Privacy Policy

1. No Message Storage

Quell never stores, logs, or persists the content of your messages. Each message is processed in real time, rewritten by AI, forwarded to the recipient, and immediately discarded. There is no message history, no chat archive, and no way for anyone — including Quell staff — to retrieve past messages.

For clarity, we define the following terms as used throughout this policy:

• "Store" — persist to disk, database, or any durable medium for any duration.
• "Log" — write to application logs, error logs, traces, or monitoring systems.
• "Process" — hold in server memory during the request lifecycle (typically 1–3 seconds), after which the content is discarded.

Message content is processed by Quell but never stored or logged by Quell. Our application logging system is configured to redact message body content at the point of ingress. Telecommunications carriers and other third-party services involved in message delivery may retain data according to their own policies, which are outside Quell's control.

2. What We Collect

We store only the minimum routing metadata required to operate the service:

• Your phone number and your counterpart's phone number
• The Quell phone number assigned to your channel
• Stripe customer and subscription identifiers
• Rate-limiting counters (message counts per time window)
• Consent records (timestamp, phone number, and method of consent)
• Preferences (custom display names for the other participant)

This metadata contains no message content whatsoever.

2A. SMS Data Practices

When you opt in to Quell's SMS service, we collect your mobile phone number and consent record (timestamp, method, and keyword used). We use your phone number solely to operate the Quell proxy channel — delivering rewritten messages between participants and sending service-related notifications.

We do not sell, rent, lease, or share your phone number or any personal information collected through our SMS service with third parties for their marketing or promotional purposes. Phone numbers are shared only with our SMS delivery providers (Telnyx and Twilio) as necessary to transmit messages, and with Stripe for subscription management.

Your opt-in consent and phone number are not shared with any third party for that third party's own use.

For questions about SMS data practices, reply HELP to any Quellmessage or email hello@textquell.com.

3. Third-Party Services

Quell relies on the following third-party services to operate. Message content is transiently processed by some of these services during the request lifecycle but is not stored by Quell or, to our knowledge, retained by these providers beyond what is needed for processing:

• Fireworks AI — AI inference provider that hosts the models used for message rewriting (DeepSeek V3.2, MiniMax M2.5).Quell does not instruct Fireworks AI to retain message content.
• Telnyx — Provides SMS delivery. Telnyx processes messages in transit but Quell does not instruct Telnyx to store message content.
• Twilio — Provides SMS delivery. Twilio processes messages in transit but Quell does not instruct Twilio to store message content.
• Stripe — Handles subscription billing. Stripe receives only payment information, not message content.
• Vercel — Application hosting (US East region). Hosts the Quell application code. Does not receive or store message content beyond transient in-memory processing.
• Supabase — Database hosting. Stores only routing metadata as described in Section 2. No message content is written to the database.
• Microsoft Clarity — Website analytics used to improve site usability. Does not receive or process any SMS message content.

Quell does not sell, rent, or share your personal information, including your phone number, with third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Data Retention

• Routing metadata (phone numbers, channel configuration) — retained for the duration of your active subscription. Deleted immediately upon subscription cancellation.
• Rate-limiting counters — rolling 1-hour window, purged by daily maintenance.
• Message deduplication records (message IDs only, no content) — purged after 48 hours.
• Consent records — retained for 7 years after last activity for compliance purposes.
• Message content — zero retention. Never written to any persistent store.

5. Cookies and Analytics

Quell uses a single first-party cookie to randomly assign visitors to different versions of the landing page (A/B testing). This cookie contains only a single letter (e.g., "A" or "B"), expires after 30 days, and is not used for behavioral tracking, advertising, or cross-site identification.

Quell uses the Reddit Pixel, a small piece of code provided by Reddit, to measure the effectiveness of our advertising on Reddit. The pixel may collect your IP address, browser type, and page visited. If you arrive at our site from a Reddit ad, a click identifier ("rdt_cid") may be stored in a first-party cookie for up to 7 days to attribute conversions. This data is shared with Reddit for ad measurement purposes only and is governed by Reddit's Privacy Policy. We also send server-side conversion events (e.g., email signups) to Reddit using hashed email addresses for ad attribution. No message content is ever shared with Reddit.

Quell uses Microsoft Clarity to help improve the website experience. Clarity collects website usage data using first-party cookies and is governed by Microsoft's Privacy Statement. No SMS message content is shared with Microsoft.

The interactive demo uses a browser fingerprint (a non-identifying technical hash generated from your browser and device settings) to limit free demo rewrites to one per visitor and prevent abuse. This fingerprint is not personally identifiable information, is not shared with any third party, is used only for demo access control, and is automatically deleted after 90 days.

6. Children's Privacy

Quell is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a minor has used the service, please contact us at hello@textquell.com and we will take appropriate steps to remove their information.

7. Your Rights

You may request deletion of your routing metadata at any time by canceling your subscription or contacting us. Since we do not store message content, there is no message data to delete or export.

California Residents (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to know — You may request that we disclose what personal information we collect, use, and share.
• Right to delete — You may request deletion of your personal information. Canceling your subscription achieves this.
• Right to opt-out of sale — Quell does not sell your personal information to third parties.
• Right to non-discrimination — We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

8. Data Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information, including: encrypted transport (TLS) for all communications between your device, our servers, and third-party services; content-free application logging with redaction at the point of ingress; and least-privilege access controls for production systems. No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify affected users within 72 hours of discovery via SMS to your registered phone number and, where available, by email. The notification will describe the nature of the breach, what information was affected, steps we have taken in response, and recommendations for protecting yourself. Note that because Quell does not store message content, a breach of our systems cannot expose the content of your messages.

10. Law Enforcement Requests

Because Quell does not store message content, we cannot produce message content in response to any request, including subpoenas, court orders, or government demands.

Routing metadata (phone numbers and channel configuration) may be disclosed in response to valid legal process. We will notify affected users of such requests unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

11. Geographic Scope

Quell is a US-based service. All data is processed in the United States. The service is intended for users located in the United States with US phone numbers (+1 country code).

12. Contact

Privacy questions? Email us at hello@textquell.com.