WhatsApp推出新功能，增加隐私保护层级

Meta-owned WhatsApp has launched a new Secret Code feature to help users protect sensitive conversations with a custom password on the messaging platform.

Meta旗下的WhatsApp推出了一个新的Secret Code功能，以帮助用户在消息平台上使用自定义密码保护敏感对话。

The feature has been described as an "additional way to protect those chats and make them harder to find if someone has access to your phone or you share a phone with someone else."

该功能被描述为“一种额外的保护方式，用于保护那些聊天记录，使它们更难以被找到，如果有人能够接触到您的手机或者您与其他人共用一部手机。”

Secret Code builds on another feature called Chat Lock that WhatsApp announced in May, which moves chats to a separate folder of their own such that they can be accessed only upon providing their device password or biometrics.

Secret Code建立在WhatsApp在五月份宣布的另一个名为Chat Lock的功能之上，该功能将聊天转移到一个独立的文件夹中，只有在提供设备密码或生物识别信息后才能访问。

By setting a unique password for these locked chats that are different from the password used to unlock the phone, the aim is to give users an additional layer of privacy, WhatsApp noted.

WhatsApp指出，通过为这些被锁定的聊天设置一个与解锁手机所用密码不同的唯一密码，旨在为用户提供额外的隐私保护层。

"You'll have the option to hide the Locked Chats folder from your chatlist so that they can only be discovered by typing your secret code in the search bar," it added.

它补充说：“您可以选择将Locked Chats文件夹从聊天列表中隐藏，这样它们只能通过在搜索栏中输入您的秘密代码来发现。”

The development comes weeks after WhatsApp introduced a "Protect IP Address in Calls" feature that masks users' IP addresses to other parties by relaying the calls through its servers.

此前数周，WhatsApp推出了一个“Protect IP Address in Calls”功能，通过其服务器中继通话，掩盖用户的IP地址，以遮蔽其IP地址。

It also follows calls by the French government urging ministers, secretaries of state, and cabinet members to refrain from using popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram in favor of homegrown alternatives like Tchap (based on the Matrix protocol) and Olvid by December 8, 2023.

此举是在法国政府敦促部长、国务秘书和内阁成员避免使用WhatsApp、Signal和Telegram等流行的消息应用，并在2023年12月8日之前转而使用基于Matrix协议的国产替代品Tchap和Olvid时发布的。

The news, which was first reported by Le Point, cited a circulated document that claimed: "these digital tools are not devoid of security vulnerabilities and therefore do not ensure the security of conversations and information shared through them."

这一消息最初由Le Point报道，引用了一份流传的文件称：“这些数字工具并非没有安全漏洞，因此无法确保通过它们共享的对话和信息的安全性。”

In response, Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, hit back at the French government's decision, stating, "this claim is not backed by any evidence, and is dangerously misleading esp. coming from gov." Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, concurred, saying, "we are of the same opinion."

作为回应，Signal总裁梅雷迪思·惠特克批评了法国政府的决定，表示“这一说法没有任何证据支持，而且极具误导性，尤其是来自政府。”WhatsApp负责人威尔·卡特卡特也表示，“我们持有相同的观点。”