Privacy Policy

Last updated: 11 November 2026

HearMe Chat is the trading name of the service at hearme.chat, run from India.

In short

HearMe Chat is only for people aged 18 and over. These are the main things we collect. The sections below say how each item is used and how long it is kept.

• Country, worked out from your IP address by Cloudflare. We never use GPS or your precise location
• IP address, used for safety and to work out your country, and kept in our web server logs for up to 90 days, and longer in a few places listed in Section 8. Our app's own logs also record it with suspected abuse, such as a failed bot check, and are deleted after 14 days
• Nickname, and the avatar and profile details you choose to add
• Email address: optional, only if you create an account or sign in with Google
• Session and user IDs, which keep you signed in and link your data to your session or account
• "I am": the gender you give before your first chat, used for matching and never shown to the people you talk to. If the other person uses a Premium gender or country filter, they're told when a match fits it, so they can tell the gender you gave us or the country you connect from.
• Purchase history: only if you buy Premium
• Chat messages you send in text chats, direct messages and rooms, and reactions in the General room (and old poll votes, kept but not shown)
• Photos: optional, only a profile picture or banner you upload
• Reports, blocks, friends and Keep in touch
• Call-quality diagnostics: whether a voice call connected and could be heard. Never the audio
• App install ID or browser device ID: a random ID the Android app or your browser makes, used to apply bans, including under-18 bans, to that phone or browser
• Report voice clips (website only): up to the last 60 seconds of the other person's audio, sent only when you report during a call, deleted within 7 days, except a clip on a report a moderator confirms as child safety or under 18, which is kept as evidence for one year from the confirmation

We don't sell your data. We share it only with the service providers in Section 7. All data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS, and encrypted WebRTC for voice calls). You can delete your account and its data at any time: see Delete account.

1. Age Requirement

HearMe Chat is strictly for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to use the Service.

We use automated systems to detect signals that a user may be under 18. If you confirm a birth year under 18, we delete your account straight away (if a Premium subscription can't be cancelled at that moment, we sign the account out and remove its 18+ confirmation instead). Our checks never ban anyone on their own: a line that looks like an under-18 statement is kept for a person to review, and a clear one pauses chats until then, as Section 4 describes. If a report or that review shows someone is under 18, a moderator can ban the account and its device. That ban can't be appealed. Safety records are kept as Section 4 describes.

If you believe a minor is using HearMe Chat, report them in-app or email safety@hearme.chat.

2. Information We Collect

Automatically

• IP address, and the country derived from it (via Cloudflare). The last IP address we see for your session is also saved on your account record. For 24 hours we also keep the IP address your app or browser last connected from, so a child-safety ban can block it (deleted when you delete your account)
• Session ID and device identifier
• Browser and basic device information
• Pages visited, and time and duration of visits
• What you do on HearMe Chat, counted by our own servers: for example that you started a search, found a match or opened Premium, and call-quality measurements (whether the audio connected and could be heard, audio level numbers, the type of connection, your browser family and platform). Never the audio itself. These are stored with your session ID and your country (Section 6)

