Whatsapp¡¯s upcoming feature might not go down too well with privacy watchdogs, as the Facebook-owned messaging service is reportedly going to allow users to track their contacts¡¯ locations in real-time.
With the feature called Live Location Tracking, Whatsapp users will be able to broadcast their current location. They¡¯ll also have the option of enabling location tracking to anyone in their Whatsapp contact list with up to one minute, two minutes and five minutes intervals.
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As you all know, Whatsapp already allows users to drop a location pin and share it with their friends and contacts, but real-time Live Location Tracking is just a whole different ballgame. Imagine the privacy stakes will be really high to prevent things from going seriously wrong.
And that¡¯s exactly what Whatsapp¡¯s trying to address. Live Location Tracking is expected to be disabled by default when it finally arrives, precisely to quell any privacy fears. Whatsapp users who¡¯re curious to know how Live Location Tracking works will need to manually turn it on through the app¡¯s Settings menu.
As of now, Live Location Tracking is baked into the beta version of Whatsapp on both Android (version 2.16.399) and iOS (version 2.17.3.28) platforms. Whatsapp hasn¡¯t provided any details as to when exactly does the live tracking feature is green-lit for the final, end-user build of the messaging app.
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