WhatsApp rolls out Strict Account settings to strengthen protection for high-risk users

Meta announced a new Strict Account Settings mode for WhatsApp that applies the most restrictive privacy controls—blocking attachments and media from unknown senders, silencing calls from non-contacts, and limiting certain features—to better protect high-risk users from targeted cyber attacks. The company also highlighted its adoption of the Rust programming language for WhatsApp’s cross-platform “wamedia” library and broader memory-safety enhancements (control-flow integrity, hardened memory allocators, safer buffer handling) as part of a defense-in-depth strategy.