Privacy Policy

The short version

Privacy in One Paragraph

Chat Web is built to know as little about you as possible. You chat under a nickname with no account, no email, and no phone number. We ask your date of birth once, at the door, purely to confirm you're 18+ — it's never shown in the rooms. Beyond that we hold the ordinary technical data any website sees, whatever you choose to send via the contact form, and moderation records where rules are broken. We don't sell personal data, full stop. The rest of this page is the detail.

1. Who's Responsible

Chat Web operates chat-web.co.uk and is the "controller" of the personal data described here for the purposes of UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). For anything privacy-related, contact us — a person reads every message.

2. What We Collect, and Why

Entering a room. The entry form asks for a nickname, a gender, and a date of birth. The date of birth exists solely to confirm you're 18 or older; the nickname and gender are how you appear in the room. None of these has to identify you, and we recommend they don't — a nickname is not your name.

Chat itself. Messages you send in rooms are transmitted to the other people in those rooms — that's what a chat room is. Room content may be retained for a limited period for moderation and safety purposes, and moderators may review it when handling reports or enforcing the Community Guidelines.

The contact form. If you write to us, we receive the name, email address, and message you choose to send, along with your IP address at the time of sending — used to reply to you and to prevent abuse of the form.

Technical data. Like every website, our servers see standard technical information: IP address, browser type, pages requested, and timestamps. We use this to run the site, keep it secure, prevent abuse, and enforce bans.

Analytics. We use analytics to understand how the site is used in aggregate — which pages are visited and how the site performs. Analytics data is not used to identify individual chatters.

3. What We Deliberately Don't Collect

No account registration. No email address to enter. No phone number, ever. No real-name requirement, no profile, no photos, no linked social accounts, and no payment details — there's nothing to pay for. We also don't ask for, and ask you not to share, sensitive personal information in public rooms.

4. Our Legal Bases

Under UK GDPR, we process personal data on these bases: legitimate interests — operating, securing, and moderating the Service, preventing abuse, and enforcing bans; legal obligation — keeping the Service adults-only and responding to lawful requests from authorities; and consent where required, such as for non-essential cookies. Age confirmation supports both our legal obligations and our legitimate interest in running an 18+ service.

5. Who We Share It With

We don't sell personal data, and we don't share it with advertisers. Data is shared only with: service providers who host and help operate the site (bound by contract to protect it); moderators, for the purpose of moderation; and law enforcement or regulators where we're legally required to, or where necessary to protect users — in particular, we will always cooperate with lawful requests relating to the protection of minors.

6. How Long We Keep It

We keep personal data only as long as it's needed for the purposes above: entry-form details for the duration of your session and any short technical retention that follows; contact-form messages for as long as needed to handle your enquiry and a reasonable period after; server and security logs for a limited rolling period; and moderation and ban records for as long as needed to keep enforcement effective. When data is no longer needed, it's deleted.

7. Cookies

The site uses cookies and similar technologies that are necessary for it to function, and analytics cookies to understand aggregate usage. You can control cookies through your browser settings; blocking essential cookies may stop parts of the site working. We don't use advertising cookies.

8. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law you have rights over your personal data, including the right to access it, correct it, have it erased, restrict or object to its processing, and (where applicable) data portability. To exercise any of them, contact us. One honest caveat: because the Service is designed around anonymity, we may hold nothing that identifies you — in which case there may be nothing for a request to attach to, and we may ask for enough information to locate any data we do hold.

You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk — though we'd appreciate the chance to sort any concern out first.

9. Children

The Service is strictly 18+. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18, and anyone found to be under 18 is removed and banned. If you believe a minor has used the Service, tell us immediately and we'll act on it.

10. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the data we hold — and we hold little by design, which is itself the strongest protection. No online service can guarantee perfect security, which is one more reason to keep personal details out of the rooms.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time; the date at the top reflects the current version, and significant changes will be noted on the site.