Relay Terms and Rules

Version 5 · 4 October 2026 · Contact details updated 9 October 2026

Update on 9 October 2026: our contact email is now support@relayfiles.uk, and Relay has a website at www.relayfiles.uk. The rules themselves have not changed.

What changed in version 5: you can send to someone who’s offline. A sealed note waits at their inbox for up to 48 hours, and your files stay on your device until they’re ready. See sections 4 and 12.

What changed in version 4: you can request an invite from the app, and turn on notifications. A request keeps your short note and your device’s fingerprint until it is approved or declined. Notifications are optional, carry no details, and are delivered by Apple’s, Google’s or Mozilla’s notification service. See sections 4 and 12.

What changed in version 3: Relay is now invite-only. To run invites we keep a fingerprint of each device that joins and the day it was last used, plus daily totals. See sections 3, 4 and 12. Nothing about your files or who you send to has changed.

Version 2: Relay is now called Relay. Addresses now start with “relay1” (older “drop1” addresses still work), and the “Always use the relay” setting is now called “Hide my network address”. The rules themselves have not changed.

Contents

1. Who runs Relay
2. Agreeing to these rules
3. Who can use Relay
4. How Relay works and what we can see
5. What is not allowed
6. Your responsibilities
7. Our responsibilities
8. Extra protections for 13 to 17 year olds
9. Reporting and complaints
10. What happens when rules are broken
11. The Online Safety Act and Ofcom
12. Your privacy
13. The legal bits

1. Who runs Relay

Relay is run by Fahd Rehman, an individual based in the United Kingdom (“we”, “us”). Relay is a small, personal service that is still being tested.

2. Agreeing to these rules

• You must agree to these rules before you can create or restore a wallet. If you don’t agree, you can’t use Relay.
• Agreeing is a choice you make on the start screen. Nothing is ticked for you.
• If we change these rules, Relay will ask you to agree to the new version before you carry on. We’ll explain what changed.
• Your agreement is saved on your device, with the version number and date.

3. Who can use Relay

• You must be 13 or older. If you are under 13, you must not use Relay.
• If you are 13 to 17, you must tell Relay when you start, so it can keep the protections in section 8 switched on.
• You must not lie about your age. If we learn that someone under 13 is using Relay, we will block their address.
• Relay is invite-only while we test. You need an invite code from us. Each code works once, on one device, and is then linked to that device. Please don’t share or sell invite codes.
• You must not use Relay if we have blocked you before, or if the law doesn’t allow you to.

4. How Relay works and what we can see

It’s important you understand this, because it affects what we can and can’t do.

• Your wallet is made from 12 words. Those words create your address (it starts with “relay1”). There is no account, username, email or password stored with us.
• Files go straight between devices whenever possible. If a network blocks that, they go through Cloudflare’s secure server. Either way they are encrypted the whole time, so only the receiving device can open them.
• Our server only introduces the two devices. It passes short connection messages and never sees, stores or scans file names or file contents.
• What we can see: while you’re connected, the server knows a fingerprint of your address and the network (IP) address your device is using. We don’t keep logs of who sends to whom.
• What we keep: a fingerprint of each device that has joined (not your address, name or phone number), which invite it used, when it joined and the last day it was used. We also keep daily totals for the whole service: how many devices were active, how many transfers were started and finished, and how much data was moved in total. We use these to run invites, to understand how Relay is used, and for our safety duties.
• Requests to join: if you ask for an invite, we keep your device’s fingerprint, the short note you wrote and when you sent it, until the request is approved or declined. A declined request is kept so the same device can’t keep asking. Don’t put anything private in the note.
• Sending to someone who’s offline: your files stay on your device, encrypted, for up to 48 hours. A short note waits at their inbox for the same time. The note is sealed so only their device can open it: we can’t see who it’s from, what files it mentions, or who it’s for beyond their inbox. When they tap Ready, our server passes a one-time code to your device so it can send. We don’t keep a record of that. Cancel at any time from Home.
• Notifications (optional): if you turn them on, we store the notification address your phone or browser gives us, linked to your inbox. When someone wants to send you files while Relay is closed, we send an empty notification to that address. It contains no names, files or addresses. It is delivered by Apple, Google or Mozilla, depending on your device. Turn notifications off at any time to remove it.
• What we can’t see: your files, their names, your 12 words, your PIN, your address book or your history. These stay on your device, and most of them are encrypted there too.
• This means we can’t check or remove a file once it has been sent. What we can do is block addresses from using Relay, and act on reports. See section 10.

