Privacy

What the server cannot read

Message text, attachments, voice notes and shared locations are encrypted on the sending device and decrypted only on the receiving one. The server stores the ciphertext and the keys to open it never leave your devices, so the server cannot read the contents of your conversations. Nobody operating it can, and neither can anyone who obtains a copy of the database.

Voice and video calls connect directly between devices where the network allows it, and are encrypted in transit either way. When a direct connection is impossible the audio and video pass through our relay server as encrypted traffic it cannot decrypt.

What the server does store

• Your account — email address, username, the name you choose to display, a password hash, and an avatar if you upload one.
• Ciphertext — your encrypted messages and attachments, with who sent them, which conversation they belong to, when they were sent, and whether they have been delivered and read.
• Public keys — your identity key, signing key, signed prekey and a pool of one-time prekeys, so other people can start an encrypted conversation with you. The private halves never leave your device.
• Push tokens — the identifier your phone's operating system issues so we can wake the app for a message or an incoming call, along with the platform it came from.
• Contacts you save — which accounts you have added, and any nickname you gave them. Nicknames are stored on your device only.
• Call metadata — who called whom, when, whether it was audio or video, whether it was answered, declined or missed, and how long it lasted. Not the call itself, but this is real metadata and we are not going to pretend it does not exist.
• Blocks and reports — who you have blocked, and, if you report someone, who you reported, the reason you chose and any note you wrote. Reports never include message content: we cannot read your messages, and a report form is not going to become the way we start.
• Device security signals — the results of the checks your phone runs on itself (jailbreak, debugger, screen lock and so on), so the person you are talking to can be warned. These are described in full on the home page.

What we do not do

• No advertising, no ad identifiers, no profiling.
• No analytics or crash-reporting SDKs in the app.
• No selling or sharing of personal data with anyone.
• No third-party trackers on this site — this page loads nothing from anyone else's server.
• No access to your address book. You find people by username.

How long things are kept

Messages follow the retention window you choose in the app — keep forever, or delete automatically after 1, 6, 12 or 24 hours. A conversation uses the strictest window chosen by anyone in it, so if the person you are talking to sets a shorter one, that one applies to both of you. Expired messages are deleted from the server and from the devices that hold them.

Everything else — your account, keys, contacts and call history — is kept until you delete it.

Server logs and abuse prevention

Our servers keep ordinary operational logs, which include IP addresses and the time of a request, and the waitlist on the home page stores the email address you submit until you unsubscribe. Logs are used to keep the service running and to stop abuse, not to build a profile of you.

Children

Skytale is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly create accounts for them.

Your rights

You can see and change your account details in the app, export nothing you did not already have (your messages live on your device), and delete everything as described above. If you are in the EEA or the UK, the deletion route above is also how you exercise your right to erasure. For anything else, write to us.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what is stored or who can see it, the app will say so rather than relying on you to re-read this page.

Contact

support@skytale.site — privacy questions, data requests, anything on this page. Security issues: security@skytale.site.