WhatsApp has come under heavy criticism in the past few weeks. Users turned their backs on the messenger and found a new home on Telegram or Signal. But WhatsApp reacts to the criticism and brings a function that was long overdue.
If you use WhatsApp, you can be sure: Nobody can read messages, see sent pictures or listen to voice messages – except you and your chat partner. Almost no one. Because there is a weak point. WhatsApp now wants to eliminate them with a new function.
WhatsApp has had so-called end-to-end encryption for many years. It ensures that only you and the person you are communicating with can read, see and hear what has been broadcast – and no one in between, not even WhatsApp. For this purpose, the message is converted into an illegible code when it is sent and only decrypted again at the recipient. The developers of the popular messenger make a full-bodied promise: “ Protection of privacy and security are part of our DNA. For this reason we use end-to-end encryption. ”Whether chats, photos, videos, voice messages or calls: everything is encrypted. Well, almost everything.
FINALLY, WHATSAPP!
Those who keep their chat history, pictures and videos as a backup in the cloud have a great advantage. If you change your cell phone, you can quickly and easily restore all of these things to the new device. But this is exactly where WhatsApp’s weak point is. The backups that are in Google Drive when using Android smartphones and in iCloud when using iPhone are not encrypted. Both authorities and hackers can gain access to the data.
WhatsApp apparently wants to change that in the future. As the well-informed blog Wabetainfo reports, the developers are currently testing end-to-end encryption of the backup. However, if you want to encrypt your WhatsApp backup in the future, you have to consider a few things.
THE DANGER OF THE NEW FUNCTION
If you want your chat backup to be encrypted, you have to secure it with a password on WhatsApp. You will need this when restoring the backup on the new smartphone. If you no longer have it or if you lose your smartphone, you will no longer be able to access your chats, pictures and videos.
It is still unclear when the developers will provide the chat backup encryption function for all users. WhatsApp is currently testing the option and has only made it available to a few testers.
