New Delhi: Popular mobile messaging service, WhatsApp which takes users’ security and privacy very seriously, clarifies what it shares with police when a request comes through proper channel.
According to the news published in news18, Carl Woog, Spokesperson of WhatsApp said that if there is a critical incident or when Govt. approaches them, they share details.
It is also reported that recently, WhatsApp shared a set of guidelines for law enforcement officials.
While clarifying company’s policy, Mr. Woog said that because of End-to-End (E2E) encryption, messages are not visible to anybody except for the sender and the recipient. The message is encrypted at the sender end and can be decrypted only by the key of the recipient. Neither hacker nor WhatsApp can view the message.
He also said that when a request from Govt. official reaches them, they disclose what they cannot provide because of E2E encryption.
Now, it is officially confirmed that WhatsApp cannot decrypt chats and never store it on servers. WhatsApp saves only undelivered messages and deletes it automatically after 30 days.
Read also: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger may still put user information at risk, claims study
What WhatsApp share when a request comes from Govt.?
Whenever Govt. requests for data, WhatsApp shares metadata of the user which is the only information it stores.
What is Metadata?
Although it is not cleared officially, court cases revealed what metadata includes. It includes mobile numbers, device type, mobile network, mobile numbers of persons you contacted on WhatsApp, IP addresses, location, information of web pages you visited through the app, time and duration of the chats, news18 added.