How Ghost Protects Your Privacy

What Is Number Masking?

Number masking is a server-side technique that replaces your real phone number with a protected sender ID before a message is delivered. When you send through Ghost, your message travels from your device to Ghost's secure servers. The servers then forward that message to the recipient using a masked sender ID — a number that routes back through our infrastructure, not to your personal line.

The recipient sees the message arrive from a protected number. They can read it, but they cannot call or text your real number from it. The masking happens entirely on the server — there is nothing to configure, no additional app the recipient needs to install, and no technical knowledge required on your end.

What Data Does Ghost Store?

Ghost stores minimal metadata necessary to operate the service and comply with legal obligations. This includes: the destination phone number you send to, the timestamp of sending, delivery status, and your credit balance. Ghost does not store message content after delivery. Your real phone number is never transmitted to the recipient's device or saved in a form they can access.

Ghost maintains certain metadata solely for abuse prevention — preventing the service from being misused for harassment or fraud — and legal compliance, which requires us to cooperate with valid law enforcement requests. This metadata is not shared with recipients, advertisers, or third parties beyond what is legally required.

We Do Not Sell Your Data

Ghost does not sell, rent, or license your personal information or usage data to advertisers, data brokers, or any third parties. The business model is credits — you pay for messages you send. There is no advertising revenue model that would require monetizing your information.

You can read the full details in our Privacy Policy. The short version: your data belongs to you and is used only to operate the service.

Anonymous SMS vs. End-to-End Encryption: What's the Difference?

These are distinct protections addressing different threat models. End-to-end encryption (as in Signal or WhatsApp) protects message content — the text of the message cannot be read by anyone except the sender and recipient, including the messaging provider. Anonymous SMS, as provided by Ghost, protects your identity — the recipient cannot determine who sent the message or contact you at your real number.

Ghost provides identity anonymity. Standard SMS messages are not end-to-end encrypted. If both protections matter to you — hiding who you are and hiding what you said — use an encrypted messaging app for content sensitivity, and Ghost for identity privacy when the recipient is a stranger who cannot have your real number.

Abuse Prevention and Legal Compliance

Ghost is a privacy tool, not an anonymity shield for illegal activity. We maintain the minimal metadata required to investigate abuse reports and respond to valid legal requests from law enforcement. Users who send threatening, harassing, or fraudulent messages through Ghost are subject to account termination and cooperation with relevant authorities.

Ghost is designed for legitimate privacy use cases: protecting your number from strangers on marketplaces, keeping personal and professional communication separate, dating safety, and general identity protection. See our Terms of Service for the full acceptable use policy.

No Account Required to Try

Ghost is designed to minimize the personal information you need to provide. You do not need to create an account or provide your real phone number to send a free test message at ghostsms.online/free. The full app on Google Play also does not require account registration to function.