HeeHaw

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Legal

Effective Date: July 26, 2025

Introduction

Welcome to our suite of privacy-respecting services. We are committed to protecting your privacy and providing services with a “minimal data” philosophy. Our goal is to collect and store only the absolute minimum data necessary to operate our services effectively and securely.

This document outlines our Terms of Service (ToS), our Privacy Policy, and provides clear instructions for law enforcement inquiries. By using any of our services, you agree to these terms.

Our services include:

  • A Conduit instance for the decentralized Matrix communication protocol.
  • A Tor Relay (middle relay, not an exit node).
  • A PairDrop instance for peer-to-peer file sharing.
  • A News Aggregator.
  • Localized instances of the Element and FluffyChat Matrix clients.

Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age to create an account on our Matrix server or use any of our services. By using our services, you represent and warrant that you meet this age requirement.

2. User Conduct

We expect all users to comply with the laws of the United States. You are solely responsible for your conduct and the content you share or transmit through our services.

While we are staunch advocates for free speech and privacy, activities that are illegal under U.S. law are strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, sharing illegal content, harassment, or engaging in fraudulent activities.

We do not actively police user-generated content. However, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that we have reason to believe are engaged in illegal activities, particularly upon receipt of a valid legal order.

3. Service Availability

Our services are provided on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis. We do not guarantee that the services will be uninterrupted or error-free. We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of our services at any time, with or without notice.

Privacy Policy

Our core privacy principle is data minimization. We only collect what is essential to run the services and retain it for no longer than necessary.

1. Conduit (Matrix Homeserver)

This is the only service we offer that stores user data.

  • Data We Store:
    • Account Information: Your username, a hashed version of your password, and the email address you may have provided for registration or password recovery.
    • Metadata: Timestamps for account creation, last login, and IP addresses associated with logins and client usage. This is necessary for security, abuse prevention, and basic operation.
    • Room Memberships: Information about which public or private rooms your account is a member of.
    • Encrypted Messages: Your messages are stored on our server so they can be delivered to you and other users in a room, even when you are offline. However, all private conversations and the vast majority of all message content are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) by default using the Matrix protocol. We do not have the keys to decrypt your messages. The content is inaccessible to us and appears as unintelligible ciphertext.
  • Data Retention: We retain this data only for the duration that your account is active. If you choose to delete your account, all associated data is permanently removed from our active databases, subject to our obligations under any lawful data preservation order.

2. Tor Relay

We operate a middle relay in the Tor network.

  • We DO NOT operate an exit node. This means traffic leaving our relay is still encrypted and bound for another Tor node, not the public internet.
  • We DO NOT log any traffic or IP addresses passing through our relay. We have no information about what data is being transmitted or its origin or destination. We only see encrypted data streams between other nodes in the Tor network.

3. PairDrop Instance

Our PairDrop instance facilitates direct, peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers.

  • Files are sent directly from one user’s web browser to another using WebRTC.
  • No files, parts of files, or data about your transfers are ever stored on our servers. Our server’s only role is to help two devices discover each other (a process known as “signaling”).

4. News Aggregator & Hosted Clients (Element, FluffyChat)

  • News Aggregator: This service does not require a user account and does not store any personally identifiable information. We may collect anonymous, aggregate usage statistics for the sole purpose of service maintenance and improvement.
  • Element & FluffyChat: These are hosted instances of the official open-source clients. We do not modify them to collect any data. When you use them to connect to our Matrix homeserver, the data handling is governed by the Conduit (Matrix Homeserver) policy detailed above.

Law Enforcement Information

We are committed to respecting privacy while complying with our legal obligations under United States law. This section is intended for law enforcement authorities seeking information or data.

1. Legal Process Requirements

We will disclose user data only upon receipt of a valid and legally binding order from a U.S. court with proper jurisdiction. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • A valid subpoena.
  • A court order issued under the Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. § 2703).
  • A search warrant.

All legal requests should be as specific and narrowly tailored as possible, identifying the specific user account(s) and data requested.

2. Data Availability by Service

Our ability to respond is strictly limited by the data we actually possess.

  • Conduit (Matrix Homeserver):
    • What we MAY be able to provide under a valid legal order: Basic subscriber information such as username, account creation date, and the IP address used for registration or last login.
    • What we CANNOT provide: We CANNOT provide the content of end-to-end encrypted messages. We do not possess the decryption keys and have no technical means to access this information.
  • Tor Relay, PairDrop, News Aggregator, Clients:
    • We hold no user accounts, logs, or personally identifiable information for these services. Therefore, we have no data to provide in response to a legal request concerning these services.

3. Preservation Requests

We will honor formal data preservation requests from law enforcement pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f). A preservation request requires us to retain a snapshot of specified account data for 90 days, pending receipt of a formal legal order.

4. Contact for Law Enforcement

All legal process, preservation requests, and inquiries from law enforcement should be directed to our official contact email. Please include the case number, your agency, and contact information in your correspondence.

How to Contact Us

General Inquiries

For general questions about our services or this policy, please contact us via email. We have made the link below not immediately visible to bots, please click it to see the address.

Click here to email us

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify users of any significant changes by posting the new policy on this page. Your continued use of our services after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the new policy.