Media backups are not encrypted, but data is.

Backup key security is compromised by usability concerns (the need to restore the backup to a new phone without the old one).

https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2018/01/extract-and-decrypt-whats...

Ah, I know WhatsApp warns you about setting up backups that it's not subject to encryption, but I guess I took that to be the entirety and not just media. Which is still a big gap, since in 2018 we share lots of media in chats.

In any case you are right that if you can restore an "encrypted" backup onto a fresh phone without any info from the old one, then all the bits necessary to do are held by parties who can be legally compelled to give them up.

Last I checked it was really easy to get data out of a WhatsApp backup.

No special skills needed except running locating the file, running a command and connecting using SQLite or something.

Nothing on Google Drive is stored "in clear text".

If I put a file with certain content into Google Drive, then Google Drive, or a subpoena for my Google Drive data, will return exactly those contents.

Hence, it is reasonable to apply any distinction to the content as a user of Google Drive sees it, and not as it may be stored on the backend. Hence, if the data WhatsApp pushes to the Google Drive API is unencrypted (and we're talking about the data, not about the HTTPS-encapsulated form that passes over the network), it is reasonable to call it "in clear text", and it wouldn't be reasonable to call it encrypted.

It's clear to Google.

Unless you control the encryption keys in the communication, always assume it's accessible in plaintext.

...are you a Google Drive dev? How can you possibly make this statement?

It's maybe not stored in clear text, but it is at the very least stored in a form that Google can decrypt.

They would not be able to recover your data upon requesting a password reset, if they used proper end-to-end-encryption.

I'm pretty sure anything public on Google Drive is...