Everything you need to know about ThisWillExpire—from privacy and security to technical details and advanced use cases.
No. ThisWillExpire operates with a zero-knowledge, privacy-first architecture. All content processing happens entirely in your browser using client-side JavaScript. We never see, store, or transmit your content to our servers. Your data never leaves your device. This is architecturally enforced and can be verified by inspecting our source code on our Privacy by Design page.
When you create a page, all your content (text, images, settings) is encoded directly into a URL. This URL contains everything needed to reconstruct your page. When someone clicks the link, their browser decodes the URL and displays your content. No server-side processing or database lookups are required. The link itself IS the page.
Yes. You can embed pages using standard HTML iframes. The embedded content will function identically to the standalone page, including expiration behavior. Simply use: <iframe src='YOUR_LINK_HERE' width='100%' height='600'></iframe>. The embedded page will track views and expiration independently.
Content is encoded using base64 encoding, a standard binary-to-text encoding scheme. This converts your text and image data into a URL-safe string format. Base64 is widely supported, efficient, and allows binary data (like images) to be embedded in URLs. The encoded data is compressed to minimize URL length.
Common use cases include: sharing temporary announcements, sending time-sensitive information, creating self-destructing messages, sharing event details that expire after the event, distributing temporary access codes or passwords, creating ephemeral landing pages, sharing confidential information with automatic deletion, testing content before permanent publication, sharing interview or meeting details, and creating temporary collaboration spaces.
Common causes: JavaScript is disabled (enable it in browser settings), URL was truncated when copied (ensure you copied the complete URL), page has expired (create a new one), browser cache issues (try hard refresh with Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R), browser doesn't support modern JavaScript features (update your browser), or URL is too long for your browser (reduce content size).
You retain complete ownership of all content you create using ThisWillExpire. We claim no rights, license, or ownership over your content. You are free to use, modify, and distribute your content as you wish.
Pastebin stores content on servers, ThisWillExpire encodes it in URLs. Pastebin requires accounts for private pastes, ThisWillExpire is always private and anonymous. Pastebin collects data and uses cookies, ThisWillExpire collects zero data. Pastebin pastes can be indexed by search engines, ThisWillExpire pages cannot.
Yes. Perfect for: project handoffs with information that should expire, temporary API documentation for contractors, one-time onboarding materials, event-specific guides that expire after the event, confidential meeting notes with automatic deletion, and temporary process documentation for short-term projects.