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Such “extraction” software - typically forensics tools created by the likes of Israel’s Cellebrite and Atlanta-based Grayshift - will look for remnants of files in different smartphone databases. Online records indicate the technology to get deleted WhatsApp messages from an Apple iOS database has been available to law enforcement and private organizations that own a Cellebrite Physical Analyzer tool for at least the last two years.
Though they can acquire a lot of useful evidence from a phone, Cellebrite devices and competing products aren’t always effective. Often, their capabilities vary from one phone model to the next. In another search warrant reviewed by, in October 2022, the DEA noted that their Cellebrite tool couldn’t retrieve WhatsApp messages from an iPhone 11 because of “limitations with respect to this particular device model.” They had to manually go through the phone to gather data.