Terms — sTELgano

Acceptance

By Using sTELgano, You Accept These Terms

By accessing or using sTELgano, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, do not use the platform. These terms are written in plain English because we believe legal documents should be understandable by the people they affect.

What sTELgano Is

Service Description

sTELgano is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted messaging platform that uses contact-layer steganography. Two people share a "steg number" -- a random phone number saved in each other's contacts -- and each picks a PIN. All cryptography happens client-side in your browser. The server only ever sees SHA-256 hashes and AES-256-GCM ciphertext.

sTELgano is not a replacement for professional security tools. It is designed to protect against intimate-access attackers -- someone who picks up your unlocked phone. It does not protect against governments, law enforcement, or targeted malware. We are honest about this throughout the product.

Terms & Conditions

AGPL-3.0

Open Source License

sTELgano is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). You are free to fork, modify, and self-host this software. Any improvements or modifications you make must be shared back under the same license. The full license text is available in the project repository.

Disclaimer

No Warranty

This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied. There are no guarantees of uptime, availability, or suitability for any particular purpose. The protocol may contain bugs. Use it at your own risk and with full awareness of the stated threat model.

Liability

Limitation of Liability

In no event shall the contributors, maintainers, or operators of sTELgano be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages arising from the use or inability to use this software. This includes, but is not limited to, damages for loss of data, privacy breaches, or service interruptions.

Updates

Modifications to Terms

These terms may be updated from time to time. All changes are tracked in the public git repository with full version history. Continued use of sTELgano after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. We encourage you to review the commit history for transparency.

Your Responsibilities

Critical: Read This Carefully

You are responsible for your PIN and steg number. If lost, they are unrecoverable. We cannot help -- the server never sees your plaintext credentials.
You must comply with the laws of your local jurisdiction when using sTELgano.
You must not use the platform for any illegal activity, including but not limited to harassment, threats, or distribution of illegal content.
You are responsible for securing your own device. sTELgano protects your messages, not your phone.

Acceptable Use

Permitted Use

Legitimate personal privacy and anonymous communication
Protecting sensitive conversations from casual device snooping
Journalism, whistleblowing, and activist communication
Testing, auditing, and contributing to the open-source project

Prohibited Use

Harassment, stalking, threats, or intimidation of any kind
Distribution of illegal content or materials
Attempts to compromise, reverse-engineer, or attack the platform
Any activity that violates the laws of your jurisdiction

Additional Terms

Account Termination

There are no accounts to terminate. sTELgano has no registration, no login, and no user profiles. Rooms expire automatically based on their TTL. You can instantly destroy your session at any time by visiting the panic route (/x), which clears all local data including session storage and caches.

Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws applicable to the jurisdiction in which the service operator resides. For self-hosted instances, the operator's local laws apply. sTELgano is an open-source tool -- legal responsibility for its deployment rests with whoever hosts the instance you are using.