A common question about private messengers is what happens if a government or law enforcement agency demands data from the company behind the app. The honest answer depends entirely on what the company actually has access to — and that varies far more than most people assume.

Most explanations of encrypted messaging focus on a conversation between two people. Group chats introduce a different set of problems, and understanding them matters if you assume a "private" messenger behaves the same way in a group as it does one-on-one.