WhatsApp, the Meta-owned messaging platform, is one of the world’s most popular messaging apps. The app’s end-to-end encryption feature has earned WhatsApp a bit of a reputation for being safe, secure, and private. But is it really?
Because it uses end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp is inherently the safer option than other messaging apps. Yes, that includes Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messages, Snapchat, and even regular old iMessage. But it’s not 100 percent foolproof either. Here’s everything you need to know about WhatsApp’s most common security issues.
WhatsApp Web Malware
WhatsApp’s vast consumer base makes it an obvious target for cybercriminals, a lot of whom pay attention to WhatsApp Web. For years, WhatsApp has allowed you to open a website, or download a desktop app, scan a code with the app in your phone, and use WhatsApp in your computer.
The app stores on phones are more cautiously regulated than the internet at large. When you look for WhatsApp on the store, it’s typically clear which app is the official one. That isn’t true of the wider internet. Criminals, hackers, and scammers have all taken advantage of this. There had been instances of attackers passing off malicious software as WhatsApp desktop applications. If you’re unlucky to have downloaded one of those, the installation can distribute malware or otherwise compromise your computer.
Others attempted a different approach, developing phishing websites to trick you into handing over personal information. Some of those websites look like WhatsApp Web, asking for you to enter your phone number to connect to the service. To be on the safe side, the best way to stay secure is to use only apps and services from official sources. WhatsApp gives a web client in order to use on any computer, called WhatsApp Web that you should only access through the WhatsApp website.
Unencrypted Backups
The messages you send on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted. This means that only your device, and that of the recipient, can decode them. This feature prevents your messages from being intercepted during transmission, even by Meta itself. However, this doesn’t secure the messages once they’re decrypted on your device.
WhatsApp allows you to back up your messages and media on Android and iOS. This is an essential feature because it allows you to recover accidentally deleted WhatsApp messages. There is a local backup on your device in addition to a cloud-based backup. On Android, you can back up your WhatsApp data to Google Drive. If you’re using an iPhone, then your backup destination is iCloud. These backups contain decrypted messages from your device.
The backup file saved on iCloud or Google Drive isn’t always necessarily encrypted. As this file consists of decrypted versions of all of your messages, it is theoretically vulnerable and undermines WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption.
One of the supposed benefits of encryption is, for better or worse, being able to prevent government and law enforcement from accessing your data. As the unencrypted backup is stored on one of US-based cloud storage providers, all it would take is a warrant, and the authorities could have unfettered access to your messages.
This setting is disabled by default. Go to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup > End-to-end Encrypted Backup and select Turn On to secure your WhatsApp backups.
Facebook Data Sharing
Meta has been the subject of criticism in recent years. One of those is because of the company’s effective market monopoly and anti-competitive actions.
In January 2021, Meta released a new data sharing policy for WhatsApp, mandating the transfer of information between WhatsApp and Facebook. Later users complained & the company noted that it would limit WhatsApp’s features for anyone who doesn’t opt in.
As of June 2022, Meta has once again softened these penalties, although it will still encourage users to opt in to the new policies.
Hoaxes and Fake News
In recent years, social media companies have been criticized for allowing fake news and misinformation to spread on their platforms. Two of the most notable cases have been in India and Brazil.
WhatsApp was implicated in the widespread violence that occurred in India during 2017 and 2018. Messages containing details of fabricated child abductions were forwarded and spread across the platform, customized with local information. These messages were widely shared across people’s networks and resulted in the lynching of those accused of these fake crimes. In Brazil, WhatsApp was the primary source of fake news throughout the 2018 elections. As this kind of misinformation was so easy to spread, business people in Brazil set up companies that created illegal WhatsApp misinformation campaigns against candidates. They were able to do this as your phone number is your username on WhatsApp, so they purchased lists of phone numbers to target.
Despite these interventions, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, WhatsApp was used to share misinformation about the virus. In April 2020, lockdowns were in place across the world, so people relied upon the internet for news, even more so than usual.
WhatsApp Status / Privacy
For many years, WhatsApp’s status feature, a brief line of text, was the only way for you to broadcast what you were doing at the time. This morphed into WhatsApp Status, a clone of the popular Instagram Stories feature.
Instagram is a platform that is designed to be public, although you can make your profile private if you choose. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is a more intimate service used for communicating with friends and family. So, you may assume that sharing a Status on WhatsApp is private too. However, that isn’t the case. Anyone in your WhatsApp contacts can view your Status. Fortunately, it is quite easy to control who you share your Status with. Navigate to Settings > Account > Privacy > Status, and you’ll be shown three privacy choices for your Status updates: My contacts, My contact except…, Only share with…
How Safe are WhatsApp Video Calls?
Just like WhatsApp messages, video calls made through the app are also encrypted and are thus safe (safer than other platforms at least). Video calls are only initiated after WhatsApp internally shares an encoded message between the call participants as a handshake.
It is important to trust the person you have a video call with. Anyone can screen record your conversation and reveal it to the public. In addition to that, devices infected with malware can capture the audio and video content by monitoring the device’s screen, speakers, camera, and microphone.
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