Privacy notice
What we process
- A random anonymous identity and a session cookie, so the service can keep you connected and enforce blocks and restrictions. We do not ask for your name, email address or phone number.
- A record that you answered that you are 18 or older and accepted the terms, with the policy version and time.
- Your optional preferences (interests, languages, goal), used only to choose who you are matched with.
- Chat messages, relayed through our server. They are kept in a short-lived buffer of at most 100 messages, deleted within five minutes of the chat ending, unless you submit a report and choose to include an excerpt.
- Video and audio, transmitted through our video provider while you are connected. Calls are not recorded.
- Reports, blocks and moderation decisions, with the minimum details needed to review them.
- Your IP address, used for about ten minutes to limit repeated attempts to start a session and to apply restrictions (see the next point). It is not saved in our database, and our web server logs do not record it.
- If staff restrict your access (for example a suspension or a ban), a one-way code worked out from your network address, not the address itself, is kept until the restriction ends, for at most 7 days. During that time a new session started from the same network begins with the same restriction, so it keeps working if cookies are cleared. Other people on that network, for example on a shared mobile or public network, may be affected; anyone can appeal a restriction.
- The country your connection comes from, worked out by our network provider from your IP address. In video chat it is shown to the other person as a flag, unless you tick “Hide my country”. It is kept for up to a day and never saved in our database. With a VPN, the VPN’s country is shown.
- Counts of events (for example how many chats started), without message content.
Automated safety checks
Video and audio are not automatically analysed. Safety relies on Report and Block and on people reviewing reports. If automated checks or an outside moderation provider are used in future, they will be described here before they are switched on.
How long we keep it
Messages: up to five minutes after a chat ends. Chat, session and moderation records: 14 days. Report details: 30 days, unless a documented safety review requires longer. Database backups containing these records are kept for up to 30 days. If these periods change, this notice will be updated first.
Service providers
We use a small number of service providers to run the service: hosting for our servers and database (in the European Union), a network provider that protects and delivers the website and stores our backups, and a video provider that relays video and audio between you and the other person. They process data only on our instructions, and calls are not recorded. You can ask us for the names of these providers at support@randomhey.com.
The other person never sees your IP address or identifiers. In video chat they see your country (see above), nothing more precise. Authorised moderators can see reports and the excerpts you chose to include.
Your choices
You can stop a chat at any time. Clearing your browser data removes your session cookie. For privacy questions or requests, email support@randomhey.com.