I found a relay that did not require account creation. No login, no email, no registration. You upload a file and you get a URL and the relay keeps no logs, or claims to keep no logs, which is a distinction that matters but that I could not verify without access I do not have. I used it anyway because the alternative was keeping the waveform export on local storage only, and local storage can be physically taken. I uploaded the file and sent the link to two people I trust. I did not describe what was in it. I said: listen to the whole thing, at the nine-second mark, tell me what you hear.

Within thirty-six hours the link returned a 404. Not an expired link — the relay does not expire links on that schedule. Not a storage limit — I checked the relay's stated limits and the file was well within them. The server returned 404 as if the file had never been uploaded. I checked the URL I had saved. I checked the relay's interface, which shows recent uploads. The upload was not in the list.

The two people I sent the link to both said they had not yet listened to it. One of them tried the link after I reported the 404 and confirmed it was dead. Neither of them had downloaded it. That means whoever retrieved the file — if retrieval was what triggered the deletion — was a third party. Whatever monitors for the presence of this waveform in accessible locations was faster than either of my contacts and knew the file was there before they did.