When Privacy Meets Reality: Dealing with Bad Actors

Privacy isn't just a feature - it's a fundamental right. At Buzzheavier, we've built our entire service around this principle. But recent events have forced us to confront an uncomfortable reality: absolute privacy can be weaponized by those with malicious intent.

The Hard Truth

Let's be direct: our service was abused by individuals uploading 9TB of child porn. This triggered a law enforcement investigation and server raid. Due to our encryption architecture and strict zero-logging policy, even we couldn't access or decrypt these files - and neither could law enforcement. A lost SSH key to our encryption server (and rightfully strict hosting provider policies) has effectively sealed these files away permanently.

Standing By Our Principles

Some might see this as a failure of our privacy-first approach. I see it differently. Our zero-logging policy and encryption worked exactly as designed - protecting user privacy even under intense scrutiny. But this incident has taught us that privacy without responsibility isn't sustainable.

Moving Forward, Not Backward

We're not abandoning our principles. Instead, we're evolving them. Here's how: First, we're implementing SHA1 file hashing to check against camscan's hash database of illegal content. This isn't about compromising privacy - it's about preventing our platform from being weaponized against society's most vulnerable. We'll do this while maintaining our core commitment to privacy for legitimate users. Any matches found will be reported appropriately. Second, we're introducing a 45-day file lifecycle policy. Files will automatically delete after 45 days of inactivity. Buzzheavier exists to share files that people actually want to access. Dead files serve no purpose except consuming resources and increasing potential abuse vectors.