Last updated: January 6, 2026
The short version: Gossamer doesn't want your personal information. No phone number. No email. No name. You're just a random ID on a device.
When you first open Gossamer, a "ghost account" is created automatically. This is a technical session account containing only:
Ghost accounts contain NO personal data and cannot be linked to your real identity by us.
Your data is used exclusively to:
We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for marketing or advertising. We do not display ads. We do not track you across apps or websites. We do not use analytics SDKs.
We may share data with law enforcement when legally required.
Active Data:
After Deletion:
For legal compliance and abuse prevention, deleted data is retained in a secure archive before permanent deletion:
| Data Type | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Account data | 90 days |
| Message content | 180 days |
| Message metadata | 365 days |
| Abuse reports | 365 days |
After retention periods expire, data is permanently deleted unless under legal hold.
We may disclose account data when required by law, such as in response to:
Because we don't collect personal information, we can only provide what we have: random account IDs, cryptographic keys, message content, and timestamps. We cannot identify users by name, phone, or email—we don't have that information.
Gossamer is private, not lawless.
We take abuse seriously and maintain the ability to:
Privacy protects you from data harvesting and tracking. It does not protect bad actors from consequences.
You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from within the app.
Since we don't have your email or phone number, we can't identify you to respond to external data requests. Your ghost account is the only record we have.
We may update this policy as the service evolves. Continued use of Gossamer after changes constitutes acceptance.
Questions about privacy? Email privacy@gossamer.chat