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If he didn't have 2-factor active in whatsapp they could have re-installed the app on any phone with his phone number, re-verified the account and downloaded th

If he didn't have 2-factor active in whatsapp they could have re-installed the app on any phone with his phone number, re-verified the account and downloaded the backup. I think you can even reset the 2-factor if you wait 1 week at whatsapp. This seems more like a pro anti encryption article.

throwawaysea 6y ago
WhatsApp only stores messages locally on a particular device right? I didn’t think there was a feature to “download a backup”.
- sschueller 6y ago
  It's been a while since I upgraded my phone but last time I just moved my sim card and whatsapp automatically downloaded the latest backup and restored it. The backup is hundreds of MB large so it contains photos and videos and from what I can remember also the messages.
  - addicted 6y ago
    You need to explicitly enable it. If you download/create an account (I’m not sure which) after a certain date it’s enabled automatically, but if you are an old user, it would not enable backups unless you do so yourself.
- msh 6y ago
  It will push you to allow it to make automatic backups to icloud / google drive.
  - ihattendorf 6y ago
    But that would only work if they had access to the icloud/google drive account, right? Not just any phone with his phone number.
    - msh 6y ago
      Yes