Encrypted Messaging

What is encrypted messaging?

Encrypted-messaging platforms traditionally encrypted messages only in transit (e.g. between a device and the cloud) and the data was often stored unencrypted on servers. While this kept intermediaries/infrastructure from viewing the data in transit, company employees or vendors with access to the server/encryption key could still view the data. Lately, encrypted messaging increasingly refers to end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which uses public-key cryptography to ensure messages are only readable to the sender and recipient (and their associated devices). With E2EE, the app developer and their employees (and any other intermediaries between the sender and recipient) are not able to read the communications, even if faced with a subpoena. If their servers are hacked, the data still would not be readable. End-to-end-encrypted messages are also typically not stored on servers once they’ve been delivered to a device.