5. What is not allowed

Illegal content (this follows the UK Online Safety Act 2023)

• Child sexual abuse and exploitation. Any sexual image or video of anyone under 18 (including drawn, made-up or AI-made images), links to such material, and any attempt to groom, contact or exploit a child. We have zero tolerance for this and will report it.
• Terrorism. Material that supports, promotes or helps terrorism, or anything linked to a banned (proscribed) organisation.
• Threats, harassment, stalking and abuse. Including threats to kill or hurt someone, and sending things to frighten or distress a person.
• Hate. Stirring up hatred against people because of their race, religion or sexual orientation, or abuse based on who someone is.
• Intimate image abuse. Sharing, or threatening to share, private sexual images of someone without their consent, including fake or edited ones. This also covers sending unwanted sexual images to someone (cyberflashing).
• Extreme pornography, and any sexual exploitation of adults.
• Controlling or coercive behaviour towards a partner or family member.
• Encouraging or helping suicide or serious self-harm.
• Weapons. Selling, buying or arranging illegal firearms, knives, explosives or other weapons, or instructions for making weapons to hurt people.
• Drugs. Selling, buying or arranging illegal drugs or psychoactive substances.
• Human trafficking and modern slavery, and helping people enter or stay in the UK unlawfully.
• Fraud and scams, including fake documents, stolen card or bank details, money laundering and the proceeds of crime.
• Foreign interference, meaning secret activity on behalf of a foreign state to harm the UK.
• Animal cruelty.
• Anything else that is a criminal offence in the UK, or where you live.

Other things that are not allowed

• Viruses, malware, ransomware or anything designed to harm devices or steal data.
• Other people’s personal or private information without their permission (for example, their home address, ID documents or medical records).
• Material that breaks someone else’s copyright, unless you have the right to share it.
• Spam, or sending files to people who haven’t asked for them, again and again.
• Pretending to be someone else, or tricking people into accepting files.
• Trying to break, overload, spy on or get around Relay’s security, the server, the relay or the access code.
• Using Relay to get around a block, or making new wallets to escape one.
• Selling or renting access to Relay, or running it for others, without our written permission.

6. Your responsibilities

• Follow the rules in section 5 and the law. You are responsible for everything you send and everything you choose to accept.
• Keep your 12 words safe. Write them on paper and keep them private. Anyone with them can act as you. We will never ask for them.
• Protect your device. Use a PIN or Face ID and don’t share it. Relay locks itself, but you are responsible for who uses your device.
• Check who you’re sending to. Compare the three check words with the other person. Only accept files you are expecting from people you trust.
• Be careful with files you receive. Don’t open files you weren’t expecting. We can’t scan files for viruses because we can’t see them.
• Save what you want to keep. Received files are only held until you close Relay. We can’t get them back.
• Keep the access code private if you were given one.
• Report illegal or harmful things you come across, using section 9.
• If you are a parent or carer of someone aged 13 to 17 who uses Relay, help them understand these rules.

7. Our responsibilities

• Design Relay so it is safe to use and private by default, and keep it as secure as we reasonably can.
• Keep these rules clear, easy to find, and written so that anyone aged 13 or over can understand them.
• Give you an easy way to report illegal or harmful content and to complain, and deal with reports quickly and fairly.
• Act quickly when we learn about illegal content or behaviour. This includes blocking addresses and reporting to the police, the National Crime Agency or other authorities when the law says we must.
• Assess the risks of illegal harm on Relay, and the risks to children, and review those assessments when Relay changes.
• Keep extra protections switched on for users aged 13 to 17.
• Collect as little information about you as possible, and never sell it.
• Tell you before we change these rules.

8. Extra protections for 13 to 17 year olds

If you tell Relay you are 13 to 17:

• Only people you have saved can send you files. Anyone else is turned away automatically. You can’t switch this off until you are 18.
• To receive from a friend, you first add their address to your address book yourself.
• Nobody can find you on Relay by searching. People can only reach you if you give them your address.
• You can block and report anyone from inside the app.

