Jameel Aahmed Milansaar

WhatsApp's Username Era Has Begun. So Has a New Security Risk. By Jameel Aahmed Milansaar WhatsApp's New Usernames Solve One Privacy Problem. They May Create Another. For nearly sixteen years, WhatsApp has operated on a simple premise: your phone number was your identity. Every conversation, every group, and every new contact began with a piece of personal information that most people would never willingly hand to a stranger. That model is finally changing. WhatsApp's decision to introduce usernames is more than a cosmetic redesign. It is a structural shift in how identity works on one of the world's largest messaging platforms. Users will increasingly be able to communicate without revealing their phone numbers—a welcome correction in an era when personal data has become one of the most valuable commodities online. The change deserves recognition. It also deserves closer scrutiny. Privacy and security are often spoken of interchangeably, but they are not the same thing...