Product
Direct messages that stay private.
In the app, only the people in a conversation see their DMs. As a matter of policy, Vronify staff do not read private conversations, and your connection is encrypted in transit. Private conversations belong to the people in them.
Two kinds of conversations. Two kinds of protection.
DMs are private. Public channels are moderated. We keep the split explicit so you always know which one you are in.
Your DMs: private
- Private to the people in the conversation
- Encrypted in transit between you and us (TLS)
- Vronify staff do not read private conversations
- Yours to keep, even if the other account is banned
- Private by default, for every DM, with nothing to configure
Public channels: moderated
- Readable by the community they belong to
- Moderators can enforce the rules
- Automated filters and slow mode can catch abuse
- Every staff action lands in the audit log
- A deliberate split, not an oversight
What private direct messages actually mean.
Privacy gets used loosely across the industry. Here is what it means when we say it.
When you send a DM, it goes to the people in the conversation, and nobody else sees it in the app. Your connection to us is encrypted in transit. As a matter of policy, Vronify staff do not read private conversations. Privacy here is about who can see your messages: the people you are talking to, and no one else.
We don't read your private conversations
Plenty of platforms mine private messages to target ads or train models. We don't. Vronify runs with zero trackers, zero ads, and no data brokers, and we never sell your data, so there is no business reason to look at your private conversations, and as a matter of policy we don't. That applies to everyday operations and to anyone on the team: private conversations are left to the people in them.
This fits how we run everything else. We never sell data, never show ads, never read private conversations, and never hold data hostage. Private DMs are the strongest version of that promise: the conversation stays between the people in it.
Why public channels are different, on purpose
Community channels are visible to their community and its moderators, and we say so plainly. A community needs moderators who can see and act on what happens in shared spaces. Slow mode, automated filters, and the audit log all depend on the platform being able to process channel messages. Hiding channels from moderators would turn moderation into guesswork and every public server into an unmoderated one. Keeping the split explicit means you always know which kind of conversation you are in: channels belong to the community, DMs belong to you. Read how communities police themselves on the moderation tools page and in the community guidelines.
Where this sits in the bigger picture
Privacy is one layer of a larger stance. Vronify.chat runs with zero trackers, ads, or data brokers, on hardware we own and tune ourselves in the Netherlands. Read more about the overall approach on the privacy page and the security page, and if you ever find a weakness in how we built any of it, we want to hear about it through vulnerability disclosure.
The life of a private DM.
Four steps from your keyboard to their screen. We carry the message so it is waiting even if the recipient is offline, and we don't read it.
You write it
You type the message in your browser, with nothing to install. The conversation is between you and the person you are writing to.
Your device sends it
Your device sends the message over a connection that is encrypted in transit (TLS), so it travels to us protected from anyone in between.
We carry the message
Our servers route and store the message so it is waiting even if the recipient is offline. Vronify staff do not read private conversations. It rides the same infrastructure that delivers messages in under 40ms median in Europe, so private does not mean slow.
Their device shows it
The recipient's device receives the message and renders it. A private DM still feels like modern chat, with replies, edits, reactions, and read receipts. The conversation simply stays between the people in it.
DMs and channels, side by side.
Same app, same speed, different guarantees. Here is the exact split, row by row.
You can delete your account at any time, which anonymizes it: your name and profile are removed, and the messages you already sent stay in their conversations attributed to a deleted user. Channels keep only a bounded window of recent messages, so old content ages out over time. You can also export your data any time while you can sign in.
Privacy is half the story. Ownership is the rest.
Private messages matter most when the account they belong to is actually yours, in good times and bad.
A ban never takes your DMs
A ban only stops participation. You keep your account, every message you ever sent, and the DMs you received, unless the sender removed them. Losing a community does not mean losing your private life.
How account ownership worksDelete your account anytime
When you want out, you can delete your account at any time. Deleting anonymizes it: your name and profile are removed, and the messages you already sent stay in their conversations attributed to a deleted, anonymous user, so other people's conversations stay intact.
