{"id":285713,"date":"2026-07-04T01:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/usernames-on-whatsapp-spark-debate-between-privacy-and-fraud-risks\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:20:14","slug":"usernames-on-whatsapp-spark-debate-between-privacy-and-fraud-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/usernames-on-whatsapp-spark-debate-between-privacy-and-fraud-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Usernames on WhatsApp Spark Debate Between Privacy and Fraud Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usernames on WhatsApp Spark Debate Between Privacy and Fraud Risks<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.sadanews.ps\/en\/news\/315542.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-04 01:43:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.sadanews.ps<\/a><\/p>\n

SadaNews – WhatsApp has begun allowing the reservation of usernames in preparation for launching a feature that enables communication without displaying the phone number when starting a new conversation. The company presents the change as a step to enhance privacy, but it has raised concerns that usernames could become a new means for individuals and organizations to impersonate others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The feature allows the user to choose a unique name that can be shared instead of their phone number. When initiating a conversation with a person or business for the first time, the number will not be visible to the other party if the username is activated. However, the phone number will still be required to register the account; this means that WhatsApp is not entirely abandoning the number system but adding a new identity layer on top of it.<\/p>\n

Greater Privacy for the Number<\/p>\n

This feature addresses the problem users face when communicating with people they do not know well or with businesses and service providers; in the current system, starting a conversation requires sharing the phone number, which is a personal identifier that could be used in spam calls and messages or linking the account to other services and data.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp states that usernames will not be searchable within a public directory, and account suggestions will not appear. The sender will need to know the exact name before starting communication. The company has also added the “username key” option, which is an optional code that the other party must know in addition to the name to be able to send the first message.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the company allows content creators, businesses, and organizations the option to claim a name they already use on Facebook or Instagram to maintain unified identity across Meta platforms.<\/p>\n

Concerns Over Similar Names<\/p>\n

Despite these controls, there are concerns about the ability of fraudsters to choose names similar to those of banks, companies, or public figures, with only…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Usernames on WhatsApp Spark Debate Between Privacy and Fraud Risks https:\/\/www.sadanews.ps\/en\/news\/315542.html Publish Date: 2026-07-04 01:43:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.sadanews.ps\/cached_uploads\/resize\/1200\/630\/2025\/02\/01\/0d8c9bb44d3b064fa6c60d14f2694b1a-1738431576.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285715,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285713\/revisions\/285715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}