be performed anonymously with any mobile device and a throwaway email. As a cyber security professional I say that maybe "it'll get fixed when someone does this to Zuckerberg's number, which was recently leaked in a Facebook account dump." It seems like security issues, and a less-than-satisfactory response to them, will continue to be a problem in Facebook's growing corporate empire.

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