Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 21, 2026

At RandomChat.io, we take your privacy seriously. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, the legal basis for processing, and your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR/DSGVO) and other applicable laws.

1. Data Controller

The data controller responsible for the processing of your personal data is:

2. Information We DON'T Collect

RandomChat is built on the principle of anonymity. We do NOT collect:

• Personal Information: No names, emails, phone numbers, or addresses
• Precise Location Data: We don't track your GPS or precise location

3. Information We Do Collect

To provide our service, we collect minimal technical data:

• IP Address: Temporarily processed for connection pairing, security enforcement, and abuse prevention
• Connection Metadata: Timestamps for security monitoring
• Language Selection: Your chosen language preference for translation features
• Browser User Agent: For security and compatibility purposes
• Account or guest details: only if you sign in or continue as a guest for video chat — see §7a–7e
• Reports: if you report a chat partner, the report (category, optional note, connection data of both sides)
• Anonymous Analytics: Page views and feature usage (aggregated, not personal) — only with your consent

4. Legal Basis for Processing (Art. 6 GDPR)

We process your data based on the following legal grounds:

• Contract Performance (Art. 6(1)(b)): Processing necessary to provide the chat service you requested (connection pairing, call signaling)
• Legitimate Interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): Security enforcement, abuse prevention, IP-based banning, and service integrity. Our legitimate interest is protecting users from harmful content and ensuring platform safety.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) and advertising (Monetag) are only used after you explicitly consent via our cookie banner. You can withdraw consent at any time.

5. Third-Party Services & Data Transfers

RandomChat uses these third-party services, which may involve data transfer to countries outside the EU/EEA:

5.1 Google Analytics

• Used for aggregated, anonymous usage statistics (page views, feature usage)
• IP anonymization is enabled (last octet is truncated before processing)
• Runs in Google Consent Mode: until you click "Accept All" in our cookie banner, no analytics cookies are set and only cookieless pings are sent; full analytics with cookies only after your consent
• Provider: Google LLC, USA
• Transfer safeguard: EU-US Data Privacy Framework / Standard Contractual Clauses
• Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

5.2 Google Translate

• Used for real-time message translation when you and your chat partner use different languages
• Chat messages are sent to Google's translation API for processing
• Provider: Google LLC, USA
• Transfer safeguard: EU-US Data Privacy Framework / Standard Contractual Clauses

5.3 Cloudflare

• Used for CDN, DDoS protection, and security
• May process IP addresses and request metadata
• Provider: Cloudflare, Inc., USA
• Transfer safeguard: EU-US Data Privacy Framework / Standard Contractual Clauses

5.4 Advertising (Monetag)

• We show ads from the ad network Monetag on parts of the site
• Ad scripts are only loaded after you click "Accept All" in our cookie banner
• Once loaded, Monetag may set cookies and process your IP address and device data to deliver and personalize ads

5.5 Other Services

• Google STUN servers: to set up a call, your browser contacts Google's public STUN servers (Google LLC, USA), which see your IP address
• IP geolocation (ip-api.com): for usage statistics, IP addresses of connected users may be looked up to determine their country; results are cached for 14 days
• CrowdSec: IP addresses that attack the site may be shared with the CrowdSec security network to block attackers

5.6 Video and Audio Transmission

• Video and audio streams are encrypted in transit (DTLS-SRTP)
• Every call is carried by a relay server operated for the service; the relay forwards the encrypted stream and does not record it
• A direct peer-to-peer connection would expose your IP address to your chat partner. We enforce relay-only connections to prevent this, so your partner sees the relay's address, not yours.

6. Cookies & Local Storage

RandomChat uses minimal cookies and local storage:

• Essential (no consent required): sign-in session cookies (14 days), the guest cookie (30 days, §7e), a cookie remembering which sign-in method you used last (365 days), short-lived security cookies during sign-in (10 minutes), and local storage for your consent choice, language, appearance and chat preferences
• Analytics (consent required): Google Analytics cookies — only set if you click "Accept All" in our cookie banner
• Advertising (consent required): cookies of our ad network Monetag (§5.4) — only after you click "Accept All"

You can manage or delete cookies at any time through your browser settings.

7. Data Retention

• Video/Audio: Calls are relayed in real time (§5.6); the relay does not record them.
• Server Logs (IP, timestamps, browser data): Retained for up to about 30 days for security purposes, then automatically deleted
• Accounts: until you delete them (§7b)
• Reports: kept as long as needed for safety enforcement
• Ban Records: kept for the duration of the ban; permanent bans until they are lifted
• Analytics Data: Aggregated and anonymized, not linked to individuals

7a. Age Assurance and Sign-In

RandomChat is for adults only: by using the service you confirm that you are 18 or older. Text chat needs no sign-in. For video chat you either sign in (Google, Apple or a username account, §7b–7d) or continue as a guest (§7e).

