Terms of use

Last updated: September 24, 2026 · version 3

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These terms govern the use of the Ephemera app. Creating an account means agreeing to them. They are written to be read — if anything here is unclear, write to contato@ephemera.app.br.

1. What Ephemera is

A social network with no memory. Each session is a 24-hour life: you hatch, get a randomly drawn name, appear as a dot on a map alongside everyone who is alive right now, talk to whoever you like, and when the 24 hours end you and all your conversations disappear — from your device and from our servers.

This is not a flaw, it is the service. There is no backup, there is no way to recover a conversation, and we can't either. By using the app you accept that everything you write will be deleted, without notice and without exception.

2. Minimum age: 18

Ephemera is only for people aged 18 or over. By creating an account you declare that you are 18 or older. We have no way to verify this, so the declaration is your responsibility. If we learn that an account belongs to a minor, it is closed.

3. Your account

To come back between one life and the next you need an email and a password. We don't ask for your name, phone number, ID or photo, and there is no social login. The email must be confirmed: we send a link, and the account only works once you open it.

No other user can see your account. Nobody in the app knows your email, your preferences or the names you have had before.

You can delete your account at any time, inside the app. What survives deletion is listed in section 9.

4. How conversation works here

• Your name is drawn for you — a Greek word and a number. You can draw another one as many times as you like, but you can't write your own. It disappears with the life.
• Your position on the map is drawn within the region you declared. We don't use GPS and we don't ask for location permission. You choose whether to show your state as well as your country.
• To talk to someone you send a call: a single message. The conversation only exists if the other person replies. You will also receive calls from strangers — replying is always optional.
• Text only. There are no photos, audio, video or files, and there won't be.
• Ending a conversation can be done at any time, and it is not the same as blocking.
• Blocking is final within that life: it ends the conversation, prevents further contact in both directions, and cannot be undone — not by you, not by us.

5. Translation

Messages are translated on your device, not on our servers. To do this, the app downloads a language pack from Google, of about 30 MB per language, the first time it needs one. The text of your conversations is never sent for translation.

The download uses whatever connection is available, including mobile data; there is a setting to restrict it to Wi-Fi. You can delete the packs whenever you like, in You → Translation packs.

Machine translation makes mistakes, especially with slang. What the other person wrote is what they wrote.

6. Your conversations are encrypted — and what that doesn't cover

Messages are end-to-end encrypted: we can't read them. The key is born and dies with your life, inside your device.

Three consequences you need to know about:

• What we still know: who talked to whom, when, and the approximate size of the messages. This is unavoidable in order to deliver a message.
• Reinstalling the app in the middle of a life makes those conversations unreadable forever. The key was only on your device and we keep no copy. This is our promise working as intended, not a defect.
• There is one exception, and only one: if you report a conversation, your own device sends it in readable text along with the report. See section 7.

7. Reports, and what they send

If something goes wrong, you can report it from the conversation menu. When you report:

• The entire conversation is sent, in readable text, with the date and time of each message. The screen shows exactly what will be sent, before you send it.
• A member of the moderation team reads that conversation. Who read it and when is recorded.
• It is kept for 180 days and then deleted — unless an authority orders it preserved, or the case involves a minor.
• Reporting does not automatically sanction anyone. The decision is human.
• You can also be reported, and the same thing happens with your conversation: it is read by a person and kept for the same period.

A report of sexual content involving a child or adolescent is reviewed with priority and forwarded to the competent authorities, with the material preserved for as long as the investigation requires.

8. Sanctions and defense

Depending on severity and repeat behavior, a reviewed report can lead to: dismissal, ending the conversation, ending the life in progress, a 7- or 30-day suspension, or a permanent suspension. The permanent one exists only for sexual content involving a minor or for threats, and is never automatic.

The suspension applies to this account and to this device, and only in Ephemera. Nothing else on your phone is affected, and we don't collect IMEI or serial numbers — what we keep is a mark that is only useful to this app.

You can ask for a review inside the app, once per sanction. A person reads what you wrote. If the review finds in your favor, the suspension is lifted immediately.

The record of a sanction is kept for up to 24 months after it stops being in force, and then deleted. Permanent sanctions are kept for as long as they are in force.

9. What does not disappear

Deleting your account deletes your email, password, preferences and the life in progress. It does not delete:

• Access records — IP address and time, kept for 6 months because Brazil's Marco Civil da Internet (art. 15 of Law 12,965/2014) requires it.
• Reports made against you — 180 days, or longer if an authority so determines.
• The record of sanctions, for the period in section 8.
• Purchase receipts, for the tax-retention period, when there are purchases.

Your conversations were already gone: they never outlast the life.

10. Notifications

If you allow it, we notify you when someone calls or sends a message. The notification shows only who spoke, never the text. To do this, the name drawn for that life passes through Google's notification service. You can mute the sound in the app and deny the permission in the system, without losing anything else.

11. Rules of conduct

Not allowed: sexual content involving minors; threats, violence or incitement; harassment, hate or discrimination; unsolicited sexual content; scams, spam or requests for money; and insisting on taking the conversation outside the app.

The app warns you when you are about to send personal contact details, or to ask for someone else's. It is a warning, not a block: the decision is yours, and so is the consequence — what leaves here is no longer protected by disappearance.

12. Availability, changes and liability

The service may become unavailable, change or be shut down. If it is shut down, we will give reasonable advance notice — but remember there is nothing to export, by design.

If these terms change in a material way, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the app after that means agreeing to the new version.

We are not responsible for what other users write, nor for what you decide to reveal about yourself. The app was built so that you don't need to reveal anything. Nothing here removes the rights that Brazil's Consumer Protection Code (Código de Defesa do Consumidor) gives you.

13. Who is responsible, governing law and venue

Ephemera is operated by Márcio Oliveira de Souza Mello. Contact: contato@ephemera.app.br.

Brazilian law applies. The courts of the user's place of residence are chosen as the venue for disputes arising from these terms, as the Consumer Protection Code allows.

If you live outside Brazil, disputes arising from these terms will be brought before the courts of the operator's place of residence, in Brazil — without removing the rights that the law of the country where you live gives you and that cannot be waived by contract.

14. Languages of these documents

These terms and the privacy policy are published in Portuguese, English and Spanish. The English and Spanish versions exist to make them easier to read. If there is any difference in meaning between them and the Portuguese version, the Portuguese version prevails.