With our lives continually moving more and more online, it’s no wonder our focus is increasingly on data security. This includes our personal details, online storage options and our chat history. WhatsApp has a chat backup option that is capable of storing your chats in multiple locations, including Google Drive. The problem with this is that if someone gets your backup file, they don’t need any authentication to access the contents. Soon though, that will change according to WhatsApp Beta Info.
As previously announced, @WhatsApp is working on cloud backups encryption.
The chat database and media will be safe from unauthorized access when using a password. The password is private and it's not sent to WhatsApp.
It will be available in a future build for iOS and Android. pic.twitter.com/Lp06PaECBX— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 8, 2021
What this means for users is that even if your chat backup is obtained, unless they know (or can guess) your password – the contents are safe. It does look like this is a password-based — not SSO with Google or Facebook authentication — option. So if you choose to use this option, make sure you store your password securely!
WhatsApp beta info has a very strong history of being accurate with leaks and their analysis of code. So the likelihood of this being delivered to users is pretty strong, the only question is when will we see it?
