# Ricochet Refresh privacy rating

Desktop instant messenger that runs each user as a Tor onion service and connects contacts peer to peer, hiding identity, IP address and metadata. Maintained by Blueprint for Free Speech.

## Summary

Ricochet Refresh scores 94 out of 100 (grade A) on the messengers criteria. It meets 7 of 8 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, end-to-end encrypted by default, no phone number needed, metadata protection and decentralized. It partly meets independent audit.

- Website: https://www.ricochetrefresh.net
- Source code: https://github.com/blueprint-freespeech/ricochet-refresh
- Home page trackers: Google Fonts (not scored)
- Category: [Messengers](https://privacyratings.com/messengers/)
- Grade: A (94/100)

## Criteria

| Criterion | Answer | Note | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes | LGPL-2.1 and BSD-3-Clause. | https://github.com/blueprint-freespeech/ricochet-refresh/blob/main/LICENSE |
| No trackers or telemetry | Yes | No telemetry or analytics in the source code. | https://github.com/blueprint-freespeech/ricochet-refresh |
| No ads or data sales | Yes | Non-profit project funded by grants such as the NGI Assure Fund, with no ads. | https://www.ricochetrefresh.net/ |
| Independent audit | Partial | A full NCC Group audit of the original Ricochet, which this project forks, is public but is older than three years. | https://public.opentech.fund/documents/ricochet-ncc-audit-2016-01.pdf |
| End-to-end encrypted by default | Yes | All chats run over end-to-end encrypted Tor onion service connections. | https://www.ricochetrefresh.net/ |
| No phone number needed | Yes | The identity is a Tor onion address generated on the device. | https://www.ricochetrefresh.net/ |
| Metadata protection | Yes | There are no servers, and connections go through Tor circuits so no node knows both sender and recipient. | https://www.ricochetrefresh.net/ |
| Decentralized | Yes | Peer to peer over Tor with no servers. | https://www.ricochetrefresh.net/ |

Source: https://privacyratings.com/messengers/ricochet-refresh/
Edit: https://github.com/privacyratings/privacyratings.com/edit/main/ratings/messengers/ricochet-refresh.md