# dark social

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. Interactions via the World Wide Web that cannot be publicly viewed, tracked or logged, such as private messages, texts and e-mails.

## Etymology
From dark (“hidden, secret”) + social (“relating to social media or social networks”); compare Dark Web (“the portion of the Deep Web hosted on restricted networks”).
Coined 12 October 2012 by Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic (see quotations), in reference to Internet traffic (clicks) from hyperlinks sent via private messages that are thus invisible to most analytics programs.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/dark-social