Platform messages are private
The claim
Messages on the platform are private
Partly true
Private from other users, and that is not the same as private.
Two different meanings of private
- Private from other users
- Yes. Another buyer cannot read your conversation with a vendor. This is what most people mean and it holds.
- Private from the platform
- No, unless you encrypted the content yourself before sending. Platform side encryption means the platform holds the keys, which is a different guarantee entirely.
- Private if the account is compromised
- No. Whoever holds the account reads the history, and a compromised account is most valuable precisely as a way to read and to speak as you.
- Private forever
- No. Messages persist until deleted and sometimes after, and the thread is exactly what a dispute panel reads.
The distinctionEncrypted in transit and encrypted from the operator are different properties that get described with the same word. The first is normal, the second requires you to do it.
What actually follows
Encrypt anything sensitive yourself, with a key the platform does not hold, and treat the message system as a channel rather than a vault. That is the standard practice for a reason and it is the only version of privacy here that does not depend on the operator behaving.
What to keep out of messages regardless
- Anything identifying beyond what an order requires. Conversational details accumulate into a picture across a long thread.
- Wallet seeds and passwords. No legitimate exchange needs either, and this belongs on every list.
- Links to anywhere you control. A link ties an identity here to an identity elsewhere permanently.
- Anything you would not want a dispute panel reading. The thread is submitted whole, and selective quoting reads as selective quoting.
The useful reframing
Write every message as though it will be read later by somebody deciding a dispute, because it might be. That single habit produces better privacy than any setting, keeps the record clean if you ever need it, and costs nothing. It also happens to be the version of the advice that survives whether or not the claim on this page turns out to be true.