Interview with Kee Jefferys: The Visionary Resolving Big Tech's Failure to Fully Protect Your Privacy

In the past decade, instant messaging has become the backbone of modern communication, seamlessly connecting billions of users worldwide.

In the past decade, instant messaging has become the backbone of modern communication, seamlessly connecting billions of users worldwide. From casual conversations to mission-critical business discussions, these platforms are deeply embedded in our daily lives.

However, as their user bases have soared, so have concerns about privacy and security. Many of the most popular messaging apps, despite offering encryption, still expose users to significant privacy risks, even though these apps are used by people who are actively concerned with their privacy. The issue isn’t just about securing message content—it’s about the vast amount of metadata that these platforms collect.

Metadata, which includes details like IP addresses, phone numbers, social graphs, and interaction patterns, can be just as revealing as the messages themselves. For journalists, activists, and privacy-conscious users, this kind of data exposure is a serious threat.

That’s where Session comes in. Designed to combat metadata surveillance at every level, Session provides a truly private messaging experience. With anonymous signups, a decentralized infrastructure, and advanced encryption layered with onion routing, Session ensures that users send messages—not metadata.

To delve deeper into how Session is reshaping secure communication and how its native token $SESH is facilitating the development of a decentralized messaging ecosystem, we spoke with Session Co-Founder Kee Jefferys. In this exclusive interview, Kee sheds light on the urgent need for metadata-resistant messaging, the challenges of building a decentralized platform, and what the future holds for privacy-focused technology.

Q: Can you start by explaining what Session is and what inspired its creation?

Jefferys: Session is an open-source, privacy-focused messaging app designed for secure, decentralized communication with complete anonymity. Unlike mainstream messaging apps, Session doesn’t require a phone number or email to signup, ensuring user privacy from the outset. It was created in response to growing concerns over data collection, metadata exposure, and centralized control over communication platforms.

With Session, users can send messages without worrying about their information being logged, tracked, or exploited. It is designed to be used by anyone who values privacy, especially those in environments where communication security is paramount. This includes journalists, activists, members of civil society organizations, and anyone else who may be subject to increased surveillance or censorship.

Q: What are the implications of Session being open-source and what does it mean in practice?

It allows for public scrutiny and independent audits to validate security. Anyone can examine the code, ensuring transparency and accountability. This builds trust and confidence that the app functions as advertised. In addition, it enables a community of developers to contribute to the app's evolution.

Q: You highlight features like “send messages, not metadata,” “no phone number or email required,” and “no metadata, no logs.” Can you expand on what this means and why it’s so important? How does this work in practice?

Many popular messaging apps, even those with end-to-end encryption, collect vast amounts of metadata. This includes things like your IP address, phone number, who you’re talking to, and when. This metadata can be used to infer a great deal about an individual, such as their political views, religious beliefs, and personal relationships. It’s like watching someone’s entire life unfold through a hazy window.

Session is designed to minimize metadata creation and leakage at every step. Session users can have confidence that their conversations are truly private, and they can move about in the digital world with less fear of being observed or tracked.

When you sign up for Session, your device generates a cryptographically secure Account ID. This ID is your contact information, and no personal information is required to create it. Session also uses a decentralized network of storage servers and onion routing to route and store your messages, which means that even Session developers don's have access to your data or metadata.

Q: You mention a decentralized network with over 2,200 nodes. Can you explain how this network operates and why it’s crucial for privacy and censorship resistance?

Session uses a network of nodes to route and temporarily store messages. These nodes are operated by community members all around the world. Messages are stored across this distributed network, making it extremely difficult for any single party to access or censor user data.

Nodes are constantly joining and leaving the network, further enhancing privacy as messages are routed through different paths at different times. This decentralization is essential for true censorship resistance. If one node is shut down or becomes inaccessible, the network will continue operating without interruption.

Q: What makes Session different from other messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal in terms of providing a private messaging experience?

Session differs significantly due to its focus on complete anonymity and a decentralized architecture.

Many messaging apps require users to provide personal information such as a phone number or email address for account creation. However, these details can be used for identification and