Last updated August 4, 2026

Privacy Policy

Outpost is free, open-source (MIT), self-hosted chat software — not a company, not ad-supported, and nothing here is sold to anyone. This page covers the Outpost mobile/desktop apps and the default server they connect to on first launch.

Self-hosted software: who actually controls your data

Outpost apps can connect to any Outpost server, not just one operated by us — the same way an email app can point at different providers. Whichever server you're signed into is the one that actually stores your account, messages, and files, and its operator is the one who can access, correct, or delete that data. This policy describes the apps themselves and our own default server, outpost.sonofatech.com. If you join or are invited to a different self-hosted instance, that operator's practices apply instead, not this page.

What the app stores on your device

• Your login session (an auth token), so you don't have to sign in every time.
• Local preferences — theme, notification, and voice/audio settings (microphone selection, push-to-talk vs. voice-activity mode).
• Nothing else. The app itself contains no analytics SDK, no crash-reporting SDK, and no advertising code — we don't know you're using it unless you're actively talking to a server.

What our default server (outpost.sonofatech.com) collects

To provide chat/voice service at all, the server necessarily stores:

• Account info — email address, username, avatar, and a securely hashed password (or WebAuthn/TOTP credential if you enable two-factor auth).
• Messages and files you send — stored so channel history and uploaded images/attachments actually work. Voice audio is relayed live between participants via our self-hosted LiveKit server and is not recorded or stored.
• Standard server logs — IP address and timestamps for requests, the same baseline logging any web server keeps, used only for abuse prevention and debugging.
• Moderation records — if a server moderator warns, mutes, kicks, or bans an account, that action is logged (who, when, why) so moderation is auditable.

Two features send data to a third party as part of doing their job:

• GIF search — search terms you type into the GIF picker are sent to GIPHY to return results.
• Link previews — if you paste a URL into a message, the server fetches that URL once to generate a preview card (title/image), the same way most chat apps do.

Nothing is shared with data brokers or advertisers, and nothing is sold, ever.

Children's privacy

Outpost is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.

Your choices

You can leave any server at any time from within the app. To request access to, correction of, or deletion of data held by our default server specifically, use the contact info below — if you're on a different self-hosted instance, contact that server's own operator instead.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll update the date at the top of this page and note it in the changelog.

Contact

Questions about this policy or a data request for our default server: use the support form or email support@outpost-chat.com. For anything about the software itself, source code, or a self-hosted instance you run yourself, see GitHub.