Privacy, plainly

Last updated: August 14, 2026

Ellarum is a service operated by Expert Craft Inc. Throughout this policy, "we" and "us" mean Expert Craft Inc.

The short version

• Your messages are end-to-end encrypted. Conversations opened by an introduction are encrypted on your device. We store ciphertext we cannot read. Not even Ellarum can open them — that is the point.
• Your asks are readable by Ellarum — on purpose. The text of an ask and its category are readable by our service — that's what lets an ask be carried to the people you pick and passed on, hand to hand. Asks are encrypted in transit and at rest, but they are not end-to-end encrypted. We never show an ask beyond the people it legitimately reaches.
• Profiles stay separate. You can keep a different profile for each part of your life. Another person only ever sees the profile you chose for them. We never disclose to anyone that two profiles belong to the same person, and the system is designed so other users cannot infer it.
• No ads. No selling. No tracking. We don't run third-party ads, don't sell or share your data for advertising, and don't track you across other apps or websites.

What we collect

• Account: your email address (sign-in and account recovery).
• Profiles: the name and any details you type into each profile — this is exactly what your connections through that profile see.
• Asks: the need text and category you write (readable, see above), and who it was routed to.
• Connections: which profiles are connected to which (the graph that makes person-to-person routing possible).
• Messages: ciphertext only, plus routing metadata (who is in a conversation and when messages were sent).
• Usage events: first-party, aggregate counters (an ask was created, an introduction happened). Never message content, never cross-facet linkage, never shared with third parties.

What other people see

• Declining to help is silent — nobody is told who declined.
• An asker sees only "still looking" or "N conversations opened" until someone agrees to be introduced.
• Every introduction shows the chain it traveled (e.g. Ana → Vic → you) — each name shown as the profile that person chose for that connection.

Deleting your data

You can delete your account from the app (Me → Delete account), which removes your profiles, asks, connections, and keys. Message ciphertext addressed to other people's devices may persist for them, exactly as a letter you sent remains with its recipient. You can also email privacy@ellarum.com.

Where data lives

In the United States (AWS, us-west-2), encrypted at rest. Authentication is handled by AWS Cognito.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, we'll say so in the app before the change takes effect.