If you think this is a minor threat, think again: according to stats WhatsApp shared during Google IO last year, most of the “e2e-encrypted” chats on WhatsApp eventually get backed up and stored in the cloud, not e2e-encrypted. You rely on e2e encryption and trust the “no third party can access my messages” mantra, but your private data is in fact vulnerable to hackers and governments that can get access to it via the cloud storage. You have zero transparency on what is really e2e-encrypted and what is backed up. This creates a situation when messages you send and receive end up not e2e-encrypted in the cloud without you even realizing it. While it may seem that you, as a user, have the freedom to opt out of these backups, in reality there’s little room for choice: even if you opt out (which is unusual and sometimes tricky), people you chat with most likely won’t. These backups are not e2e-encrypted and get decrypted whenever the user buys a new phone and restores their WhatsApp/Viber/Line message history. I’ll describe their approach in detail later in this post.Īs for popular apps such as WhatsApp, Viber and Line, they rely on Apple iCloud and Google Drive to store their users' message history and prevent data loss in case their users lose their smartphones. Messaging apps that ignore backups (such as Wickr/Signal/Confide) never reach mass audience and remain niche.

How Popular Messaging Apps Handle BackupsĮvery popular messaging app offers its users some way to back up their messages to prevent data loss. This post is intended to disprove this myth that has been so carefully crafted by Facebook/WhatsApp marketing efforts.

I've been getting this question more often this year. It's based on the wrong assumption that some other popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp are 'end-to-end encrypted by default', while Telegram is not. Why Isn’t Telegram End-to-End Encrypted by Default? Pavel Durov AugWhy Isn’t Telegram End-to-End Encrypted by Default?

What is a secret chat on telegram