System and method for providing privacy control to message based communications

A system for encrypting and decrypting messages, the system comprising:

• a user computing device comprising a processor and a memory,
• a private messaging application stored in the memory of the user computing device, the private messaging application configured to run on the processor of the user computing device, the private messaging application having a send configuration and a receive configuration:
• the send configuration for generating send encryption keys as message keys for encrypting send messages and for generating a list of recipients authorized to view the send messages, and
• the receive configuration for receiving specific encrypted messages, receiving the entirety of each encryption key as message keys in respect of the specific encrypted messages, decrypting each of the specific encrypted messages with the entirety of the corresponding message key and for viewing encrypted messages in the clear, and
• a privacy service component for communicating with a plurality of user computing devices having the private messaging application, the privacy service component for receiving and storing the entirety of a message key associated with a corresponding list of recipients for one or more messages, and for verifying requests to obtain the entirety of the message key in respect of specific messages.

A method for electronic messaging, the method comprising:

• generating with a first messaging application running on a first user device an encryption key for encrypting messages;
• sending the entirety of the encryption key and a list of recipients to a privacy service component communicatively coupled to the first user device;
• receiving a unique message ID from the privacy service component;
• associating a message to the list of recipients with the unique message ID, and encrypting the message using the first messaging application and the encryption key;
• and
• providing the encrypted message to a messaging service provider.