Deleting Whatsapp chats doesn't erase them forever

If you have unwanted messages on your Whatsapp chat box, you may delete them. But it will never actually be erased, as the software is designed in a way that it stores a trace of every message sent using the app.

If you are a computer genius, it is possible to bring back all the deleted messages from the Whatsapp from its saved forensic trace.

An iOS researcher, Jonathan Zdziarski, has found that the deleted chats can be restored by anyone who has 'physical access' to the device.

In the backend coding of Whatsapp, there is a library which stores the traces of all the messages and it doesn’t get automatically overwritten by the new messages, claimed Zdziarski’s research. It is from this library that deleted messages can be restored.

Whatsapp has hailed itself from the beginning of the year after it launched end-to-end encryption to make the users' messages private. But, this research indicates that the messages aren’t private after all.

The study also pointed out that deleted Whatsapp messages, which are saved on an iCloud account, can be easily accessed by the police after obtaining the respective orders from a court of law.

Whatsapp has violated many privacy promises thanks to this library. However, this can be seen as a precautionary measure, to prevent the hiding of illegal activities.  

• whatsapp message
• Whatsapp
• end-to-end encryption