The advancement of technology and digitization has had both positive and negative impacts on digital users. People are now more vulnerable to threats and exploitation than ever due to the increase of hackers, intruders and other threats .

There are security threats when transferring data and information on social media. So, it is vital to protect your sensitive and personal data. So, to keep your data safe from any digital threat while using social media, the blog will discuss the social media app Viber and justify if it’s safe enough for the user. 

What is Viber?

Viber is a voice-over IP and instant messaging software application owned by Rakuten. You can communicate with your friends and families free of cost.

Viber has been popular in the last few years due to its features like custom stickers, deleting sent messages for everyone, background customization, and other options, exceeding a billion users. 

Is Viber safe?

Many internet platforms threaten us due to increased intruders, hackers, and other casualties. Also, much renowned social media compromises our sensitive and personal information. Social media often shares information about the user to brokers or advertising agencies.

 However, Viber is an expectation when it comes to protecting our data. Viber always has top priority when it comes to privacy. Viber has introduced many safety options throughout the last few years to ensure safe conversation through chat and audio and video calls. 

Viber security features 

Viber values customers’ privacy and has numerous security features to protect your data and information. Here are the safety measure Viber provides to its users, 

Viber cant view your chat or calls

Many popular social media sites have been criticized for using users’ private information for commercial use and misusing them. Thankfully, unlike other social media, Viber can’t track your conversations, including chats, audio calls, video calls, or even group chats. 

With the encryption feature in Viber, all of this is possible. All of your conversations are completely encrypted. Only you and the user you are conversing with can view the chat or have a conversation without a hint of doubt. With encryption,  It would be very difficult to hack viber messages or exploit other information.

The text you send makes its way from your mobile phone to the recipients in the form of an encrypted code, and only it can translate to plain text with the help of an encryption key. Encryption keys only appear on the user’s device, and even Viber cannot view your conversation history. 

The end-to-end encryption option is set on by default. So, it would be best not to worry about data breaches like other applications. 

Delete messages for you and the recipients

One of the  useful security feature of Viber is message deletion. You can delete text or conversations for you and, most importantly, end users.

 If you have any message you regret sending to other users, you can delete any time for both of you. Viber was the first messaging app to introduce a delete message feature around 2015.

Disappearing messages with secret chats

The best  private conversation feature of Viber is Secret chats. The secret chat feature is often enabled in one-to-one sensitive conversations. These chats let users set a self-destruct timer for every message in the conversation. 

The messages can manage to disappear after 1 day, 1 hour, 1 minute, or even 10 seconds. The conversation cannot be screenshotted or forwarded to others and is erased forever from the chat list. 

Sometimes users send sensitive information in Viber that you’d prefer to disappear automatically from the recipient’s phone once they’ve seen it. If you want to share sensitive information like credit card details, passwords, etc., Secret Chat would be a solution. Secret Chats are distinguished with the lock badge by the chat list.

Hidden chats

One more security option to keep your private conversation safe should be Hidden chat. It adds a layer of security to your conversations. The hidden chats are accessed via a pin code selected by the user, and the secret chats are kept in another app segment. 

You can enable hidden chats on privacy settings, and  choose a list of conversations you want to keep either  private or secret. 

Privacy settings

Using Viber, people can make preferences about their privacy settings. You can use the Viber privacy settings to manage different settings of your privacy on Viber. 

The available options and features are personal data management, message requests, trusted contacts, and many more.

Spam checker

You may receive texts, numbers, or other links from unknown numbers or sources. Those sources may be harmful to your device. 

To prevent them, you can enable an automatic spam check. However, this feature is only available on desktops. The part will scan all the texts from unsaved contacts and let users know about their safety.

 Message Requests 

When you get community or group chat invitations from unsaved contacts, they will automatically filter in the message request inbox. 

Then you can manage chat according to your preference. When those requests are filtered, you can accept or reject the invitation. 

Read More: Viber Vs WhatsApp: Which One Should You Use?

 Conclusion:

Viber values the user’s privacy more than any other communication platform or social media. Viber may not be loaded with many features to attract users, but it is a pick if you are concerned about your data and information safety.

 With features like end-to-end encryption, hidden chats, message deletion, and so on, it adds a layer of security to your device. It is by far the most secure instant messaging app. Please self-customize privacy settings, follow social media best practices and  periodically check privacy settings for enhanced security.