Rumour has it hackers are going to be able to read your WhatsApp text messages, see your images and videos. This whole thing started when the company said that they have this plan of backing up the messages of the users to Google Drive, without having them pay for it.
WhatsApp does protect all the sent messages, videos and images, as well as documents, thanks to the end-to-end encryption. However, by backing up with Google Drive, you will stop this encryption and all of your text will as well be free for hackers.
Whatsapp allows people to back up their messages into Google Drive
Until now, these backups had a storage limit. But recently, they announced that there is going to be a partnership between them and this company – so no backup limit whatsoever. This also means that many people will make the most out of it, leaving even more people at risk.
It all started with a photo of a chain and a padlock in front of the WhatsApp logo. It’s good to keep in mind that, starting from the 12th of November, this thing will become a default option, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing since you can save all your data with no price at all.
But security experts say that there will be some problems. They advise all the users not to back up their messages to the cloud – ever – because that means they will send unencrypted copies or your files, videos, text messages or audios to your cloud provider.
Now, if you want your conversations to be safe, the person you’re talking to shouldn’t put the conversation in the cloud, either. Also, keep in mind that back-ups are not encrypted in the FAQ section.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
