Last Updated: 21 August 2026

ChatBriefly is built around a simple idea: you should be able to talk to anyone, in any language, without handing over your identity. You can create and join chats without registering, without giving us your name, and without installing anything. This policy explains what information we do handle to make the service work, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. We have tried to write it in plain language.

1. Chatting Anonymously

You do not need an account, an email address, or a phone number to use ChatBriefly. When you first use the service we create a random internal identifier for your device so that you can get back into your chats. Inside a chat you appear under a generic username such as "User 1" unless you choose a different one. This identifier is not linked to your real identity by us.

2. Information We Process

To provide the service, we process the following:

Chat content. Messages you send, their translations, and any files you attach are stored on our servers for as long as the chat exists. This is necessary so that participants can read the conversation, receive it in their own language, and see earlier messages when they join. Chats are protected by a PIN chosen at creation, and only participants of a chat can read its content. Our staff do not read your chats in the ordinary course of business.

Translation. Live translation is the heart of ChatBriefly. To translate a message we send its text to our translation provider, DeepL SE, which processes it on our behalf and returns the translation. DeepL acts under a data processing agreement and does not use this text to build profiles of our users.

Account details, only if you choose them. Optional features such as Pro ID, channels and paid extensions require an email address so that we can verify purchases and send you receipts and service messages. If you use these features we store your email address, your chosen display name and, if you upload one, your profile picture. Basic anonymous chatting never requires any of this.

Payments. Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and never touch our servers. We keep a record of your purchases (product, price, date) so that we can provide what you paid for and comply with tax and accounting law.

Notifications. If you enable push notifications we store the subscription token your browser or device gives us so that we can deliver them. You can switch notifications off at any time in your account settings or per chat.

Technical and usage data. Like most online services we process IP addresses to deliver pages, prevent abuse and rate limit traffic. For chat and channel statistics shown to chat owners we record country level information about visits, not precise location. For our KindReturn tags we log the IP address of security relevant events, such as a tag being activated, to protect owners against misuse. We use cookie based session tokens to keep you signed in, and analytics to understand how the service is used overall.

3. What We Do Not Do

We do not sell your data. We do not show advertising. We do not build marketing profiles of you. We do not ask for your real name to chat. We do not share your chat content with anyone except the service providers listed below, who process it on our instructions so that the product can function.

4. Service Providers

ChatBriefly runs on established infrastructure providers that process data on our behalf: Supabase (database, storage and realtime messaging), Vercel (hosting), DeepL (translation), Stripe (payments), Resend (transactional email), Upstash (rate limiting) and Google Analytics (aggregate usage statistics). Each provider only receives what it needs for its role.

5. How Long We Keep Things

Chats delete themselves. A standard chat expires 24 hours after creation. After expiry there is a short grace period of up to one day during which participants can still view the conversation, and after that the chat, its messages, its translations and its attached files are permanently deleted from our servers. Deleted means deleted: we do not keep copies of expired chats.

Extended chats. Participants can extend a chat's lifetime, and Pro users can keep selected chats open indefinitely. An extended chat is kept until it expires or until its owner deletes it. Chat owners can delete a chat at any time, participants can remove their own messages at any time, and members can leave a chat at any time.

Accounts. If you created an account for optional features, we keep your account details until you delete the account. You can delete your account yourself in your account settings. Deletion removes your account details, your chats, your messages, your uploaded files and your notification subscriptions, and cancels any active subscription. Purchase records that we are legally required to keep for tax purposes are retained for the statutory period.

6. Your Choices and Rights

You can use ChatBriefly without an account. You can delete your own messages, delete chats you own, leave chats, disable notifications and delete your account entirely, all from within the app. Depending on where you live you may also have legal rights to access, correct, export or erase personal data concerning you, and to object to certain processing. To exercise any of these rights, or to ask a question this policy does not answer, contact us at the address below and we will respond.

7. Security

Chats are protected by access PINs, connections are encrypted in transit using TLS, files are stored in access controlled storage, and our database is protected by row level security. No online service can promise absolute security, but we limit the data we hold in the first place, which is the best protection there is: what we do not have cannot be leaked.

8. Legal Requests

We only disclose data in response to a valid legal obligation, and only what the law requires. Because standard chats delete themselves within roughly 48 hours and anonymous use involves no identity data, in many cases there is simply little or nothing to hand over.

ChatBriefly

ChatBriefly Privacy Policy