Do I need an account to use masked.chat?
No. You can use masked.chat without creating an account, and your vault stays entirely local to your device. Creating an account is optional and unlocks cross-device continuity: we store an encrypted version of your vault on our servers so you can pick up seamlessly on another device. We cannot read the contents of that encrypted vault.
Can masked.chat see my private data?
No — and this is a core design principle, not just a policy promise. Because masking happens locally on your device before anything is transmitted, masked.chat's servers never receive your real PII. Even the encrypted vault synced to our servers for account holders is opaque to us. Privacy protection is built into the architecture, not just stated in our terms of service.
How does cross-device sync work?
When you create an account, masked.chat encrypts your identity vault and stores a copy on our servers. When you sign in on a new device, that encrypted vault is downloaded and decrypted locally. The decryption key stays on your device — our servers hold only the ciphertext, so sync is convenient without being a privacy risk.
What's the difference between my account password and my vault password?
Your account password is what you use to sign in to masked.chat — a normal login credential, and one we can reset for you if you lose it. Your vault password is different: it's the key that unlocks your identity vault, the encrypted mapping between your real PII and its masked placeholders. The two are completely independent — changing one never affects the other, and we have no access to your vault password at all.
What happens if I forget my vault password?
There's no way to recover it, and no way for us to reset it — this is by design. Your vault password never leaves your device, which means masked.chat has no way to see it, store it, or restore it for you. If we could recover it, we could also access your vault, which would break the privacy-by-design promise the whole product is built on.
If you forget your vault password, your only option is to delete your existing vault and create a new one. Everything in the old vault — every masked-to-real PII mapping — is lost permanently and cannot be brought back. Please store your vault password somewhere safe, like a password manager.
What is the vault PIN?
For convenience, you can optionally set a 6-digit PIN to unlock your vault instead of typing your full vault password each time. The PIN is a shortcut, not a substitute: after a long enough period, masked.chat will ask for your full vault password again to re-confirm you still have it. Forgetting your vault password isn't solved by having a PIN — vault recovery still isn't possible either way.
Can I delete my account?
Yes. Go to Settings → Account and choose Delete account. This permanently removes your account, identity vault, and chat history, and can't be undone.
What happens when I delete my account?
Deleting your account is permanent and immediate. It removes your masked.chat account, your identity vault, and your entire chat history — all of it, from our servers and any synced devices. There is no recovery window and no way for us to restore your data afterward, so make sure it's what you want before confirming.
Does deleting my account also delete my local data?
Account deletion removes everything stored on our servers. Any data still cached locally on a given device (like an offline copy of your vault) should be cleared separately on that device, since masked.chat can't reach devices that aren't currently signed in.
Can I get my account back after deleting it?
No. Because your identity vault is encrypted and only your vault password could ever unlock it, and account deletion erases that encrypted vault entirely, there's nothing left for us to restore — even if you contact support right after.