Getting Rid of WhatsApp Messages for Good

WhatsApp made news earlier this year when the company rolled out end-to-end encryption, a system that ensures that all messages on its platform are protected from viewing by third parties. We covered the system in detail in a previous post, and the system further ensured user privacy and security while using the app. However, recent research has uncovered that deleted WhatsApp messages still leave forensic traces on your phone. Anyone with access to your phone and the right tools can unearth the traces and piece together messages that had been deleted or archived. This isn’t a cause to worry as it would take a lot of effort to rebuild messages, but removing the app from your phone and reinstalling periodically can help by clearing the database where the traces are stored.