Privacy Glossary
Metadata
Data about your data - often more revealing than content
In Short
Information about communications (who, when, how long, how often) rather than the content itself. Often reveals patterns even when content is encrypted.
Explained
Metadata includes sender/recipient identities, timestamps, message sizes, frequency of communication, IP addresses, and device information. Security researchers have shown metadata can reveal relationships, habits, and activities even without reading message content. 'We kill people based on metadata' - former NSA director.
How zkChat Implements This
zkChat minimizes metadata by requiring no accounts, no phone numbers, and no persistent identities. We don't log IP addresses or connection patterns. Room IDs are random and meaningless. The only metadata we see is encrypted blob sizes.
Related Concepts
See It In Action
Experience metadata firsthand with zkChat.
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