The short version
- This website sets no cookies and has no analytics, trackers or third-party content.
- The apps have no telemetry, analytics or ads, and talk only to the servers you sign in to.
- Your messages live on the blabbur server you use, and its operator decides what happens to them.
- Everything is encrypted in transit, but messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
Who we are
blabbur is software for running your own chat server. This website, blabbur.io, is run by the blabbur project.
Each blabbur server is run by its own operator: the person who set it up. The operator decides what happens to the data on their server. This policy describes what the blabbur software does; if you use someone else's server, ask them how they run it.
The server at chat.blabbur.io is run by the blabbur project, so on that server, the operator is us.
This website
- It's hosted on Cloudflare Pages.
- It sets no cookies and has no analytics, no trackers and no third-party content. Every font, image and script is served from blabbur.io itself.
- Cloudflare, as our host, processes technical data such as your IP address to deliver the site and protect it, under Cloudflare's own privacy policy.
- Download links go to the chat.blabbur.io server, which sees your IP address, like any web server does.
- Invite, sign-in and password reset links (blabbur.io/i, /l and /r) keep their details after the
#. Browsers never send that part to a website, so we don't receive it: those pages only read it on your device, to show what the link is and open the app.
The blabbur apps
- No telemetry, no analytics and no ads.
- The app talks only to the servers you sign in to, and that includes checking them for updates.
- Your sign-in tokens are kept in your operating system's secure credential store: Windows Credential Manager, the macOS Keychain, or the Linux keyring.
- Your preferences stay on your device.
A server's operator can also point the app at other services: a STUN server that helps voice calls connect, or an outside sign-in provider. Neither is used unless the operator sets it up.
On a blabbur server
This is what a blabbur server holds, and so what its operator holds:
- Your account: your username and a salted hash of your password (Argon2), never the password itself; and, if you add them, a display name, avatar, banner and bio.
- What you send: your messages, reactions, attachments and direct messages, and the servers (guilds) you join.
- Sign-in sessions, one for each device you're signed in on.
- IP addresses, used for rate limiting and security. They may appear in the server's logs.
- An audit log of moderation and admin actions.
- Backups, kept for a limited time.
blabbur doesn't ask for your email address, so a server doesn't have it.
Encryption, honestly
Everything travels encrypted: HTTPS (TLS) between the app and the server, and DTLS-SRTP for voice and screen sharing.
Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They're stored on the server, and the server's operator can technically read them. Use a server run by someone you trust.
Voice and screen sharing
- Calls and streams are not recorded.
- One-to-one DM calls go directly between the two devices when possible, so each device can see the other's IP address.
- Group calls and streams are relayed through the server in real time, and not stored.
Phone apps and push notifications
The phone apps aren't out yet. When they are:
- To deliver notifications, your phone registers with Apple (APNs) or Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging), through the blabbur push relay at push.blabbur.io.
- Each notification is encrypted by the server so that only your phone can read it. The relay, Apple and Google see only an opaque device token and encrypted data: not the message and not the sender. Apple and Google can't tell which blabbur server it came from.
- The relay stores nothing. Like any web service it sees the address of the server that sends a notification, and it doesn't log that, your device token or the notification.
- Your phone's own settings decide whether message text shows on the lock screen.
Your choices
- Edit your profile any time.
- Log out of a device. That ends its session on the server.
- Ask your server's operator to delete your account, or delete it yourself in the app once that feature ships.
- When an account is deleted, its profile is removed. Its messages stay, shown as "Deleted user".
- Forgot your password? Your server's admin can reset it.
Children
blabbur isn't directed at children under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions about this policy, this website or the chat.blabbur.io server: [email protected]. For any other blabbur server, contact the person who runs it.