---
title: "Privacy — what we hold, and for how long"
description: "A plain-English summary of what a shared SMS inbox holds, what happens to a message after it arrives, how long things are kept, and what is still undecided."
canonical: "https://sharedsmsinbox.com/privacy"
---

# What we hold, and for how long

> A plain-English summary of what a shared SMS inbox holds, what happens to a message after it arrives, how long things are kept, and what is still undecided.

A plain-English summary of the information behind your shared inbox: what arrives, what is kept, what is erased on a timer, and what we have not decided yet.

- [Get your number](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com)
- [Create free account](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com)

_No credit card required. Pay only when you choose your number._

## The information behind your inbox

Your company number receives text messages, and the teammates you approve read them in a browser. These are the things that exist so that can happen.

- **The text messages sent to your number.** They arrive, they are shown to the people you have approved, and the text of each one is erased on a timer. Whoever sends the message decides what is in it. We do not control that, and neither do you.
- **Your numbers, and who can see each one.** Access is a named list of people. Administrators can see every number on the team; everybody else sees only the numbers they have been given.
- **The name and email address of each person on your team.** That is what lets a colleague sign in as themselves instead of sharing one password around the office.
- **A record of account activity.** Access given and removed, people added and removed, numbers added and released, messages opened and codes copied. An administrator can review it.

> A text message can contain anything the sender chose to put in it, including things you would rather it did not. If a service is texting something to your number that should not be read by everyone with access, that account belongs somewhere other than a shared inbox.

## What the information is used for

It is used to deliver your messages, to work out who is allowed to see them, to keep the record of account activity, and to take payment for the numbers on your account.

**Your connection to the service uses HTTPS.** What passes between your browser and your inbox is encrypted on the way.

**We do not claim your messages are encrypted in a way that stops us reading them.** They are not. The service has to be able to show you a message, so the service can read the message. Anyone weighing this up for genuinely sensitive material should factor that in. The [security page](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security) sets out what we do and do not claim.

**Administrators can see every number on the team.** That is what makes somebody an administrator, and it is worth knowing before you make one. Keep the list short and give everyone else only the numbers they need.

> Where your information is stored, and which other companies help us run the service, are on the list of things still being confirmed further down this page.

## The text of a message does not stay

**The text of a message, and any code inside it, is permanently erased a set time after the message arrives.** The default is 72 hours, and an administrator can change that setting for your team. The erasure cannot be undone, by you or by us.

**The record that the message arrived stays.** Your team can still see who sent it, when it came in and which of your numbers it came to. What goes is the content.

This is deliberate rather than a limitation. A login code is useful for a few minutes and a liability for the rest of its life, so the product does not keep one lying around.

> How long the record of account activity is kept, and what happens to your information after you cancel, have not been settled yet. Both are in the list below.

## The decisions that are yours

Most of what happens to the information above is set by you, in the product, in a few seconds.

- **Who can read each number.** An administrator gives access one person at a time and can take it away at any time. Removing one person changes nothing for anybody else, and no password has to be reset.
- **How long message text survives.** 72 hours is the default. A shorter window means less sitting around waiting to be read by the wrong person; a longer one means more history for your team to look back at.
- **Which accounts point at your number.** Nothing arrives unless somebody has entered the number somewhere, so you decide which company accounts send texts to it.
- **Whether the number exists at all.** You can release a number and stop paying for it. There is no contract and no minimum term.

What you cannot control is what a sender puts in a message. That decision belongs to the service doing the sending.

> **This page is a summary, not a legal document** It is written in plain English so your team can actually read it, and a lawyer has to review it before this service goes live. Everything above describes how the product behaves today. The items below have not been decided yet — we would rather tell you that than write something reassuring we would have to take back.

## What we cannot tell you yet

These are real questions with no settled answer. Rather than guess at them, here they are.

- **Where your information is stored**, and whether we can promise it stays in a particular country or region.
- **Which other companies help us run the service**, and what each of them can see.
- **A written data processing agreement**, for teams whose own policies require one before they can sign up.
- **How long the record of account activity is kept.**
- **What happens to your information after you cancel**, including whether you can take a copy with you and how to ask for deletion.
- **Any independent audit or certification.** We have none to point at, and we are not going to imply otherwise.
- **Whether picture messages are supported.** Assume text only for now.
- **Cookies and analytics on this website.**

If one of these is the question that decides whether your team can use the service, please ask before you rely on it. An honest “not yet” is more use to you than a confident answer that turns out to be wrong.

## Where to go next

- [Security and access](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security) — Who can read your messages, how access is given and removed, and what we deliberately do not claim.
- [How it works](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/how-it-works) — What happens between a text being sent and your team reading it.
- [Help](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/help) — Practical answers about running the inbox day to day.
- [Terms](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/terms) — The other half of the paperwork, written the same way as this page.
- [Pricing](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/pricing) — $49/month per phone number, with no contract and no per-user charge.

## Look around before you decide anything

Creating an account is free, asks for no payment details and commits you to nothing. You are asked to pay at one point only: when you activate a number.

- [Get your number](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com)

_$49/month per phone number. No credit card required. Pay only when you choose your number._

---

Canonical: https://sharedsmsinbox.com/privacy

Every page of this site is also available as Markdown. Site map: https://sharedsmsinbox.com/llms.txt