The innocent action on WhatsApp that could be compromising your confidential data without knowing it

The popular messaging service WhatsApp cares about user privacy. In fact, many of its latest features are centered around it, such as preventing a third party from taking a screenshot of your profile image without your consent. But that does not mean that there are certain risks in this regard, some of which are little known.

Is it possible that when you send an image you are providing more information than you would like? Actually, yes.

And taking into account the large number of photographs that are generally shared through the Meta tool, it is something that should be taken into account. Especially if you want to send them to your contacts with the highest quality possible.

The risk of sending images on WhatsApp

The first thing you need to know is that there are different ways to send images to a contact via WhatsApp. The most common, of course, is to select a photo directly from the Gallery section. The problem is that by doing so, the app reduces its original quality by default, as is well known by many users who use it frequently.

For that reason, WhatsApp also introduced the possibility of sending HD quality photos. To do this, you simply have to check this option after having selected an image in the traditional way by the same method. The inconvenient? That Even then, the original quality is not fully respected. Something for which many users found a solution.

Basically, this consists of attaching any image to WhatsApp as if it were a document, and not from Gallery. In this way, the original quality is respected, and the application itself even allows you to go directly to your images to make the process easier. But be careful, because by doing so you could be compromising some personal data.

When you attach a photo as if it were a document, it retains a series of metadata, which reveals not only the resolution and file type, but also other details such as the date the photo was taken, the time it was created or the location where the capture was taken. Somewhat delicate information in depending on the cases.

Be careful with sharing information on WhatsApp

The reason why this happens is very simple: the so-called EXIF ​​(Exchange Image File Format) data. The metadata that we referred to before and that stores information from digital cameras, and is also shared when a photo is attached as a document from WhatsApp.

For the person receiving the image to access them, simply open it from a computer or use an application such as Google Filesthanks to which it is possible to see the personal information that accompanies the photo.

It is true that, in general, knowing when and where a photograph has been taken does not have to be a problem, in most situations, but it is useful to know if, for example, you do not want your contact Know where you’ve been, or at what specific time.