A new day and there is a new update about Whatsapp. One of the most popular messenger apps in the world has announced that soon they are going to introduce a new feature “Password Protected backups”. So far only the messages and chats between users alone protected by the end to end encryption. This announcement has came in a time when the Whatsapp is fighting a battle with the privacy policy and the concerns about the data by the users.This will surely enhance the trust of the users on Whatsapp.
What is “Password Protected backups”
Content in Whatsapp can be divided in to two parts. Part one is the chat between users or in groups including calls which are end to end encrypted and no one can know what is being communicated as per the Whatsapp company. But the second part is the one where the data is vulnerable. Since the back up of the whatsapp user data is stored in Google Drive only any one who gets the access to the Google drive of the user can retrieve the data and make use of it since it is not encrypted.
Now , the company is bringing this new feature called “What is “Password Protected backups” which will use the password to encrypt the backups both in Google Drive as well as in iCloud. When you try to take the backup it may flash the message ” To prevent unauthorised access to your iCloud Drive backup, you can set a password that will be used to encrypt future backups” and asking you to enter the password. When you try to restore the backup you have to enter the password. If you forgot the password, whatsapp may not be able to help. Also while taking backup and restoring you may have to enter the phone number to confirm the identity.
This feature is still under testing and once we get the screenshots we will share it here
