Concerns have been raised about the new update of WhatsApp, which allows users to access videos and images they have deleted.
It is believed the update clearly shows that the app stores users’ personal information for longer than it says it does.
The update, which is now available to Android users worldwide, enables users to recover pictures, videos, GIFs, documents or voice notes that were sent and subsequently deleted.
Tech website, WaBetaInfo said it was able to download images which had been deleted two or even three months ago. Normally Whatsapp stores images received for 30 days, so they can be downloaded. It then deletes the images after this time.
However, WaBetaInfo said it was able to download images up to three months after they should have been deleted. It wrote: “WhatsApp allows to download deleted media from their servers again. This automatically translates in the fact that WhatsApp continues to store our media on their servers also after downloading them. This feature was partially available before: non-downloaded media were available for 30 days and, when the recipient downloaded the media, WhatsApp immediately deleted it from the server.”
WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks as it was revealed 87 million of its users had their personal information harvested and used by the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook has issued a series of apologies for the privacy breach and incorporated drastic changes to its privacy policies to stem the flow of thousands of users leaving the platform.
Source: Punch
