The most glaring omission in WhatsApp’s encryption is now addressed
WhatsApp has had end-to-end encryption for a good number of years — at least for messaging. Support was first rolled out to everyone in 2016, allowing users to have peace of mind that WhatsApp couldn’t intercept and read their messages since they were encrypted on the sender’s end and not decrypted until reaching the receiver. But so far there’s been a glaring omission: while chats were fully encrypted as they were taking place, backups were stored without any extra security. WhatsApp is now finally addressing this.
End-to-end encrypted backups have been coming for a while. We’ve been hearing about work towards them for well over a year now, and recently they made their way to the beta release of WhatsApp. After some last-minute testing, end-to-end encrypted backups are now available in the stable version of the app.
Chat backups stored on Google Drive will now be able to be encrypted with either a password or a 64-digit encryption key that only you know. That way, you can ensure no one but you can access precious personal information and chats stored in your WhatsApp backups. If you need to restore WhatsApp for whatever reason or move your chats to another phone, you’ll need that password or key in order to do so.
To enable this, you’ll just need to go into the app’s settings, tap on Chats, Chat Backup, and turn on End-to-end Encrypted Backup. Then follow the prompts to select your own password or encryption key and wait for the app to finish encrypting your backup. Contrary to encryption in personal and group chats, which is obligatory, encrypted backups are opt-in, meaning that you’ll still be able to go about your unencrypted life if you really wish.
The update is now available on the Google Play Store. Facebook says to expect a slow rollout, though, so if you don’t see the update right away, don’t worry too much about it.
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