Privacy policy

Burner IM has no servers, no accounts and no analytics. We do not collect, receive, store or sell any personal data. We cannot read your messages, because they never pass through anything we operate.

What we collect

Nothing.

There is no sign-up. The app never asks for a name, phone number, email address, or contact list. It never contacts a server we run, because we do not run one. No analytics, crash-reporting or advertising SDK is included.

What stays on your device

On first launch the app generates an identity key pair, an encryption key pair and a Tor onion service address. These live in the iOS Keychain, marked as usable only on that device, and are never included in a backup. If you delete the app they are gone.

Your messages, attachments and contact list are stored on your device, encrypted under a key that also lives only in that Keychain. The app's data folder is excluded from iCloud and iTunes backups. Choosing Delete all chats and contacts destroys the storage key, so anything left behind is unreadable.

What leaves your device

Messages travel directly from your phone to your contact's phone over the Tor network, encrypted end to end with keys only the two of you hold. Every packet is signed with your identity key. Tor relays see encrypted traffic and cannot see who you are talking to or what you say.

Your contact, and only your contact, learns your onion address, your public keys and the display name you chose. That is what a contact code contains. Nothing about you is sent anywhere else.

Permissions

Camerais used only to scan a contact's QR code, and to take a photo or video you choose to send. Photo library and microphone are used only when you attach media or record a voice note. Nothing is accessed without your action, and nothing from these sources is uploaded to us.

What we cannot do

We cannot recover your messages, reset your identity, remove a contact for you, or respond to a request for your data, because we hold none of it. If you lose your phone, the conversations on it are lost with it. That is the design.

Children

Burner IM is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone; there is no information to collect.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it and the new text appears here. Questions about it can be sent through the feedback page.