Biometric Verification for WhatsApp

Messaging apps have largely replaced texting and email as the primary way people communicate in the modern world.WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned popular app with more than 2 billion users, is a messaging service that allows users to send text and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content.

Recently, users noticed that WhatsApp is getting more secure in terms of linking their WhatsApp account to their desktop app or computer’s browser. If you have enabled biometric verification on your mobile phone, you will need to unlock the application prior to linking your account. Meanwhile, the current QR code method will still remain, but users will only have to pass through this layer once the biometric information has been submitted and confirmed.

Biometric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by evaluating one or more distinguishing biological traits. Unique identifiers include fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA, and signatures. The oldest form of biometric verification is fingerprinting. Historians have found examples of thumbprints being used as a means of unique identification on clay seals in ancient China. Biometric verification has advanced considerably with the advent of computerized databases and the digitization of analog data, allowing for almost instantaneous personal identification.

WhatsApp states that this new system they have is intended to make sure that in case another person tried to access your phone, that person will not have the ability to connect your WhatsApp account to either their browser or app (which would enable that person to see all the messages you receive or send out). Mobile devices still account for the majority of WhatsApp users, but events like global pandemics, which are keeping more of us inside, are likely leading to a surge of users of its web-based and desktop apps, and so it makes sense for it to be adding more functionality there. The service is another step forward in WhatsApp creating more feature parity between its flagship mobile apps and how you interact with the service when you use it elsewhere.

This new system is going to be enabled by default both on Android (any device that’s biometrics verification enabled) and iOS (any kind of iPhones on iOs 14 with Face ID or Touch ID) devices. This means that users need to utilize it for them to connect their accounts, given that they won’t disable biometric verification on their device. Users that don’t have biometric verification configured on their mobile phones (or those who have it switched off) will have the ability to connect their account the usual way. There’s a distinct advantage to securing an app using a fingerprint instead of a password or PIN, namely that it cannot be guessed and the phone cannot be accessed without its owner physically touching it. Users should keep in mind that some laws do not protect device owners from being forced by law enforcement to unlock a device that is secured with a fingerprint, however.

To be clear, WhatsApp isn’t trying to get access to either your facial recognition scans or fingerprints. Similar to any other functions of biometrics on smartphones, this new system is simply using the very same biometric information as an added procedure of authentication prior to allowing users to link their accounts. Similar to the fact that using your fingerprint to visit your banking application does not give Chase scans of your fingerprint, making use of the new system to connect your account onto your computer doesn’t give WhatsApp your personal details either.

How do you enable Fingerprint Lock?

WhatsApp for Android:

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Account.
4. Tap Privacy.
5. Go to Fingerprint Lock.
6. Switch on Unlock with fingerprint, and then confirm your fingerprint.

WhatsApp for iOS:

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Account.
4. Tap Privacy.
5. Go to Screen Lock.
6. Turn on Touch ID or Face ID.
7. You can then tap to select the amount of time before Touch ID or Face ID is prompted.

On the Web or Desktop App, users would see a QR code which they would need to scan from their phones to log in. In case they want to remain signed into the device, they must ensure that they tick the ‘Keep me signed in’ box on the Web or Desktop portal.

The options to log out from the Web or Desktop portal would remain unchanged, and users would be able to log out from the portal by clicking on the three dots on top of the chat list and then selecting ‘log out’. Alternatively, they would be able to use their phones to log out by going to WhatsApp and ‘More Options’ or ‘Settings’ on their Android or iPhone, respectively. After this, the user would have to select the WhatsApp Web option, and then select the device they wish to log out from before tapping ‘log out’.

How to bypass and disable fingerprint lock on WhatsApp?

All you need to do is delete the fingerprints registered on your phone. To do so, you must know the alternate unlock PIN or pattern that all Android phones mandatorily require before registering fingerprints.

The exact steps to do so will differ based on your OS. Basically, you need to go to the main settings menu and search for fingerprints. After authenticating the action with your pin, pattern or other alternate unlock method, you’d be allowed to delete the registered fingerprints.

That’s it. Once you delete fingerprints, your WhatsApp fingerprint lock will be automatically disabled.

WhatsApp’s recent announcement regarding data-sharing changes between it and Facebook has put a lot of people on edge about the company’s intentions. It’s a very sensitive issue because messaging has been thought of as a very personal and private space, seen as separate from what people do on more open social networking platforms. Over the years, that view has been eroded through data leaks, group messaging abuse, and changes in privacy terms.