If your most intimate messages were to be leaked, would the trust between you and the person you sent it to be the same? Even if they weren’t responsible for the breach, a sense of control and security remains broken. A violation of digital privacy is potentially just as traumatic as a physical break-in.
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The psychology of privacy
Why your text messages are more valuable than you think
Texting has the power to improve interpersonal relationships and serves as a powerful force for self-expression and connection. With sensitive information at stake, how could you be sure if the person you’re sending a text to is the only one to receive it? At about 10 million downloads, WhatsApp Messenger’s popularity proves how trusted they are with people’s everyday thoughts and feelings.
Securing Your Messages
Over 100 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp daily through end-to-end encryption (E2EE). With E2EE, data is encrypted on the sender’s system or device and only the intended recipient can decrypt it. As messages, photos, and voice memos travel to their destination, they cannot be intercepted or read by any other service.
Peace Through Privacy
According to Sandra Matz, editor of The Psychology of Technology, “If you think about how you form intimate relationships with other people, oftentimes that comes from sharing personal information of what is happening in our lives, what we care about, what is going on. And that depends a little bit on how you share it.” A feeling of safety is established through having control over the context in which information is shared, – and with E2EE, security.
Privacy regulation in any setting allows us to maintain a sense of control, autonomy, and self-identity.
Protecting Your Autonomy
To secure your network is to secure your thoughts. Philosopher Elliot Cohen argues, “When you invade a person’s text messages, you’re invading their thoughts as well.” Messages aren’t just texts; they are used to form a circle of trust. Privacy sets the stage for people to be authentic. Privacy allows individuals to self-reflect, allowing them to process feelings without being subjected to the views and opinions of others. Whether a group chat of college friends, communications with a colleague, or connecting with a family member in a different country, that circle stays strong as long as the messages remain private. What you share, and with whom you share it is fully under your control with WhatsApp, allowing you to truly speak freely.