WhatsApp doesn't permanently delete your chats, keeps all records saved

A recent finding from an iOS researcher Jonathan Zdziarski reveals that WhatsApp retains all your messages that you have been deleting. Zdziarski’s findings open up the fact after he scrutinized the disk images from an iPhone with the new version of the WhatsApp. He found that the app retains and stores a forensic trace of the chat logs, even if you are deleting them this creates a ‘treasure trove’ for those who are mining for data. However, in order to get the required data, one needs physical access to the device. He also mentioned that the data could also be recovered from remote backups.

When you delete any data, or chat, the app marks the said information as deleted. However, this data area is not overwritten by new data or chats, which can be recovered by forensic and recovery software. Zdziarski mentions that a new SQLite library is being used to code the new app, which does not delete the data permanently.