WhatsApp is retaining and storing chat logs even after the user deletes those chats

WhatsApp is retaining and storing chat logs even after the user deletes those chats

WhatsApp is not fully deleting your chats even after you delete your chats from the app, says a new post by iOS researcher Jonathan Zdziarski. Zdziarski claims to have examined the disk images take from the latest version of the app where he found the app retaining traces of chat logs even after its being deleted.

WhatsApp recently activated end-to-end encryption but it seems the data is still very much exposed to anyone with physical access to the device. Zdziarski further notes in his report that the data can be recovered using any remote backup systems.

In his research, Jonathan Zdziarski found that the data is deleted by the app but it is never overwritten. Zdziarski considers use of SQLite library used in coding the app as the reason behind for app default. He says forensic trace is common among any application that uses SQLite, since it does not overwrite data by default.