Reporting abuse
Updated October 28, 2026
Terebyte is end-to-end encrypted: we can’t see anyone’s files, folder names or keys, so we can’t scan them, and we never try. The only thing we can ever look at is a Sealed Link someone gives us, because a link opens its file for anyone who has the whole link. This is what happens when a link is reported.
1. A report arrives
- Report this link, on every Sealed Link’s page: choose a reason (copyright, child sexual abuse material, malware or phishing, something else) and add a note if you like. No email address is needed.
- Or email abuse@terebyte.com with the whole link, including the part after the “#”. Copyright notices follow the steps on Copyright & abuse.
2. We check it
We open the reported link exactly as any visitor could, and look at what it shows. Nothing else in the account is looked at, because nothing else can be.
3. We take the link down
When a report is valid, we turn the link off, as quickly as we can, usually the same day. Depending on what we find, we may also suspend or close the account behind it, under our Terms of Service. An account that repeatedly shares material that infringes copyright is closed; one that keeps sharing malware or phishing is suspended.
4. Child sexual abuse material
When a reported link shows child sexual abuse material, we turn off every link of the account, close the account, and report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) the same day, as US law requires. We report what we have: the link, the date, what it showed, the account’s ID and plan, and its email address if it has one. We don’t download, copy or forward the material beyond what the report needs.
5. We keep what the law asks, for one year
The account’s stored data, still encrypted, is kept for one year as evidence, and nothing can delete it before then; then it’s deleted. Reports and copyright notices are kept for one year, then deleted.
What this never involves
No scanning of anything stored. No looking beyond a link someone gave us. A reported link’s key goes only to our abuse inbox, never into our database. Each year’s transparency report counts the links reported and taken down and the accounts closed, never which.
Public rooms have their own page: Public rooms: what we take down.