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Groups > comp.mobile.android > #73556

Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall

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In comp.mobile.android, Carlos E.R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> On 13/01/2021 21.03, Eli the Bearded wrote:
>> It should be (and I think is) a configurable option when uninstalling
>> the app. If I'm going to pass the phone on to a new user, I'll want to
>> uninstall the app AND delete the data, for sure, even if the new user is
>> my kid.
> In that case, I do a factory reset. Or an "android" reset.

Just because I want to clear my messages doesn't mean I would want to
delete everything before handing it over to a kid. The games, eg, I
probably want to stay. There's a lot of nuance lost with a full factory
reset.

(For the record, _I_ would not trust even a factory reset of a device
that had anything I consider personal on it. I pull hard drives from
computers I dispose of, and keep the hard drives until they fail. Upon
which I disassemble them. Stuff with soldered in storage is a big
nuissance. But I'd trust my own wipe of a device enough to hand it off
to a family member.)

>>>   (As others also explained.) It contains *your* *data*. It's nobody's
>> Okay, so I've got my data in an encrypted database. What can I do with
>> it? It sure looks like nothing, without installing Whatsapp.
> Well, you might want to install wasap again in some months time :-p

If Whatsapp were serious about it being "my" data, they'd have an export
to "standard" format I could use. I know some web forums do that, and
the "standard" format I've seen has been one or more CSV files wrapped
with ZIP. Imgur's tool to download your content is (or was) the images
you uploaded (but not necessarily the original file) in JPEG/PNG/GIF/MP4
format wrapped in ZIP.

> It is a fair question, I don't know if there is a third party tool that
> can at least read that database.

I'd give even odds that the database it sqlite, and standard sqlite
tools will read it, once it is unencrypted. That unencryption thing is
likely to be the real sticking point. I don't see any keys in the
Whatsapp directory, which leads me to believe they are either stored 
outside of the "shared" space, on the Whatsapp servers, or are baked
into the app. Trying a simple web search I found this:

https://www.apisylux.com/decrypt-whatsapp-database/

The between-the-lines reading I get from that is the key is stored
outside of the shared space and there is a way to export the key with
certain versions of Whatsapp.

Elijah
------
will not be trying that decrypt

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Thread

WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-12 20:27 +0000
  Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-12 22:09 +0100
    Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-12 21:19 +0000
      Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-12 22:24 +0100
        Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-12 22:59 +0000
          Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-13 16:09 +0100
          Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2021-01-13 15:32 +0000
            Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-13 17:07 +0000
              Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2021-01-13 18:36 +0000
                Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-13 19:47 +0000
            Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2021-01-13 20:03 +0000
              Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2021-01-13 20:28 +0000
              Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Piet <www.godfatherof.nl/@opt-in.invalid> - 2021-01-13 21:29 +0100
              Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-13 23:03 +0100
                Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2021-01-13 22:37 +0000
                Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-13 23:55 +0100
                Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2021-01-14 13:40 +0000
        Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2021-01-12 23:02 +0000
          Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-13 10:11 +0000
            Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-13 16:10 +0100
              Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall &y <reply@group.please> - 2021-01-13 17:15 +0000
                Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-01-13 23:05 +0100
  Re: WhatsApp leftovers after uninstall David Higton <dave@davehigton.me.uk> - 2021-01-13 14:59 +0000

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