WhatsApp Web and Desktop will have a biometric authentication option to start to be more secure.
While waiting for WhatsApp to be truly multi-device, WhatsApp Web and Desktop are a very good solution while working on a computer. The company, in the interest of improving security, has explained that a new feature will improve the app’s security with biometric authentication.
How will WhatsApp biometric authentication work?
The company has announced that WhatsApp will ask us to use our fingerprint or face to start the login process in a new browser. The authentication process will be completed on our phones, which at the moment, have access to our WhatsApp account at all levels.
The current system made it very easy to take control of a WhatsApp from strangers.
WhatsApp’s new feature makes sense, although there is still a lot to unveil about it. For example is it possible to use a device password instead of biometric variables? Because that’s how security works on iOS and Android in most cases. If the answer is yes, it won’t be as secure as one would hope.
In any case, it is an extra step that will prevent that with the quick theft of a smartphone they can take control of our WhatsApp account, which also we would not find out in many cases unless we check the WhatsApp Web history, even if there are notifications that the service is being used in a browser.
Will WhatsApp have access to users’ biometric data?
But it should be clarified that this does not mean that WhatsApp has access to the user’s biometric data , but rather that it asks the APIs that the mobile uses by default and that they are not typical of the applications. There is no need to worry about that private data when using this type of authentication.
This feature will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks. If you only access WhatsApp from your mobile, it will not affect you, but if you also do it from your computer, the time will come when it will ask you to complete the procedure.