7b. Google Sign-In

You can sign in with your Google account. We treat the sign-in as identity-only:

• What is sent: when you click "Sign in with Google", your browser is redirected to Google's authentication service. After you authenticate, Google returns a temporary code that our server exchanges for an access token. We then make one HTTPS call to Google's OpenID Connect userinfo endpoint with that token.
• What we receive from Google: the OIDC userinfo response includes your unique Google subject identifier (sub), your email address, your display name, and your profile picture URL. We immediately discard everything except the sub. The email, name, and photo are never written to disk, never logged, never analyzed.
• What we store: an irreversible SHA-256 hash of the sub, the timestamps of your first and most recent sign-in, your total time spent in chat, your gender and preferred partner gender if you set them in your profile, and (if applicable) a ban state and reason. The raw sub itself is never persisted; only its hash. Sign-ins are logged with your IP address.
• How long we keep it: until you delete your account (see below). Banned accounts may be retained for as long as the ban applies.
• Lawful basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of contract — recognizing returning users to provide the service) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in community moderation, specifically preventing banned users from rejoining under a fresh IP).
• Recipients: we do not pass your sign-in data on to third parties. Google itself is an independent data controller for the authentication action they perform — we are not a processor for them, and they are not a processor for us. Google's privacy policy governs what Google does with your account; see policies.google.com/privacy.
• Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR): while signed in, you can permanently delete your record at any time (except while the account is banned). Use the "Forget me" option in your account menu, or POST to /auth/forget-me with the appropriate session cookie. The deletion is immediate and irreversible. If you would prefer to submit the request by email, contact [email protected].
• Right to access (Art. 15 GDPR): your record contains exactly the items listed under "What we store". We can send you its content on email request to the address above.
• Note on age: Google Sign-In is not an age-verification mechanism. It only establishes a stable identifier so we can enforce bans; the age requirement in §7a applies.

7c. Sign in with Apple

As an alternative to Google, you can sign in with your Apple ID. The same identity-only principle from §7b applies, with even less data in transit:

• What is sent: when you click "Sign in with Apple", your browser is redirected to Apple's authentication service. After you authenticate, Apple returns a temporary code that our server exchanges for an identity token in a direct server-to-server call.
• What we receive from Apple: we deliberately request no data scopes at all — not your name and not your email address. Apple's identity token therefore contains only your unique Apple subject identifier (sub) and technical validity fields.
• What we store: identical to §7b — an irreversible SHA-256 hash of the sub plus the other items listed there. The raw sub is never persisted.
• Retention, lawful basis, erasure, access, age note: exactly as described in §7b. The "Forget me" deletion at /auth/forget-me removes an Apple record the same way it removes a Google record.
• Recipients: none. Apple is an independent data controller for the authentication action they perform; see apple.com/legal/privacy.

7d. Username Accounts (no email)

As a third option you can create an account with just a username and password — no email address is required or collected, and there is nothing to verify.

• What we store: the username you choose (a pseudonym — please do not use your real name or any identifying information), a salted bcrypt hash of your password (never the password itself), and the other items listed in §7b (timestamps, chat time, profile gender settings, ban state). The account's primary key is an irreversible SHA-256 hash of your lowercased username.
• What we do NOT store: no email, no phone number, no recovery contact of any kind. This means a forgotten password cannot be recovered — you would simply create a new account.
• Lawful basis, retention, erasure, access, age note: exactly as described in §7b. "Delete my data" in the account menu (or /auth/forget-me) erases the record, password hash included.
• Recipients: none — no third party is involved in the authentication.

7e. Guest Mode

You can use video chat without an account by continuing as a guest:

• What we ask: your date of birth, your gender, and the gender(s) you want to be matched with.
• Date of birth: only checked to confirm you are 18 or older, then discarded — never stored or logged.
• Gender settings: stored in a signed cookie (rc_guest_session) on your device for 30 days and used to match you with chat partners. When you start a guest session they are recorded in our server logs together with your IP address.
• Ending guest mode: log out via the account menu; this deletes the cookie. That is also how you change your answers.
• Lawful basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (providing the matching you asked for).

8. Your Rights Under GDPR

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of Access (Art. 15): You can request information about whether and what personal data we process about you.
• Right to Rectification (Art. 16): You can request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Right to Erasure (Art. 17): You can request deletion of your personal data, subject to legal retention obligations.
• Right to Restriction (Art. 18): You can request restriction of processing of your personal data.
• Right to Data Portability (Art. 20): You can request to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Right to Object (Art. 21): You can object to processing based on legitimate interests at any time. We will cease processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds.
• Right to Withdraw Consent (Art. 7(3)): Where processing is based on consent (e.g., analytics), you can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

Since RandomChat is designed for anonymity and we collect minimal identifying data, we may not be able to identify you to fulfill certain requests. In such cases, we may ask for additional information to verify your identity.

To exercise any of these rights, please reach out via the contact details listed in our imprint.

9. Right to Lodge a Complaint

If you believe that the processing of your personal data violates data protection law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). You may contact the supervisory authority in your place of residence, your place of work, or the place of the alleged violation.

10. Moderation

RandomChat is moderated. If you believe you were blocked in error, contact [email protected].

11. Children's Privacy

RandomChat is intended for users 18 years and older. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 18. If we become aware that a minor has accessed our service, we will take steps to remove any related data and terminate their access.

12. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect our service:

• HTTPS/TLS Encryption: All connections to our servers are encrypted
• Encrypted Media Streams: Video and audio streams are encrypted in transit (DTLS-SRTP)
• Moderation: The service is moderated (see §10)

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

14. Contact

For privacy questions, please use the contact details in our imprint. We aim to respond within 48 hours.