If anyone asks you to send pictures of yourself, makes you feel uncomfortable, or asks you to keep secrets, stop, block them and tell an adult you trust. You can also report it to CEOP or talk to Childline on 0800 1111.

9. Reporting and complaints

How to report

• In the app: open the Ledger, tap the transfer, then tap Report. This opens an email to us with the sender’s address and transfer ID filled in. You can also Block them so they can’t send to you again.
• By email: write to support@relayfiles.uk. Include the Relay address involved, the transfer ID if you have it, and what happened.
• Do not send us illegal images, even to report them. Describe what you saw instead. Child sexual abuse images should be reported to the Internet Watch Foundation.

What we will do

• We aim to reply within 2 working days, and sooner for anything involving a child or a risk to someone’s safety.
• We will look at your report, decide whether the rules in section 5 have been broken, and take action (see section 10).
• We will tell you what we decided, unless doing so would put someone at risk or the law doesn’t allow it.

Complaints

You can complain to us at support@relayfiles.uk if:

• you think we didn’t deal with a report properly;
• your address was blocked and you think that was wrong (you can ask us to look again);
• you think Relay isn’t meeting its duties under the Online Safety Act, or these rules;
• anything else about how Relay treats you.

We will look at every complaint fairly and tell you the outcome. If an appeal against a block succeeds, we will unblock your address. We may ignore complaints that are clearly made up or abusive, and we will tell you if we do.

10. What happens when rules are broken

• We can block an address from the Relay server. A blocked address can no longer send or receive with Relay.
• We can remove access for anyone linked to a banned (proscribed) organisation.
• We can change or remove the access code for anyone who misuses it.
• We report child sexual abuse and other serious crimes to the National Crime Agency, the police or other authorities, and we co-operate with lawful requests from them. Because of how Relay is built, we usually have very little to give them: we don’t have your files, your words or your history.
• We may act without warning when someone is at risk of harm.

11. The Online Safety Act and Ofcom

• Relay lets people share files with each other, so it is a “user-to-user service” under the UK Online Safety Act 2023. Ofcom is the regulator for this law.
• We follow Ofcom’s codes of practice for small services. This means we assess the risk of illegal harm and harm to children, and have a named person responsible for online safety. It also means we keep these terms clear and give you an easy way to report and complain. We act on illegal content and block accounts linked to banned organisations.
• Because Relay is open to people aged 13 to 17, we also follow Ofcom’s rules on protecting children, including the protections in section 8.
• If you are unhappy with how we dealt with a complaint, you can tell Ofcom about your concern. Ofcom can’t resolve individual complaints, but it uses what people tell it to check that services follow the law.

12. Your privacy

• We don’t ask for your name, email or phone number to use Relay.
• When a transfer finishes, the sending device tells our server its size so it can be added to that day’s total. The size is not stored against you, and the file name and contents never leave your devices.
• Your 12 words, PIN, address book, history and received files stay on your device. Your 12 words, address book and history are encrypted there.
• The server sees your network (IP) address while you are connected, and passes connection messages between devices. It doesn’t keep logs of who sends to whom. If you turn on “Always use the secure server” (called “Hide my network address” in earlier versions), the other person doesn’t see your network address, but Cloudflare’s secure server does.
• Notifications are off unless you turn them on. They only ever say that someone wants to send you files, or that someone is ready for yours, never who or what. The push service carries one encrypted word saying which of those two messages to show.
• If you email us, we keep your email for as long as we need to deal with it, then delete it, unless the law says we must keep it.
• Relay uses Cloudflare to run its servers. Cloudflare’s own privacy policy applies to the network data it handles.

13. The legal bits

• Test service. Relay is new and still being tested. We provide it “as is”. We work hard to keep it secure, but we can’t promise it will always work or that it will never lose a file.
• Your 12 words. If you lose them, nobody can recover your wallet. We are not responsible for losses caused by lost or shared words.
• Our liability. We are not responsible for files you choose to send or accept, or for what other users do. Nothing in these rules limits liability that the law doesn’t allow us to limit, or your legal rights as a consumer.
• Ending use. You can stop using Relay at any time by removing your wallet from your device. We can stop or change Relay, or block an address that breaks these rules.
• Changes. We will show the new version in the app and ask you to agree before you carry on.
• Law. These rules are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts.

Version 5 · 4 October 2026 · Contact details updated 9 October 2026 · Questions: support@relayfiles.uk