🔐 How Group Chat Encryption Works on UTurn

At UTurn, we take your privacy and security seriously. While one-on-one direct messages use end-to-end encryption, group chats are protected using industry-standard encryption — designed to keep your data safe while also helping us protect the platform from misuse.

Here’s everything you need to know about how your group chat messages are secured, and why we chose this approach.

Group Chats Are Secure — Just Not End-to-End Encrypted

When you send a message in a UTurn group chat, it is protected using industry-standard encryption protocols (such as TLS — Transport Layer Security) while it travels from your device to our servers and then to the other group members.

This means:

• 🛡️ Messages are encrypted in transit — protected from interception while being sent.

• 🔒 Messages are not stored on our servers — we do not log group chat content.

• 👥 Messages are only visible to members of the group at the time they are sent.

However, group chats are not end-to-end encrypted. This means that, unlike one-on-one chats, messages are decrypted on UTurn’s servers before being delivered to recipients.

Why Not End-to-End Encryption for Group Chats?

We believe in transparency, so here’s the reason:

To maintain a safe and ethical community, we chose not to apply end-to-end encryption to group chats.

While we strongly support user privacy, end-to-end encryption would make it technically impossible to intervene if a small minority of users tried to create groups for illegal, abusive, or harmful activities. By keeping group messages decryptable on our servers, we can act responsibly and quickly if needed to prevent misuse — while still respecting the privacy of law-abiding users.

This choice allows us to strike a balance between personal privacy and platform safety.

Your Privacy Still Matters

Even without end-to-end encryption, your group chats are designed with privacy in mind:

• ✅ We do not store group chat content after it is delivered.

• ✅ We do not scan or monitor active group messages unless legally required to investigate misuse.

• ✅ We do not use your messages for advertising, AI training, or third-party sharing.

You can still chat freely and privately — and report any suspicious activity to our trust & safety team if you ever feel uncomfortable in a group.

Want Private, End-to-End Encrypted Conversations?

If you're looking for fully end-to-end encrypted messaging, try one-on-one chats instead. These messages are locked on your device and can only be unlocked by your contact’s device.

👉 Learn how end-to-end encryption works in direct messages →

In Summary

UTurn group chats are secured using industry-standard encryption, protecting your data during transit while enabling responsible moderation. It’s part of our commitment to building a platform that’s both private and safe for everyone.

We’ll continue to evolve our encryption approach as technology advances and will always keep you informed every step of the way.