WhatsApp backups will not be end-to-end encrypted on Google Drive

We recently told our readers that Google Drive will not mark WhatsApp backups in your storage quota. Now, this was a great news but it comes with a catch. The catch is that once the backup is uploaded to Google Drive, it is not end-to-end encrypted like all WhatsApp chats and media files are.

This means that as a user you need to be super aware that any hacking or security breach of Google Drive can leave your WhatsApp chat history out there for the hackers to probe into.

WhatsApp backups do include media files. If you have a bunch of active friends and participate in WhatsApp groups, this probably means that your WhatsApp backup size will easily touch Gigabytes. Here services like iCloud and Google Drive come in handy. The data is automatically saved on the server without consuming your local storage on smartphones.

The cherry on top was Google Drive not including these backups in the measuring the storage consumption. Yet the lack of encryption might be a deal breaker for many people. Those who are concerned should activate two-factor authentication on their devices and make sure their Google Drive access has all the security factors in place.