Export any time
Your conversations are yours to take with you. Export your data whenever you want. No request forms, no waiting for an email, no exit fee.
Never held hostage
We never hold data hostage. There is no feature wall between you and your own messages, and no "upgrade to see your full history." What you wrote is yours, full stop.
No ads, trackers, or brokers
Zero trackers, ads, or data brokers. Your private conversations are not an advertising signal here, because there is no advertising to feed. Nobody profiles what you say to a friend.
Nothing to install
Vronify.chat is browser-first. Private DMs work in the same tab as everything else: no separate app to download, no plugin, no setup wizard. Mobile and desktop apps are coming soon.
Numbers we are proud to keep at zero.
Privacy keeps your DMs between the people in them. These numbers keep the incentives honest.
Honest limits.
Privacy is powerful, not magic. Here is exactly where its protection ends, so you can plan for the rest.
What it protects you from
- Us reading them: as a matter of policy, staff do not read private conversations
- Anyone in between: connections are encrypted in transit (TLS)
- Ad targeting: your DMs are never an advertising signal, because there are no ads
- Profiling: nobody builds a profile from what you say to a friend
What it cannot do
- Stop the recipient from copying, screenshotting, or sharing what you sent them
- Protect a device someone else controls: malware or an unlocked, borrowed laptop sees what you see
- Save an account with a weak password: whoever signs in as you reads as you
- Undo a deletion: deleting your account anonymizes it and cannot be undone
The practical takeaway: treat a private DM like a private conversation. The person you send it to holds a real copy and can do what they like with it, so send private things only to people you actually trust. Protect the endpoints too: use a strong, unique password, keep your devices updated, and sign out on machines that are not yours. Our security page covers what we do on our side of that line.
Questions about private DMs.
Can Vronify employees read my DMs?
As a matter of policy, they don't. Vronify staff do not read private conversations. There is no ad business or data-broker relationship that would give anyone a reason to, and reading private conversations is not part of how the product works day to day. What you send stays between you and the person you are talking to.
Why are public channels visible to moderators?
Because communities need moderation, and moderation needs visibility. Slow mode, automated filters, and the audit log only work if moderators can see channel messages. Hiding shared spaces from moderators would make every public server unmoderatable. We think the honest design is a clear split: channels are visible to their community and its moderators, and DMs stay between the two people in them.
Can server owners or moderators see my DMs?
No. DMs live outside servers entirely. Roles and permissions govern what people can do inside a community; they grant no access of any kind to private conversations. Server owners and moderators cannot see your DMs.
What happens to my DMs if I am banned somewhere?
Nothing. A ban only stops participation in that community. You keep your account, every message you ever sent, and the DMs you received, unless the sender removed them on their end. On platforms where a ban can vaporize years of private conversations, that history was never really yours. Here it is. The account ownership page explains the full promise.
What if someone harasses me in DMs?
Privacy protects your conversation; it never silences you. You are one of the two ends of the conversation, so your copy is yours to keep and to show. If someone is abusive in your DMs, contact us and include what they sent you. Because we don't read private conversations, reports from recipients are exactly how problems in private conversations reach us, and we act on them.
Will the upcoming bot engine be able to read DMs?
No. The bot engine, which is coming soon, only processes events inside servers where the owner has switched it on. It has no access to DMs, and private conversations stay between the people in them. That boundary is permanent, not a launch-day setting.
Do I have to turn privacy on or set anything up?
No. Every DM is private, always, for everyone. There is no toggle to find, no "secret chat" mode to remember, and no way to accidentally send a DM that is not private. Protection you have to opt into is protection most people never get, so we made it the only mode.
Can I export or delete my private conversations?
Both, on your terms. You can export your data any time while you can sign in. And you can delete your account at any time, which anonymizes it: your name and profile are removed, while the messages you already sent stay in their conversations attributed to a deleted user. Fair warning: deletion cannot be undone, so export first if you want a copy for yourself.
Your community. Your rules. Your data.
Create a server, invite your people, and see what chat feels like when your account actually belongs to you.
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