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WhatsApp end-to-end encrypted backups rolling out; may put pressure on Apple

WhatsApp end-to-end encrypted backups

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month announced that WhatsApp end-to-end encrypted backups were on the way for those who like to store backups on cloud services like iCloud and Google Drive. That privacy feature is now “slowly” rolling out for both iOS and Android users.

Actual WhatsApp chats are always end-to-end encrypted, but this new feature means that any backups you choose to make get the same level of protection …

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Facebook outage caused by a single mistake; has huge implications

Facebook outage caused by a mistake

Yesterday’s Facebook outage – which took down Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp as well as the main service – resulted from a mistake by the company’s own network engineers.

The mistake led to all of Facebook’s services being inaccessible, with one analogy likening it to a failure in the “air traffic control” services for network traffic …

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WhatsApp launching end-to-end encrypted cloud backups for iOS and Android

Following through with a long-requested feature from users, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is going to make cloud backups end-to-end encrypted to go along with the end-to-end encryption of the messages sent with the service. The app will offer the feature in “the coming weeks” to iOS and Android users with two ways to fully encrypt their backups.

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ProPublica WhatsApp report acknowledges ‘unintended confusion’ [U]

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Facebook has confirmed to me that all WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, and that a ProPublica report is based on a misunderstanding. Update: ProPublica has added a ‘clarification’ and amended its story to reflect Facebook’s explanation.

A previous version of this story caused unintended confusion about the extent to which WhatsApp examines its users’ messages and whether it breaks the encryption that keeps the exchanges secret. We’ve altered language in the story to make clear that the company examines only messages from threads that have been reported by users as possibly abusive. It does not break end-to-end encryption.

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Users can now transfer WhatsApp chats from iPhone to Android, but this requires a cable

WhatsApp data sharing

WhatsApp recently announced that users would finally be able to transfer their chat history between iOS and Android devices, starting with Samsung Galaxy smartphones. While this feature was already available in WhatsApp Beta for some users, the transfer option has now been made available to everyone — but it requires nothing less than a cable.

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