WhatsApp users have been cautioned about a trick that allows them to read deleted messages. While said trick may prove useful, it also poses a significant privacy risk.
WAMR, a new app, appears to be able to recover deleted data from WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and other platforms. WAMR cannot directly access the messages on Android smartphones due to encryption. According to the Google App store, the app instead leverages your notification history to read the messages and produce a message backup. When the WAMR app detects a deleted message, it will notify you.
At the time of writing, the app created by 'drilens' still is available for download on the app store and had over 50 million installs. However, experts are now warning against using this software since it jeopardizes users' online privacy.
Additional media, including photos, videos, animated gifs, audio, voice notes, documents, and stickers, may be recovered from messages.
WAMR's official Google Play listing states that the app requires Android 5 or higher and is 16MB in size. WAMR does not have access to WhatsApp chats, according to the developer, because messages are encrypted.
The app does state that it is not an authorized technique to recover deleted messages, and that it may run into limitations depending on the app in which the message data is stored, or even the Android operating system itself.
Downloading the program also entails a risk to one's privacy.
After you've finished installing the WAMR app, you'll need to grant it a few permissions in order for it to work on your Android device. These permissions may put data from other apps on your phone at risk.
According to the Information Security Newspaper, the WAMR app might access data such as internet search history and contact lists. Despite the possible security hazards, the WAMR app has been downloaded more than 10 million times, according to the outlet.
Choosing to download an app like WAMR, which could jeopardize your phone's data and security, is a risk that should be carefully assessed.
WhatsApp's privacy and encryption have long been praised. With end-to-end encryption for messages and calls, the app gives a level of anonymity. It recently released a new update that makes it easier for users to contact the company's support team.
That is, if you report a bug or other issue, WhatsApp developers will respond via a WhatsApp chat. Previously, the capability was available in a WhatsApp beta - an early version of a software update provided to testers ahead of a wider release.
