Hacker News Reader

Whatsapp has no setting to disable the "online" flag when i have opened the app, and a bunch of things mentioned can be built on top of just this.

I think this shows how some seemingly trivial data points on an individual level can allow one to build something way more than the sum of parts at a mass surveillance level.

View on HN

I believe you're looking for Settings > Account > Privacy > Status > Only Share with...

And select no contacts on that screen. This is on the Android app, I'm not familiar with the web version.

I don't think that disables the "online" flag. As far as I'm aware, it's not currently possible to disable that one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com