Terms of Service

pen.chat · effective May 2026

By using pen.chat you agree to these terms. They are short by design.

What pen.chat is

pen.chat is an ephemeral writing platform. Posts vanish after 24 hours. There is no archive, no history, no algorithm. What you write here is meant to be read and forgotten.

Your account

You must be 13 or older to use pen.chat.
You are responsible for everything posted under your handle.
Keep your password private. We cannot recover it for you.
One account per person. We may remove duplicates.

What you may not post

Content that threatens, harasses, or targets individuals.
Sexual content involving minors. Ever. Under any circumstances.
Content designed to deceive other users about its origin.
Spam, coordinated inauthentic behavior, or bot-generated content.
Anything illegal under applicable law.

We don't police opinion, however uncomfortable. We do remove content that causes direct harm to people.

Your content

You own what you write. By posting it, you grant pen.chat a limited license to display it to other users during its 24-hour window. After that, it's gone. We don't sell your content, train AI on it, or archive it for later use.

Termination

We may suspend or delete accounts that violate these terms, without notice, and without obligation to explain why. You may delete your account at any time. Everything goes with it — immediately and permanently.

Changes

If we change these terms materially, we'll note it here with an updated effective date. Continued use means acceptance.

Limitation of liability

pen.chat is provided as-is. We are not liable for anything you post, anything you read here, or any consequence of using the platform. Use it at your own discretion.

Contact

hello@pen.chat

Privacy Policy

pen.chat · effective May 2026

Short version: we collect as little as possible and keep it as briefly as possible.

What we collect

Your handle and hashed password — necessary to run the service.
Your posts and replies — stored for 24 hours, then permanently deleted.
Your IP address — used only for rate limiting and abuse prevention, not stored long-term.
Your session token — stored in your browser, expires after 30 days.

What we don't collect

Your real name.
Your email address.
Your location.
Behavioral data, ad targeting data, or analytics beyond basic error monitoring.
Anything about your device beyond what Cloudflare logs as standard infrastructure.

Ephemerality

Posts delete themselves after 24 hours. This is not a feature — it's an architectural guarantee. The data is gone from our database. We cannot retrieve it, and we won't try.

Direct messages

DMs are stored in the same ephemeral system as posts — 24-hour window, then deleted. End-to-end encryption is available. If enabled, we store ciphertext only. We cannot read the content.

Third parties

pen.chat runs on Cloudflare infrastructure. Cloudflare may log request metadata as part of standard network operations. We do not share your data with any other third party. We do not run advertising. We do not sell data.

Account deletion

Deleting your account removes everything immediately: your handle, your credentials, your posts, your replies, your messages. Nothing is retained. There is no grace period and no recovery.

Cookies

We use a single session token stored in your browser's local storage. No tracking cookies. No third-party cookies. No fingerprinting.

Your rights

You may delete your account at any time. Beyond that, there is not much to request — we don't accumulate data to export, correct, or transfer. If you have a specific concern, write to us.

Contact

hello@pen.chat

Handle Policy

pen.chat · effective May 2026

pen.chat handles are yours for as long as you use them. We don't sell them, transfer them, or auction them. But we reserve a few rights to keep the platform honest.

Squatting

Registering a handle you have no intention of using — to hold it, sell it, or block someone else from it — is grounds for removal. Inactive accounts are purged after 90 days anyway. There is no market here.

Impersonation

You may not register a handle that creates a false impression you are someone else — a public figure, a brand, another pen.chat user, or pen.chat itself.

Reserved handles

Certain handles — names of public figures, major organizations, and platforms — are reserved and cannot be registered by anyone. This list is maintained by pen.chat and updated at our discretion.

Reclamation

If you register a handle in bad faith, or if we determine a handle is being used to deceive or impersonate, we will remove it without notice. There is no appeal process for impersonation violations. There is no compensation.

Parody and commentary

Parody accounts are permitted if it is immediately and unambiguously clear from your bio or posts that the account is satire. The bio must say so explicitly. If it doesn't, it's impersonation.

The spirit of it

pen.chat is built around anonymity and honest expression. A handle is a pen name, not a claim. Use it to write, not to deceive.

Contact

hello@pen.chat