Ephemera Privacy Policy

Ephemera does not persist your messages or images, and has no accounts — but it is also not end-to-end encrypted. Read "Security model" below before using it for anything sensitive.

Overview

Ephemera ("the Application") is a minimal, no-signup messaging web app built on Cloudflare Workers and Durable Objects. This policy explains exactly what data the Application handles, where it lives, and what happens to it.

What data is processed

Ephemera processes only what's needed to relay a live conversation:

Messages and images you send in a room, relayed in real time to the other people currently in that room.
Room codes — short identifiers used to let people join the same room.

Ephemera does not ask for or collect your name, email, or any account information — there is no account system.

What is never stored

Messages and images are relayed live between connected participants and are not written to any database or persistent storage. There is no message history to look back on, by design — once a room's participants disconnect and the room cleans up, there is nothing left to recover, for you or for anyone else.

What is stored, briefly, and why

A server-side registry tracks which room codes currently exist and whether the system is at its active-room limit, so it can enforce a maximum of 3 active rooms at once and clean up abandoned rooms. This registry holds room lifecycle metadata only — never chat content — and entries expire automatically (roughly 10 minutes for inactive/unclaimed rooms, roughly 2 minutes after a room empties out).

Security model

Messages travel over a secure WebSocket connection to Ephemera's server, which relays them to everyone in the room. This connection is encrypted in transit, but messages are not end-to-end encrypted — the server relays plaintext content rather than opaque encrypted blobs. There is also no authentication: anyone who has a room's code can join it. Treat Ephemera as private-by-default for casual use, not as a tool for sensitive or confidential communication.

Third parties and analytics

Ephemera does not use analytics, tracking, or advertising. It runs entirely on Cloudflare's infrastructure (Workers and Durable Objects) to serve the app and relay messages.

Authentication and payments

Ephemera has no accounts, sign-in, or payment functionality of any kind.

Data retention and deletion

There is nothing to delete on request, because message and image content is never persisted in the first place. Room metadata (the fact that a room code exists) clears itself automatically per the timings above — there is no manual deletion flow because none is needed.

Changes to this policy

Ephemera is an early-stage MVP and may change. If a future version adds persistence, accounts, or end-to-end encryption, this policy will be updated first, and the version and effective date above will change accordingly.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent through the contact page.