X Boss Elon Musk Dream of a world where people ditch their phones and instead make audio and video calls on social media platforms. Musk’s vision has stoked an almost collective fear among users of his platform, and the potential risk to their IP addresses.
X starts rolling out Audio and video call functionFeatures that were previously only available to paid users were made available to everyone last week. However, eagle-eyed sleuths quickly noticed that the feature was turned on automatically, meaning users had to manually go into settings to turn it off. By default, only your mutual friends or people you’ve exchanged private messages with can call you, but this can still be a problem for a lot of people.
Privacy researchers also sounded the alarm about the feature after learning it leaked users’ IP addresses during calls. It’s worth noting that the option to protect users’ IP addresses is turned off, which, frankly, makes no sense.
Zach Edwards Independent privacy researchertold Gizmodo that an IP address can allow third parties to track your location and obtain other details about your online life.
“In big cities, an IP address can sometimes identify someone’s exact location, but often it’s just eerily close. Like a 1-block radius around your home,” Edwards said via X private message. However, “sometimes, if in a remote/rural area, the IP address can 1000% identify you.”
Law enforcement can use IP addresses to Pursue illegal activities, such as child pornography or pirated online content. At the same time, hackers can launch DDoS attacks to disrupt your Internet connection or even steal your data.
How to turn off audio and video calls on X
Fortunately, you can avoid a potential IP security nightmare by turning off audio and video calls on your X. As you’ll see in the screenshot below, it’s very simple:
– First, go to Setup and support.then click Settings and privacy. (If you are on the desktop, click More button then go Settings and privacy).
– Next, click on Privacy & Security.choose direct message from the pop-up menu.
– Option to turn off display Enable audio and video calls.
That’s it. Some people may not see the “Enable audio and video calling” option in their settings, which means the feature isn’t rolling out to them yet. That doesn’t mean they won’t eventually get it in a future update.
If you believe in Musk’s vision and want to make and receive calls on the X, I guess, hooray.However, please make sure your IP address is secure and open Enhance call privacy Options in direct message settings. May the odds always be in your favor.