What anonymous really means on DropAsecret

"Anonymous" can mean a lot of things. Here's exactly what it means on DropAsecret: what the person you message sees, what they never see, and the things that can still give you away. The privacy policy has the full detail.

What the link owner sees

When you send someone a message, they see:

• the text of your message, and your later replies;
• any voice note you send. If you chose a mask, it was applied on your device before sending;
• when each message was sent;
• a random nickname such as "Anonymous Fox 42", different in every conversation;
• any reaction you add to their replies.

What they never see

Your name, email address, phone number and IP address. That's true whether you sent as a guest or while signed in. We never sell or reveal who sent a message, and nobody can pay us to find out.

The only way your name is shown is mutual reveal: both of you have to say yes, in that one conversation.

Hints

Link owners with Plus or Creator Pro can see a few hints about a sender. Hints never name you. They are:

• the kind of phone or computer you used, such as "iPhone" or "Samsung Galaxy";
• your country;
• the app you found their link in, when it can be told, such as Instagram or WhatsApp;
• when you first opened their link, and how many times you opened it.

Your country is looked up on our own server from your network address, and the address itself isn't stored.

Hints narrow things down. In a small group, "iPhone, opened the link from WhatsApp, eight times" might be enough for someone to guess. Keep that in mind.

What can still give you away

Anonymity hides who you are from the system. It can't hide you from your own words. The most common ways people are identified are:

• Details only you would know. An inside joke, a place you both went, something said in private.
• How you write. Favourite phrases, your spelling, how you use emojis, even when you're awake.
• Your voice. Masks make a voice harder to recognise, not impossible. See voice notes and masks.
• Timing. Sending a message seconds after you were with someone, or after their story went up, is a clue.
• Telling people. The most common leak of all: telling a friend what you sent.

Anonymous to them, not invisible to us

We keep a small amount of data so replies can reach you and abuse can be limited: your messages, a cookie with a random secret so you can get back to your chats, and scrambled identifiers that let an owner block you without learning who you are. Your network address is used in a scrambled form that changes every day, to limit how fast messages can be sent.

If a court or law enforcement agency lawfully requires it, we may have to hand over the data we hold. Anonymous to another user doesn't mean beyond the law.

If you own a link

• People can see your profile photo and display name, so choose ones you're happy to be public.
• Notifications only say that something arrived, never what it says.
• What people send you is yours to delete. Deleting a conversation removes it for both sides.

If you send messages

• Read your message once before sending and ask: does anything here point to me?
• If you want to keep the conversation, sign in. A guest's chats live in one browser and disappear if its cookies are cleared.
• If you'd rather not be found, don't play guessing games in the conversation.