Privacy Policy · Chatavi

Chatavi (“we”, “us”) is built to know as little about you as possible. This policy explains what data we process when you use Chatavi, why, and for how long. It is written to comply with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) and the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules made under it.

1. What we do not collect

No account, name, email address or phone number.
No contacts, photos, location or microphone/camera access.
No chat history. Messages are relayed live between you and your chat partner and are not saved to disk or to any permanent database. While a chat is live, its last 50 messages are held in temporary server memory only so that a report can include them (if you edit a message, its first version is kept with it, so a report shows both; the same goes for messages to friends); they are erased 10 minutes after the chat ends (so either of you can still report the other), or as soon as it is reported. Messages with friends are relayed live the same way; the last 50 messages between two friends are held in temporary server memory for up to 24 hours, again only so a report can include them, and erased after that or when either of you removes the other. A message you send to a friend who is offline waits in temporary server memory until their device reconnects; it is erased as soon as it is delivered, and after 7 days at most if it never is (or when either of you removes the other).

2. What we do process, and why

Random device ID — a random code stored in your browser. Purpose: enforcing bans on people who break our Community Guidelines. It is not linked to your identity.
Connection logs — when you connect, we record your IP address, a session ID, your device ID, your browser type and the time you connected and disconnected. For each chat we record which two sessions were connected and when — never what was said. Purpose: security, preventing abuse, enforcing bans, and meeting legal obligations, including the CERT-In Directions (2022) that require system logs to be kept in India for 180 days.
Your nickname and interests — shown to your chat partner and used for matching. Kept only in your browser and in server memory while you are connected.
Friends — if you and a chat partner both agree to be friends, your friend list, pending friend requests and your chats with friends are saved in your own browser (clearing your browser data removes them; see above for the 24-hour copy kept for reports). Our server keeps no friend list: while you are connected, it keeps only a code that tells your friends you are online and routes their messages to you, holds messages your friends send while you are offline (see above), and it may hold a “friend accepted” or “friend removed” notice (never message text) for up to 7 days until your device reconnects. Your friends see your nickname and whether you are online. Purpose: letting you choose to keep talking to people you met.
Age and Terms confirmation — the date and time you confirmed you are 18+ and accepted our Terms, stored in your browser and sent with your session.
Reported conversations — if you or your partner reports a chat, a copy of that conversation (up to the last 50 messages, nicknames, device IDs and a scrambled form of the IP address) is stored for up to 30 days so our moderators can review it, after which it is deleted automatically. To help moderators, the reported messages may be checked by an AI moderation service (Anthropic’s Claude), which may process them outside India. Only reported chats are ever checked this way. We may keep a report longer only when required by law or to cooperate with law enforcement.

3. Advertising and cookies

Chatavi is free because it shows ads from Google AdSense on some pages (never inside a chat). Google and its partners may use cookies or similar technologies to show ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can learn how Google uses this data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and turn off personalised ads at adssettings.google.com. Visitors from the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent before personalised ads are shown.

On our website pages (the home page, blog and legal pages; never inside the chat) we use Google Analytics to count visits and learn how people find Chatavi: which page or link brought them here, their approximate country, their type of device, and whether they tapped “Start chatting”. It uses cookies, and Google may process this data outside India. It never receives your nickname, interests, messages or device ID. Visitors from the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent first. You can opt out with Google’s browser add-on or by blocking cookies for this site.

We also store a few items in your browser’s local storage (device ID, nickname, interests, age confirmation) so you don’t have to set them up again. You can clear them anytime by clearing your browser’s site data.

4. Sharing

We do not sell your data. We share data only with service providers who run the service for us (hosting on Amazon Web Services in India; advertising and website analytics by Google), and with government or law enforcement agencies when required by Indian law.

5. Retention

Live chat messages: not stored.
Connection and chat logs (no message content): 180 days, then deleted automatically.
Reported conversations: up to 30 days.
Ban records (device ID, and the IP address only as a scrambled code): until the ban expires. IP bans last at most one hour. A permanent ban keeps the device ID for as long as the ban stands; if a ban is lifted on appeal, its record is deleted after 30 days.
Grievance tickets: as long as needed to resolve them and meet legal obligations.

6. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you may ask to access, correct or erase personal data we hold about you, withdraw consent, nominate another person to exercise your rights, and raise a grievance. You can erase the data stored in your browser yourself by clearing its site data. Connection logs may be kept for the full 180 days where the law requires it, even after an erasure request. For anything else, contact our Grievance Officer (see Grievance Redressal). If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

7. Children

Chatavi is only for adults aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly process data of children. If you believe a child is using Chatavi, please report it to us immediately.

8. Security

All connections are encrypted (HTTPS/WSS). Logs and reported conversations are encrypted at rest, stored in India, and accessible only to authorised administrators.

9. Changes

We may update this policy. The “last updated” date above will change, and significant changes will be announced on the website.

10. Contact

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact our Grievance Officer — details are on the Grievance Redressal page.