WHATSAPP users have been warned to stay away from an app which can retrieve deleted messages.
The app has worryingly already been installed more than 50million times but a report claims it could compromise data.
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Known as WAMR in the Google Play Store, creators claim the tool is “able to recover text messages and also any media attachment”.
One of its selling points is the ability to get hold of messages that friends send but later decide to delete.
It also notifies you when someone deletes a message.
“How annoying it is when your friends delete their messages before you can see them?” the app description says.
“The curiosity takes over.”
This isn’t just for WhatsApp either, it can be from other messaging services like Facebook Messenger as well.
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Of course, WhatsApp uses encryption to protect data so the app isn’t actually able to get old messages back just like that.
However, there’s a get-around technique – notification history.
So instead, the app digs into all the message notifications your phone has pinged and retrieves data from there.
As such, it won’t be able to get everything back – and it won’t work on any messages before you downloaded WAMR for example.
Although the app isn’t malicious, it does pose a privacy risk because of the permissions it requires, the Information Security Newspaper reports.
This includes the ability to read what’s on your USB storage, such as photos and other media.
Lots of apps ask for permission to data but due to the sensitivity of private messages security, experts think this one is a bit too risky.
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In other news, Apple has revealed a bunch of new emoji for iPhone, including a pregnant man and two saucy symbols.
Experts have warned that future space launches could be jeopardised if “stupid” regimes like Russia don’t stop blasting the skies creating debris.
And the most popular phone since the millennium has been unveiled, with many shocked to find out it’s not an iPhone.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
