You download the app. It says “private.” It says “secure.” It even says “end-to-end encrypted.” And then it asks for your phone number. Your email. Your contact list. Your face, maybe. Welcome to the most popular form of privacy theater on the internet.
Many so-called secure messaging apps give you encryption with one hand — while taking your metadata with the other. That includes:
Why? Because building a social graph is profitable. Because “secure” doesn’t mean “anonymous.” Because encryption can be used as a shield — while the real show happens in the metadata.
A lot of apps proudly claim they use “encrypted traffic.” What they mean is: your message is encrypted in transit. Sure — it’s not sent in plain text. But once it reaches their servers? They can store it, scan it, analyze it, and maybe share it — depending on who’s asking and how hard they ask.
That’s not end-to-end encryption. That’s encryption-in-the-middle. And it’s business as usual.
We don’t require a phone number. Or a login. Or your contacts. We don’t log your IP. We don’t store your keys. We don’t track who talks to whom — because we can’t.
That’s what real privacy looks like. Not because we say so. But because we designed it that way.
So next time you see a shiny messaging app shouting “private!”, ask yourself:
Private for whom? From whom? And at what cost?