
Penny Mordaunt, the government minister, is the most recent participant in the investigation by the government into Covid to experience difficulty with the absence of WhatsApp messages.
The Head of the Lower Chamber of Parliament declared that two years' worth of Boris Johnson's WhatsApp conversations were no longer accessible.
Mr Johnson reported to the inquiry that he had mislaid approximately 5,000 messages.
The representative of him declared to the BBC that he has transmitted all applicable messages in his ownership to the investigation and has satisfied particularly with their entreaties.
Several politicians have failed to retain WhatsApp messages sent during the coronavirus pandemic, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who was Chancellor of the Exchequer when the messages were sent, as well as former ministers from Stormont.
In her witness statement, Ms Mordaunt, being the paymaster general during this period, stated that she was unable to locate any WhatsApp communications between her and the Prime Minister between 20 March 2018 and 22 March 2020.
She requested 14 times a meeting with Boris Johnson's chief of staff concerning the mislaid messages, "yet received no reply from his office".
She was informed that she would have to fork out tens of thousands of pounds in order to have her phone examined forensically, as the gadget belonged to her rather than the government.
She revealed that further research on her part had uncovered the fact that WhatsApp conversations with Michael Gove, who was in charge of the Duchy of Lancaster back then, had experienced a similar issue.
Can WhatsApp messages disappear?
Chat messages are saved individually to each person's device.
If Person A and Person B are corresponding with each other, then they will both have a full, individual record of their dialogue.
Messages can be removed from the view of all recipients up to two days after sending, plus a notification to alert everyone of the removal.
Any messages that are older than that can only be removed by someone with access to the individual's phone.
If Person A removes a message that is at least two days old, Person B will still possess it.
Only someone who has access to Person B's phone and can do so by logging into their WhatsApp account can delete it from their device.
The app has an option whereby messages can be made to vanish.
That feature was only rolled out in the UK in November 2020, so any messages sent prior to this would not be erased.
Boris Johnson declared that he reset his phone to its original settings. Despite this, the record of his conversation with Penny Mordaunt, kept on her phone, remained unaffected.
He further declared that he had altered his telephone number. Irrespective of whether his previous WhatsApp account was moved to the new number or a brand new one was established, his switch wouldn't have an impact on the data stored on Ms Mordaunt's mobile device.
In conclusion, he noted that an incident at WhatsApp headquarters could potentially impede the transmission of messages, but it would have no bearing on the material of messages that had already been dispatched.
No information is retained on WhatsApp servers concerning messages that have been sent or received.
If they are backed up, their storage will be provided by either Apple or Google, depending on whether the phone is iPhone or Android.
The messages are kept secure by end-to-end encryption, so only the devices of the sender and receiver can access them.
Should WhatsApp or anyone else gain access to them, it would be impossible for them to alter them.
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