In an effort to reduce spam and spread of misinformation, early this year, WhatsApp announced a new privacy control feature that will allow you to control who can add you to groups. This WhatsApp groups privacy control feature is now rolling out to all WhatsApp users around the world.
This new feature is available under Settings > Account > Privacy > Groups, where you can select one of three options: “My Contacts Except”, “My Contacts”, or “Everyone”. With “My Contacts Except”, you can choose to exclude specific contacts or “select all”, and with “My Contacts”, only people you have in your address book can add you to groups. Any group invite you receive will have three days validity before it expires.
WhatsApp mentioned the following as the reason for delivering this new privacy control feature:
WhatsApp groups continue to connect family, friends, coworkers, classmates, and more. As people turn to groups for important conversations, users have asked for more control over their experience.
Source: WhatsApp