WhatsApp will let its more than 2 billion users fully encrypt the backups of their messages, the Facebook-owned app announced Friday. The plan, which WhatsApp is detailing in a white paper before rolling out to users on iOS and Android in the coming weeks, is meant to secure the backups WhatsApp users already send to either Google Drive or Apple’s iCloud, making them unreadable without an encryption key. WhatsApp users who opt into encrypted backups will be asked to save a 64-digit encryption key or create a password that is tied to the key. He said the goal of letting people create simpler passwords is to make encrypted backups more accessible. Cathcart said WhatsApp has been working on making encrypted backups a reality for the past couple of years, and that while they are opt-in to start, he hopes, over time, to “have this be the way it works for everyone.”

Source: The Nation September 10, 2021 15:00 UTC