Absolute privacy is very difficult to achieve, but some apps continue to sell that illusion. SimpleX Chat claims to be the most private messenger in the world. No identifiers, no metadata, no tracking. Sounds good… until you read the fine print in its own policy. Metadata matters, and in some cases more than the data itself. Let's see. It states that “there are no user identifiers, not even hashes or keys.” Yet it admits that servers may store IP addresses, geolocation, and session data to prevent abuse. So which is it? That clause opens the first crack: if IP and location are stored, a technical fingerprint exists. The system may lack usernames, but it still leaves transport traces that can reconstruct identity. It also says servers “cannot know the size of your messages.” Then explains that messages are padded to 16 KB. Meaning they can see the size — it’s just fixed. Privacy through normalization, not invisibility. Public and group messages are another front. SimpleX notes that when you delete a message, “copies on other users’ devices will not be deleted.” User sovereignty ends where others’ devices begin. The infrastructure is decentralized, but servers are community-run. If a third party operates a relay, they can log traffic or IPs. Real anonymity depends on the trustworthiness of operators you’ll never meet. In practice, SimpleX works like a mixnet with distributed trust, not like a fully anonymous network such as Tor. It’s a step forward, yes, but the “no identifiers” marketing sets impossible expectations. The policy claims the company cannot comply with legal requests because it “has no data.” Yet it’s registered in the UK, where the Investigatory Powers Act allows authorities to demand technical cooperation. Real privacy isn’t the same as promised privacy. The system might be well-engineered, but when a policy mixes absolutes (“no data”) with exceptions (“temporarily IP”), the risk hides in the ambiguity. Read every privacy policy as if it were code. Each “we don’t collect” comes with an exception when. Each “anonymous” with an up to a point. Absolute privacy is an ideal not achieved in this product.

SimpleX Privacy Policy