Information you give us

• Email address (if you create an account, or sign in with Google)
• If you sign in with Google: a keyed one-way code (hash) of your Google account ID
• Username, your picture (a photo you upload, or one of our emoji pictures), a profile banner if you add one, and profile details you choose to add: a display name and the interests you list, and, if you have an account, a short bio, up to three languages, what you're here for (friends, just talk or language practice) and a song you're listening to, with a short note
• Chat preferences: interests, what you're here for, gender filter, country/region filter (saved to your account when you're signed in, so they follow you to the app; changes you make while signed out stay on this device and are replaced by your account's saved choices when you sign in; deleted with your account)
• Your gender, as you declare it before your first chat. The checkbox screen offers Male, Female or Other; the birth-year screen and Settings offer Man, Woman or Prefer not to say. "Other" and "Prefer not to say" are kept as "not specified", and a gender that is not specified is never used for matching. The answer is used for matching, and counted (with your session ID, never your name) in our private usage statistics, for example how many searches come from each answer. It is never shown to the people you talk to, on your profile, or in any public count. If the other person uses a Premium gender or country filter, they're told when a match fits it, so they can tell the gender you gave us or the country you connect from. It is kept on your device and, if you have an account, on your account. You can change it in Settings a limited number of times in any 24 hours.
• Your age: before your first chat we ask you to confirm you are 18 or older. Most people see the checkbox screen, which has no birth year: you tick a box to confirm you are 18 or older, and another to agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy. The birth-year screen is shown instead if you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, or we can't tell your country, and you have not turned analytics on; if this device is blocked after someone confirmed a year under 18; or if the checkbox screen can't be loaded. It asks for your birth year. We keep only whether you are 18 or over, never the year. If you confirm a year under 18, we block starting chats on that device for 7 days.
• The checkbox screen's confirmation record: when you pass the checkbox screen we save one record of it: that you confirmed you are 18 or older and agreed to the Terms and Privacy Policy, which version of the Terms that was (its date), which version of the screen it was, the gender you picked (male, female or other), the time, your random screen ID (the hm_gate cookie, Section 6) and, if you have a session, your session ID. It has no birth date and no IP address. The birth-year screen writes no such record, only the yes-or-no 18+ answer. Section 8 says how long we keep these records.
• Payment details — handled entirely by our payment processor. We never see or store your full card number. We do keep a record of each Premium purchase (Section 8).
• Buying Premium without an account: if you pay on the website before you have an account, or with an address no verified account has, we keep the purchase waiting for you. We keep the email address you paid with and the payment processor's notice of the purchase (the record described in Section 8). Nothing is switched on until you sign in with that address (or you ask us to move the purchase to your account). None of it is shown to other users or shared with anyone else, except the service providers in Section 7 that host and back it up, and our email provider, which handles the address to deliver the emails below.
• Browser push notifications, if you turn them on: your browser's push subscription (its address at the browser's push service and its encryption keys), the topics you chose (for example "Ring me" or the voice hour), your session or account ID, and when you last tapped a notification. A web message notification shows only "New message from <name>" (and a friend's call "<name> wants to talk"), never the message text. In the Android app, a message notification shows the sender's name and the start of the message (or "Sent a GIF"), and it passes through Google's push service on its way to your phone. Your phone's lock-screen setting can hide it, and the notification switches, muting a chat and blocking someone stop it
• Ban appeals: your text, linked to the ban and to your session or account

Generated by your use of the Service

• XP, level, friends list, and the rooms you have joined (today, whether you are a member of the General room)
• Direct messages, and what you post in the General room: messages, GIFs and stickers, replies (which show a short quote of the message you answer), @mentions and reactions. Old polls and votes, from before polls were removed in October 2026, are kept but not shown. You can edit a text message for 2 minutes after sending it; the edit replaces the text and we keep no earlier version. A message someone has reported can't be edited. A message you delete is deleted at once, with its reactions and any poll votes
• Chat records: which two sessions were matched, when, for how long, and whether it was text or voice. No message content
• History shows the people you matched with in the last 30 days (nickname, avatar, mode, date and length), never message content; it is built from the chat records described above
• Stranger Jury cases, votes and comments. Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026; you can delete your own case with your private link until 16 Nov 2026; after that all Jury case data is deleted. Until then, for a case you asked about we keep the title, the story and the two sides you wrote, the category, the country you posted it from, and the votes, reasons and comments people added. Votes and comments don't store a country. We keep no name or contact detail from you: your case, votes and comments are tied only to pseudonymous keys, a hash of the random device ID in the hm_ud cookie (Section 6), of your session, or of your account if you were logged in, and a keyed hash of your IP address (we don't store the address itself), used only to limit abuse. Your private link is stored only as a hash. If you asked about a case, we also keep the comments you hid from your own view and the people you blocked from commenting on your cases (their pseudonymous keys, not a name), until the same date.
• Stranger Jury notifications, if you turned them on: your browser's push subscription, linked to the case it was for (no Jury notification is sent since Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026; the links are deleted with the Jury case data after 16 Nov 2026, 00:00 India time)
• Reports you submit, or that are submitted about you
• Sparks: points you earn for using HearMe, such as your first search of the day, real text chats and voice calls, and streaks of active days. We keep each Sparks entry (what earned it, how many, the day and time, and the chat it came from) and a running total, under your session ID or your account. Sparks have no money value and cannot be bought or sold. Other people never see your Sparks or your total. On your profile, and on your card when you are matched with someone, they see only your tier badge and your streak of active days. Sparks earned while you're signed in are deleted when you delete your account. Check-ins earned before you signed in move to your account when you sign in, and are then deleted with it. Other Sparks earned before you signed in stay under that browser's session ID until it is deleted after 30 days without use.
• Streak repairs: when you repair a broken streak with Sparks, or a Plus freeze keeps it, we keep that saved day and whether it was a repair or a Plus freeze, under your account. Saved days are deleted when you delete your account. The streak shown on your card and your profile counts a day you repaired with Sparks or that your Plus freeze kept, from the day after. Frames count only the days you actually chatted.
• Sparks invites: when someone joins from your invite link, we record who invited them. Invite rewards are up to 200 Sparks per friend, depending on the active promotion, for your first 10 friends each month. You see your friends as "Friend 1", "Friend 2" and so on, with which stages have counted, never their name or their country. A device match, a ban or reports can cancel an invite reward, and a match on the network only is checked by a person. Friends who delete their account drop off your list. A guest can share an invite link too: the page it opens shows nothing about the guest, and when the guest signs in the link stops working and the friends who joined through it move to their account.
• Safety and moderation records (see Section 4)

