Messaging apps are spying on you — Here’s how to stay safe in 2025

Social messaging apps tend to make major news headlines a few times per year for either their use in planning some sort of crime or, more routinely, for users’ privacy concerns over how companies like Meta — which owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger — handle user data.

In a somewhat separate event, the Trump administration became the focus of national discussion after members of US President Donald Trump’s cabinet were found to be using Signal to plan military actions in Yemen. While a hack, backdoor access or misuse of user data was not the source of criticism in this scenario, the event did raise national security concerns about Signal’s security and whether or not high-ranking government officials should be using messaging apps to discuss classified information.

Apple’s recent decision to stop offering end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) cloud storage in the UK instead of creating a backdoor that would allow the UK government access to user data also raised eyebrows, and it highlights the ability of tech companies to make unilateral decisions about users’ data and their privacy.

On Episode 58 of The Agenda podcast, hosts Ray Salmond and Jonathan DeYoung spoke to Sessions technical co-founder Kee Jefferys about how the decentralized, encrypted messaging app works to protect users’ privacy and data.

Decentralize, or else the writing is on the wall

By downloading and using messaging apps, users, whether they realize it or not, often give the app and its operator permission to track their location, view their contacts and other data on their phone, and also keep records of their conversations.

Even in instances where the app operator pledges not to do any of the above, if they process and keep user data on just one or two servers, the company itself is a risk of being compromised by hackers — and this presents a direct risk to users.

When asked whether Apple’s aforementioned decision to cease E2EE services rather than grant a government request backdoor access was an isolated event, Jeffreys said it likely was not. “I see countries moving more towards this ideology of pushing applications like backdoors for applications and arresting developers of open-source code,” he said.

“I mean, obviously, we saw this with Durov, the founder of Telegram, being arrested in France. Even though he himself didn’t do anything wrong, because Telegram was being used for malicious acts, the French government felt empowered to arrest the founder, even though all of the Telegram code is open source. So, that’s really concerning from my perspective.”