How TypVault protects you
TypVault protects you with a set of enforced guarantees. This page lists all of them.
Enforced means each guarantee is backed by the software and its tests. The software carries a test for every entry on this page, and that test fails if the guarantee stops being true.
The guarantees, by category
Section titled “The guarantees, by category”Nine short articles explain what the guarantees mean in practice, one area at a time.
- Anonymity: what the platform knows about you, and what it is built not to know.
- Encryption: how a tip is sealed on your device, and who can open it.
- Operator accountability: the trail that every access to a tip leaves.
- Photos and files: what happens to a photo or file before it is saved.
- The safety check: the check your tip’s wording goes through before you send it.
- Location: why a tip asks for the address of the crime, and how the platform maps it.
- Retention: how long a tip is kept, and what happens to it after that.
- Rewards and demo honesty: how cash rewards are paid, and how a demonstration site is labeled.
- Referrals to other programs: what moves with a tip when it is referred, and what does not.
Every enforced guarantee
Section titled “Every enforced guarantee”Every claim on this page is enforced: the code does it, and an automated test proves it on the same path the product runs in production. Anything we cannot prove that way is left off this site. Absence is the honest state here, not a placeholder.
Each row below appears word for word, in the same wording the software is tested against.
| Claim | What it means | Checked by | Confirmed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymity | |||
| No IP, device, or fingerprint stored | We don't ask your name or contact info, and we don't store your IP address, device, or browser fingerprint. We don't know if you're on an iPhone or an Android, Safari or Chrome, and neither does anyone who might come looking. That blindness is deliberate: the platform never captures that signal in the first place. Your tip code is the only thing that connects you to your tip. | 2 automated tests | ✓ |
| Your IP isn't logged when you submit | We don't log your IP address when you submit a tip. | 1 automated test | ✓ |
| We don't track when you check | We don't record when you check on your tip, or how many times. There is no log of your visits. Your tip code lets you in, and that's the only thing the system knows. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| A second lock only you hold | Setting a passphrase puts a second lock on your messages that only you can open. If you forget it, you can still confirm your tip was received, but no one, including us, can unlock or recover your messages. Most people don't need a passphrase; your tip code alone lets you check status. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Guided questions never ask who you are | The short guided questions ask about the situation, not about you. None of them ask who you are, where you live, or how you are connected to what you describe. The set of questions is fixed in the app's code, and we review each one for anything that could point back to you before it goes in. Wording can change by category, but no category can add a question. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Which language you wrote in is never recorded | Write in the language that's easiest for you. TypVault has nowhere to record which language that was. Not on your tip, not on your messages, and not on anything shared with another program. | 1 automated test | ✓ |
| Encryption | |||
| Encrypted on your device before sending | Your words and the location are scrambled on your own device before anything leaves your phone or computer. The location of the crime rides inside that same locked envelope. It is never stored as plain, searchable text. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Only the agency that can act on it can unlock it | Only this program can unlock your tip, using a key that stays on the platform. Even we cannot read it from outside that system. If your tip is referred to another program, that program's investigators can also read it. We keep a permanent record of the referral here, and the receiving program signs a confirmation we keep too. | 2 automated tests | ✓ |
| Operator accountability | |||
| Every access is permanently recorded | When your tip is opened, the system permanently records it: who, when, and why. No one can read your tip in secret, and there is no way to bulk-read tips without leaving that trail. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Audit log is permanent and immutable | Every time your tip is opened or acted on, it is written to a permanent record that cannot be erased or edited, even by us. This is what lets us prove who accessed your tip. | 4 automated tests | ✓ |
| Photos and files | |||
| Hidden photo and video location data removed | Before a photo or file you attach is saved, we re-create it from scratch so hidden data — like the GPS location your camera records, the device model, and timestamps — does not come along. This happens both on your device and again on our server. Video from a phone is accepted. Before the file is stored, the platform removes the embedded location and device details and keeps the picture and sound. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Attachments locked before storage | Files you attach are locked before they are stored, just like the rest of your tip. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| The safety check | |||
| Your wording is checked for identifying details | Before your tip is sent, TypVault checks your wording for details that could point back to you, like naming a small detail only a few people would know. Only your words and the crime category are checked. Your location, your tip code, and anything about your device are never part of that check, and nothing from it is saved. | 2 automated tests | ✓ |
| ai-intake-assist | |||
| The call-taking AI helper doesn't save what you said | If you report by phone, the call-taker may use an AI helper while typing up your report. It suggests what to ask next and checks your report against the program's active alerts. Only a bounded count — how many characters, the crime category, whether it found a match — is ever saved from that check. Your exact words and the helper's suggestions are never written down or logged. | 1 automated test | ✓ |
| Location | |||
| The crime's address, mapped privately | We ask for the address of the crime, not your home. That address is locked inside your encrypted tip; only the agency that can act on it sees it, and we look it up on a map from our own servers, so no outside map service ever learns anything about you. | 1 automated test | ✓ |
| Retention | |||
| Can't be deleted; destroyed after retention | Once you send a tip, it can't be deleted. This protects your tip from being destroyed, including by anyone who might pressure you to take it back. After our retention period your tip is permanently destroyed. You can stop checking on it at any time. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Rewards and demo honesty | |||
| Cash rewards, paid anonymously | If your tip leads to an arrest, you may earn a cash reward. You receive it anonymously: give your tip code to the teller and take an envelope, or get a prepaid card. No name or ID is ever required. | 1 automated test | ✓ |
| Demo environment: don't submit real tips | This is a demonstration environment, not a live tip program. Please do not submit a real tip here. | 1 automated test | ✓ |
| Referrals to other programs | |||
| Referred tips are re-encrypted for the receiving program | Investigators here can refer a tip to the program that serves the right area. Before it travels, the copy is re-encrypted so only the receiving program's investigators can read it. The keys that protect your tip here stay here. The receiving program stores what you wrote without unlocking it. Any files you attached are unlocked once when they arrive, to re-seal them under that program's keys. Every read there, by a person or by automatic triage, is recorded. | 5 automated tests | ✓ |
| Your tip code and passphrase never travel with a referral | A referral carries what you reported, never who you are on this platform. Your tip code, your passphrase, and your messages stay here. The receiving program gets none of them. | 3 automated tests | ✓ |
| Your tip code works only where you submitted | Your tip code and passphrase keep working here, where you submitted, even after a referral. They do not work anywhere else. You check your tip the same way as before. | 2 automated tests | ✓ |
| A referral takes a decision at both programs | A referral is never automatic and never public. An investigator here decides to send it, and an investigator at the receiving program agrees to take it before your tip moves. There is no public directory of tips or programs. | 2 automated tests | ✓ |
Related
Section titled “Related”If your question is not answered on these pages, ask the program that runs your tip line.