Messengers
Olvid privacy rating
End-to-end encrypted messenger from France that needs no phone number, email or other personal data; contacts are added by exchanging keys. Certified under the French ANSSI CSPN scheme.
Summary
Olvid scores 81 out of 100 (grade B) on the messengers criteria. It meets 5 of 8 criteria: no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, end-to-end encrypted by default, no phone number needed and metadata protection. It partly meets open source and independent audit. It does not meet decentralized. It is based in France: Nine Eyes member; EU member (GDPR).
Score 81 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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Partial
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
The apps and the message distribution server are AGPL-3.0, but server code for paid enterprise features is not published.
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Yes
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The privacy policy states Olvid collects no personal data; Exodus only detects the OpenCensus library bundled with Google's API client, and Firebase Analytics is excluded from the build.
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Yes
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Free for personal use and funded by paid licences, with no ads.
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Partial
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
Synacktiv's full CSPN evaluation reports are public, but they are older than three years.
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Yes
End-to-end encrypted by default Weight 3 of 3
Are all chats, including groups, end-to-end encrypted by default?
All messages, group discussions, calls and metadata are end-to-end encrypted.
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Yes
No phone number needed Weight 2 of 3
Can an account be created without a phone number?
No phone number, email or other personal data is needed to create a profile.
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Yes
Metadata protection Weight 2 of 3
Does the service minimize who-talks-to-whom metadata (for example sealed sender or no user identifiers)?
Metadata is encrypted end to end and there is no user directory, so the server cannot identify who is talking.
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No
Decentralized Weight 1 of 3
Can people run their own server or talk peer to peer?
One central service run by Olvid; the published server code does not federate.