WhatsApp is adding encrypted backups

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.

“WhatsApp is the first global messaging service at this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups, and getting there was a really hard technical challenge that required an entirely...

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