Obstacle for law enforcement officers: WhatsApp has a new function with which backup copies can be encrypted in the iCloud or on Google Drive.
Munich - Good news for WhatsApp users: As the parent company Facebook announced in a blog post in September, the WhatsApp messenger service now offers the option of encrypted backups not only on the device, but also on Google Drive or iCloud.
In such a way that not even the backup provider or WhatsApp itself can read the backup copies of private messages.
WhatsApp offers a new function: Many users will be pleased - but prosecutors probably not
Previously, WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption only applied to saving messages on the device - but that has now changed, Facebook announced. According to this, many users would have wished to be able to encrypt their chats not only on their smartphones or similar devices, but also online. In the event that the smartphone, tablet or PC with the WhatsApp service on it is lost, users have only received their messages back if they had made a backup in advance. In the cloud or via Google Drive, this was initially only possible without encryption.
WhatsApp now offers its users an additional security option with which backups on Google Drive or in the iCloud can be protected with end-to-end encryption.
According to the information in the WhatsApp blog entry, these backup copies can be secured with your own password or a 64-digit encryption key.
Neither the backup provider nor WhatsApp itself should be able to read the backup copies of the chat messages or access the required encryption key.
New WhatsApp function now also encrypts backups stored online
Law enforcement officers could be annoyed with the new function, however: As
reported by
Spiegel
, law enforcement authorities were able to access the online unencrypted backups in the iCloud or Google Drive with a court order before the new function was introduced.
Even if the WhatsApp users themselves did not even know that they had automatically saved their backups unencrypted.
With the new encryption function, this will probably no longer work so easily.
(lia)
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