WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular instant messaging apps, recently signed an agreement with Google on data backup.
According to information shared by WhatsApp about the agreement, WhatsApp data backed up to the Google online storage system, Google Drive, will no longer count as part of the storage quota for Google Drive users.
A post on the WhatsApp blog read, “Starting November 12, 2018, WhatsApp backups will no longer count towards the Google Drive storage quota.
“Furthermore, WhatsApp backups that haven’t been updated in more than one year will be automatically removed from Google Drive storage. To avoid the loss of any backups, we recommend you manually back up your WhatsApp data before November 12, 2018.
“You can back up your chats and media to Google Drive, so if you change Android phones or get a new one, your chats and media are transferrable. We recommend connecting your phone to Wi-Fi prior to backing up your chats via Google Drive, as backup files can vary in size and consume mobile data, causing additional charges.”
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Isn’t that great? Yes, it sounds so but maybe you should wait a minute as there is another message.
WhatsApp states in another post, “Media and messages you back up aren’t protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption while in Google Drive.”
End-to-end encryption is a security tool that ensures that only the sender and receiver know what information they are sharing.
But with the Google Drive backup, information contained in WhatsApp data is decrypted from your phone before being backed up.
And an Indian independent security researcher, Krishna Kothapalli, has warned about the potential danger of using Google Drive to back up your WhatsApp data.
Speaking with Economic Times, the security expert said, “As a WhatsApp user you have the choice to not back up your data to Google Drive.
“They (WhatsApp) are not forcing you to back up. It is a feature. So, if you trust Google, you can enable it.”
He added, “if law enforcement agencies requests Google for specific user data, they have to comply.
“For users who choose to back up, the messages are decrypted on your phone and sent to your drive as a backup.”
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