Private Messaging

In a world where we message more than we talk, private messaging apps have quietly become the backbone of our daily lives. We share photos of our children, bank details, medical updates, passwords, work conversations, and our most personal thoughts - all through apps on a device that rarely leaves our hands./p>

But here’s the uncomfortable question: How private are those “private” messages?

The WhatsApp Lawsuit: A Wake-up Call

Recently, WhatsApp has faced legal action accusing the company of being able to access or read user messages despite advertising end-to-end encryption. Whether the claims are ultimately proven in court or not, the case highlights something bigger.

Most people don’t actually understand what these apps can and cannot see. And that misunderstanding is dangerous. When a company says "we can’t read your messages", that may be technically true about the content of the message - the words themselves. But that’s not the whole story.

Metadata: Why It Matters More Than You Think

Even if a company can’t read your message content, it can often see the metadata. Metadata can be used to create a digital you. Countries have ordered assasinations based on their targets metadata alone.

Metadata is basically "data about data".

It includes things like:

• Who you messaged
• When you messaged
• How often you message
• Your location when you sent it
• What device you used
• Your contact list
• Who is in your group chats

Now imagine someone had a list of:

• very person you speak to
• How frequently
• At what times of day
• From which locations

They don’t need to read your messages to build a very accurate picture of your life.

Metadata can reveal:

• Your closest relationships
• Your medical concerns
• Your political interests
• Your travel habits
• Your work patterns
• Your sleep schedule

In many cases, metadata is actually more powerful for tracking and profiling than the message content itself. It maps your network. It shows your connections. It shows your behaviour, and behaviour is incredibly valuable.

If You’re Not Paying, You’re The Product

There’s an old saying in the tech world:

If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.

Free apps don’t run on kindness. They run on data.

Your data can be used for:

• Targeted advertising
• Behavioural profiling
• AI training
• Market analysis
• Platform engagement optimisation

Even if your messages are encrypted, your usage patterns are often not. That data becomes part of a much larger ecosystem owned by corporations like Meta Platforms, whose business model is built on data.

And once your data is collected, you don’t truly control how it evolves or gets combined with other datasets over time.

A real conversation I had

I recently spoke to three friends and family members about this.

I suggested they switch to Threema - a privacy-focused messaging app that doesn’t require a phone number and collects minimal metadata.

The cost?

About £6 for a lifetime licence.

Their response?

"I’ll just stick with the free apps." 🤦‍♂️

And that’s when it hit me, they didn’t want to pay £6 once but they’re paying every single day - with their personal data, their connections, their habits, and their digital identity.

£6 felt expensive but losing control over lifelong behavioural data apparently didn’t.

Why Privacy Still Matters (Even If You’ve "Got Nothing to Hide")

Many people say, "I’ve got nothing to hide".

Privacy isn’t about hiding wrongdoing.

It’s about:

• Control
• Autonomy
• Freedom of thought
• Protection from future misuse

You may trust companies today, but business models change, ownership changes, laws change, governments change.

Data collected today can be interpreted very differently tomorrow.

And once it exists, it cannot be un-collected.

The Bigger Picture

We lock our front doors.

We use PIN codes on our phones.

We shred bank statements.

Yet we casually hand over detailed maps of our lives because an app is free.

Private messaging isn’t just about secrecy. It’s about reducing unnecessary exposure. Sometimes the most powerful decision isn’t deleting social media or going off-grid.

It’s simply choosing tools that respect you enough not to monetise you and protect against your personal and intimate data being exposed online.