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 at least 13 years old to use pen.chat. If you are a resident of the EU or EEA, you must be at least 16.
By creating an account, you confirm you meet the age requirement for your country of residence.
You are responsible for everything posted under your handle.
Keep your password private. We cannot recover it for you — it is stored in hashed form only.
One account per person. We may remove duplicates without notice.

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 in your jurisdiction.

We do not 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, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to display it to other users during its 24-hour window. After that, it is permanently deleted. We do not 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 prior notice. You may delete your account at any time from within the app. All associated data is removed immediately and permanently.

Changes

If we change these terms materially, we will update the effective date above. Continued use means acceptance. If you disagree with a change, your remedy is to delete your account.

Limitation of liability

pen.chat is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, pen.chat is not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the platform. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law. If you are a consumer in the EU or UK, your statutory rights are not affected.

California (CCPA)

pen.chat does not sell personal information as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act. We do not share personal information with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which pen.chat operates. If you are a consumer in the EU or UK, you also benefit from any mandatory protections afforded by the laws of your country of residence.

Contact

hello@pen.chat

Privacy Policy

pen.chat · effective May 2026

Short version: we collect as little as possible, keep it as briefly as possible, and never sell it.

Who we are

pen.chat is operated as an independent platform. For privacy enquiries, contact us at hello@pen.chat. We will respond to all legitimate data requests within 30 days.

Lawful basis (GDPR)

We process your personal data on the basis of contract performance — to provide the service you signed up for. We do not rely on consent as a legal basis, so you do not need to withdraw it.

What we collect

Your handle and hashed password — stored in our database. Your password cannot be read or recovered by us.
Your posts, replies, and direct messages — stored for 24 hours, then permanently and automatically deleted.
Your IP address — processed transiently by Cloudflare for rate limiting and abuse prevention. We do not log or store IP addresses ourselves.
Browser storage — we store functional data in your browser's localStorage and sessionStorage: your session token, a draft post, last-seen conversation timestamps, and temporary navigation state. This persists until you log out, delete your account, or clear your browser storage. It is never transmitted to third parties.

What we don't collect

Your real name.
Your email address.
Your location or device GPS data.
Behavioral data, ad-targeting data, or tracking identifiers.
Analytics beyond what Cloudflare logs as standard infrastructure operation.

Ephemerality

Posts, replies, and direct messages delete themselves automatically after 24 hours. This is an architectural guarantee — not a setting. Once deleted, the data is gone. We cannot retrieve it and will not attempt to.

Direct messages & encryption

DMs are subject to the same 24-hour deletion cycle. Where your browser supports the Web Cryptography API (all modern browsers do), pen.chat automatically generates an end-to-end encryption key pair for your account. Messages are encrypted in your browser before transmission. We store ciphertext only and cannot read encrypted message content. If your browser does not support encryption, the app will notify you and messages will be stored unencrypted, still subject to 24-hour deletion.

Third parties

pen.chat runs on Cloudflare infrastructure. Cloudflare processes request metadata as part of standard network operations — their privacy policy governs that processing. 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 your handle, hashed password, all remaining posts, replies, and messages — immediately and permanently. There is no grace period and no recovery.

Local storage & cookies

pen.chat does not use tracking cookies or third-party cookies. We do not use fingerprinting. Functional data stored in your browser (session token, draft, navigation state) is local to your device and not shared with advertisers or analytics providers.

Your rights (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you are in the EEA or UK, you have the right to: access the personal data we hold about you; correct inaccurate data; erase your data (delete your account); restrict or object to processing; receive your data in a portable format; and lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In the EU, see edpb.europa.eu. In the UK, see ico.org.uk. To exercise any right, email hello@pen.chat — we respond within 30 days.

California (CCPA)

pen.chat does not sell personal information as defined under CCPA. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. California residents have the right to know what data is collected, to delete it, and to opt out of its sale — though we do not sell it.

Children

pen.chat is not directed at children. Users must be at least 13 (or 16 in the EU/EEA). We do not knowingly collect data from anyone below the applicable age threshold. Contact us if you believe a minor has created an account and we will delete it promptly.

Changes

If we change this policy materially, we will update the effective date above. Continued use constitutes acceptance.

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. 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. This includes obvious variations: if @orwell exists, registering @georgeorwell to trade on that identity is the same violation.

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 does not, it is 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