Metadata.
The data about the data. Encryption seals what you said; metadata is everything wrapped around it — identifiers, timing, sizes. A private messenger has to be judged on both.
Metadata is information surrounding a communication rather than its content: identities, addresses, timestamps, frequencies, sizes. It is what remains visible to infrastructure even when content is perfectly encrypted.
What it is
Every network service sees some metadata — IP addresses at minimum, since that's how the internet routes. The design question is what gets added on top. Account systems, phone numbers, and contact-book uploads turn metadata into a social graph; CarrierPony refuses all three.
Why it matters
Metadata compounds: enough of it reconstructs relationships without reading a single message. Minimizing what exists — no names, no numbers, opaque key-derived routing identifiers, envelopes deleted on delivery — shrinks what any observer or breach can ever learn.
Related terms
Common questions.
Does CarrierPony hide my IP address?
No messenger's server can avoid seeing connecting IPs — that's how the internet works. If IP privacy matters to you, a VPN composes cleanly with CarrierPony. What the app avoids is attaching an identity to the connection.
Is metadata really that revealing?
Patterns of who-talks-to-whom-and-when have historically been enough to map organizations. That's why no-accounts is a security feature, not a convenience.
Get CarrierPony
Free private messaging and file transfer for iPhone. No accounts, no tracking, no phone numbers.