Last updated: March 23, 2026

Privacy Policy

Short version: we collect the minimum we need to run the service, we don't sell or share it, and you can delete everything at any time.

What we collect

Email address

Required at registration. Used for account recovery only. Never shown publicly.

Screenname

Your public identity on Signoff Chat. Stored in plaintext.

Posts & away messages

Stored in our database. Public posts are visible to other users per your audience setting.

Channel & board messages

Stored encrypted. See the Encryption section below — we cannot read these even if compelled.

IP address

Logged transiently for rate limiting and abuse prevention. Not linked to your account in long-term storage.

Payment info

Handled entirely by Stripe. We store only a Stripe customer ID and subscription status — never raw card data.

What we don't collect

No ad-targeting profiles
No tracking pixels or third-party analytics
No sale or rental of your data to anyone, ever
No behavioral fingerprinting
No data brokers

Encryption

All data is encrypted in transit using TLS. Channel and board messages use end-to-end encryption (ML-KEM-1024 + AES-256-GCM). Your secret key is derived from your account and never sent to our servers.

This means: even if a government or court demands the contents of a conversation, we cannot provide readable message content. We can confirm that messages exist, but we cannot decrypt them.

Data retention

Free accounts retain 90 days of post history. Gold members retain unlimited history. You can delete individual posts at any time.

Delete your account and all your data — posts, messages, profile, email, everything — is permanently deleted within 30 days. We do not retain ghost records or anonymized copies.

Cookies

We use exactly one cookie: the NextAuth session cookie. It is HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax; Secure and contains only your session token. No third-party cookies. No analytics cookies. No advertising cookies.

Third-party services

Stripe

Payment processing for Gold memberships and tips. Subject to Stripe's privacy policy.

Pusher

Real-time presence and messaging delivery. Message content is encrypted before transmission.

UploadThing

Profile image and media storage.

Upstash

Redis-backed rate limiting. No personal data stored.

Contact

Privacy questions: privacy@signoffchat.com