Are Bumble Messages Encrypted?

Bumble's own pages do not say so. They describe moderation and server security, but they do not claim that messages are end-to-end encrypted. What they do say is that Bumble takes reasonable security measures, such as secured servers with firewalls. They also say it reviews messages for content that breaks its rules. So the safe assumption is that a Bumble chat is private from strangers, but not sealed from the company that runs it.

Bumble's privacy policy describes four things that matter here.

It says Bumble takes reasonable security measures to protect your information. Its example is secured servers with firewalls.

It says Bumble uses internal automated systems and a team of moderators to monitor and review accounts and messages for content that breaks its Terms and Conditions.

It says Bumble reviews the content of messages sent in the app to identify topics, sentiments and trends. It says it first takes steps to remove personally identifying information.

And it says Bumble will not share the content of user messages, or information derived from them, with any third party.

Read together, those lines describe a company that looks at messages itself, by machine and by people, and that promises not to pass them on. That is a different thing from encryption where only the two people in the chat hold the key.

For most men, the practical meaning is small. Nobody is sitting reading your plans for Friday. But the review is real, and a message that breaks the rules can be seen by Bumble's moderators.

Bumble also says it works with law enforcement through a portal on valid legal requests. So a chat can reach investigators through that route when the request is valid.

Bumble's help center says it does not show read receipts or online status on messages. That protects something else: a woman cannot see that you read her message and left it, and you cannot see the same about her.

It is an easy thing to mix up with privacy. It changes who can see your habits inside the chat. It does not change who can see the words.

You can ask for a copy of your data, which can include your conversations. Bumble says to do that through chat support, by asking to Request data.

There is a catch with a conversation that has two sides. Bumble says you and your match each need to file a separate request, and each of you receives your own side of it. So a copy from you alone does not give you what she wrote.

Since Bumble says it reviews messages, by machine and by moderators, the working rule is to write as though a stranger might read the chat at some point. You need not be stiff about it. Just leave out anything you would hate to see quoted back to you, such as a threat, an insult or a boast you cannot back up.

Encryption does not protect you from the person you are writing to. She has your words on her screen. She can show them to a friend, read them out at dinner, or take a screenshot. None of that involves breaking anything. It is what happens to a sentence once it reaches the person you sent it to.

So the better question than whether the app is secure is whether you would be comfortable with her best friend reading what you wrote. Funny and flirtatious reads well to a friend. Crude, angry or needy does not.

a dating coach's advice on messaging is not to go quiet. He wants men to move a good conversation toward a number and a date instead of spending weeks on small talk. That also solves the privacy worry, because a short chat that ends in a plan leaves less behind.

Some habits that follow:

• Keep details like your address, your workplace and your daily routine out until you have met her.
• Never write anything you would not say to her face across a table.
• Move to a call or a meeting once she is clearly interested, rather than letting a long chat build up on the app.

If you do swap numbers, remember that Bumble's privacy policy covers what happens in Bumble. Once you move to another app, that app's rules apply, so check its settings before you carry on.