Privacy Policy

Encryption and current limitations

Message text, photos and files are encrypted in your browser before upload. The server stores ciphertext and encrypted chat keys, not plaintext or private keys. This is not a guarantee against a compromised service, sign-in provider or device. Security hardening is in progress; do not use Honest.Chat for sensitive communications yet. Existing chats do not provide forward secrecy, and removed members may retain older chat keys.

Device keys and recovery

New messages bind the sender, conversation and message identifier to encryption and signatures. Messages that fail signature verification are not displayed or used to load attachments. New chat key handoffs carry an owner-signed membership list, pinned on this device. Sending checks the current list again and stops when it changes; create a new conversation with fresh keys rather than reuse the old group key. This containment is not a forward-secret messaging protocol, and cannot prevent a malicious server from hiding a membership change.

Before opening chats, you create an account-bound, passphrase-encrypted recovery backup. This replaces raw saved private keys with non-exportable browser keys without changing your public identity or old messages. Non-exportable keys cannot be downloaded directly, but malicious code running in an unlocked browser could still misuse them or read displayed messages. New key handoffs use context-bound key derivation and signatures. Previously observed chat keys and owner identities are remembered on this device; a fresh device still requires trusted safety-number verification.

What we do store

Your email, display name, username, optional TXC address, public keys, which chats you belong to, and when messages were sent. We need these to deliver messages.

Honest Money sign-in

We receive your member ID and email from honest.money to link your account. Honest Money is trusted to authenticate you; compromise of its sign-in system could compromise your account. We report a service-used event with your member ID and any referral code to Honest Money when you sign in. No message content or private keys are included. The external Honest Money referral script has been removed from this app.

Blockchain data

TXC addresses and transactions are public on the TEXITcoin network by nature. Only share an address you're comfortable linking to your profile.

Experimental TXC mailbox

The mailbox lab is separate from existing chats. Manually pasted watch-only account keys and compared contact cards remain in the open page. Ecosystem wallet linking temporarily stores the approved branch public key, wallet identity address and signature in an account-bound callback record; collecting approval clears that response. Uncollected responses may remain stored after their five-minute approval window expires; expiration is not a deletion guarantee. No seed or spending key is requested. The wallet signature binds the requested branch and current device public-key fingerprint, but trusts the wallet's derivation statement rather than independently proving hardened ancestry. Encryption uses this device's existing protected identity; contact address rotation does not rotate that identity. Downloaded encrypted packages include a receiving address and public signing key, so anyone retrieving a package can correlate that key across packages. This prototype is not anonymous or forward-secret.

Mailbox scans contact the selected TXC node and IPFS gateway directly; those operators can observe your IP address, requested receiving addresses and content identifiers, withhold results, or log requests. Content identifiers are checked against retrieved bytes, but a node's reported history is not independently validated against TXC consensus. Blockchain notices cannot be erased; IPFS copies may survive indefinitely. No pin duration or deletion guarantee is implemented. Test IPFS publication uses an authenticated Honest.Chat helper; transaction signing is not connected, and live delivery has not yet been proven.

We don't sell data

We never sell your information or show ads.

Deleting

You can delete your own messages and their uploaded encrypted files. This cannot erase copies already downloaded by other members or guarantee immediate removal from backups. Contact us through honest.money to delete your account.