Chatavi

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-26

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; they are erased the moment the chat ends.

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.
  • 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.

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 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.