Privacy Policy
We don’t collect
your data.
Onym is built so there is nothing to collect. No account, no phone number, no email, no tracking, no ads, no analytics. Your identity and your conversations live on your device — not on ours.
Last updated 19 July 2026
The short version
- >We don’t ask who you are. There is no sign-up, no phone number, and no email.
- >We run no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party tracking SDKs.
- >Your keys, contacts, and messages are generated and stored on your device.
- >Messages are end-to-end encrypted. We never see their contents.
- >Because we hold nothing, there is nothing for us to sell, leak, or be compelled to hand over.
What we collect
Nothing. Onym has no servers that store your data and no account system that could hold it. Creating an identity happens entirely on your phone; it produces cryptographic keys, not a profile in a database we own.
We do not collect names, phone numbers, email addresses, contact lists, location, device identifiers, usage statistics, or crash reports. There is no Onym analytics pipeline, no advertising, and no third-party tracking or attribution SDK embedded in the app.
What stays on your device
Your private keys, your recovery phrase, your contacts, your group memberships, and your message history are stored locally on your device. Your twelve-word recovery phrase leaves the device only if you choose to write it down or copy it.
We cannot read any of it. We have no copy of it. If you delete the app or lose your device without your recovery phrase, that data is gone — we cannot restore it for you, because we never had it.
What third parties can see
Onym is decentralized, so your messages travel over infrastructure we don’t own. We’d rather be honest about that than pretend it doesn’t exist:
Relays and media servers. Messages and invitations move through Nostr relays; media (images, video, voice) is stored on Blossom servers. They carry ciphertext — never plaintext — but a relay operator can see connection metadata such as IP address and timing. You can point the app at your own relays and servers, or self-host them, for maximum privacy.
The Stellar network + the relayer. Group membership is anchored on the public Stellar network via a smart contract; a relayer submits the signed transactions and pays the fees. These see ciphertext and on-chain commitments — not your messages, and not which member sent a given message. Run your own relayer and switch to it any time.
Your app store and OS. Downloading and updating the app goes through Apple’s App Store (or Google Play on Android), which have their own privacy policies outside our control.
For the full accounting of who sees what, read the threat model.
Data requests
We have no accounts, no message store, and no social graph. If we receive a legal request for user data, our honest answer is that we have nothing to produce. The only shared state is the public smart contract, which anyone can already read.
Children
Onym is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone — because it collects no information from anyone at all.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new date. Material changes will be noted in the changelog.
Disclaimer — no warranty, no liability
Onym is free, open-source software provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, availability, or security.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the maintainer, contributors, and anyone associated with the project are not liable for any loss, damage, or other consequence arising from your use of — or inability to use — Onym. This includes, without limitation: loss of access caused by a lost or mishandled recovery phrase; loss, delay, or exposure of messages or media; the behaviour of relays, servers, networks, or other infrastructure you or others operate; and the actions of any person you communicate with.
You are responsible for safeguarding your recovery phrase, for the security of your device, and for how you use the app and who you talk to. Strong privacy tools do not make risky decisions safe. Use Onym at your own risk.
Nothing here limits any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Write to lead@onym.app. The source is public across every Onym repo — verify these claims for yourself.