3. How We Use Your Data

• To match you with other users and run text chat, voice calls, rooms and direct messages
• To create and manage your account, and provide Premium features you purchase
• To give you Premium you bought before you had an account: we email the address you paid with when you pay, and remind you on days 1, 7 and 25 after the payment if you haven't signed in with it yet. We don't use that address for anything else.
• To keep the platform safe — detect abuse, minors, fraud, and illegal activity
• Until Stranger Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026: to show your Jury case to people who confirmed they were 18 or over, count their votes, and tell you when the verdict was in; until 16 Nov 2026 (00:00 India time), to let you delete your own case with your private link
• To act on reports and enforce our Terms of Service
• To understand usage and improve the Service
• To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests

We do not sell your personal data.

Legal bases (for users in the EU/EEA, UK, and similar jurisdictions): performance of a contract (running the Service you asked for), legitimate interests (safety, abuse prevention, improvement), legal obligation (safety and law-enforcement duties), and consent (analytics cookies and marketing emails, where applicable).

4. Safety, Moderation, and Automated Scanning

You should understand exactly what this means in practice.

Automated checks. Messages sent on HearMe Chat pass automated checks by software. Today these detect:

• Users who state or indicate that they are under 18
• In one-to-one chats, direct messages, rooms and posts: content our rules don't allow, such as slurs, threats, encouragement of self-harm and sexual content involving minors; outside direct messages, also contact details and links
• A message that suggests someone may be in distress: we show the writer support lines, and in a chat the other person a short note with support lines that doesn't quote the message. We keep a short-lived marker (the chat or the session, never the message) so the same card isn't shown again for 10 minutes, then it is deleted. We also count that a card or note was shown (to the writer or the other person, in which kind of chat, and whether the message was refused), with no chat, session, message or country
• Spam patterns, through rate limits and a bot challenge

Pictures you upload are checked by an automated image filter on our own server. No person reviews them. A GIF is checked on every frame, across its whole length, when you upload it, and one with a frame the filter flags is refused. Banners and profile photos: a GIF can be checked again later, and if a later check flags it, we remove it from your profile at once and don't keep it, and you see a note that it didn't pass our safety check. If the check can't run on all of a GIF, others see only its first frame, which was checked, as a still until the check runs again automatically. If even the first frame can't be checked, a banner is refused (try again later), and a profile photo waits unseen while others keep seeing your previous picture, or your emoji if you had none. Profile effects: if the check can't run, the upload is refused; an effect already saved can be checked again later and is removed if a frame is flagged.

Consequences. If your message is flagged, it may be blocked from delivery, and you may receive a warning, have your chat ended, or have your account suspended or permanently banned. A ban also blocks each phone or browser the banned account is used on, until 30 days after it was last used there (never longer than the ban). If we can recognise the phone or browser the account last used before the ban, it stays blocked for as long as the ban lasts. An under-18 ban blocks the phone or browser it was detected on for as long as the ban lasts. For a ban a moderator makes for child safety or for being under 18, the IP address the account used in the last 24 hours is blocked for 72 hours, if there is one. For any other ban, a moderator may block the internet connection (IP address) for up to 30 days. Other people using the same device or connection may be affected and can write to us. A ban on an account can be appealed once, within 30 days of when it began (except child-safety and under-18 bans). A block on a device or connection can't be appealed.

Under-18 review. When a line looks like a statement that you are under 18, we keep it, with the chat lines around it from both people, for a person to review, for up to 12 months, or longer while a ban or an open review depends on it. If it is a clear, present-tense statement, we also pause chats on that account, that session and that device (matching, rooms, direct messages, friend requests and your public profile) until a person has reviewed it. A pause is not a ban, and nothing is banned automatically. The owner of HearMe Chat is told that a review is waiting (a count only, not your message). If you delete your account while a pause is open, the pause on the device is kept until the owner has reviewed it, so that deleting an account does not undo it. We delete a pause 12 months after it is lifted.

Safety records. When our systems flag content, or when a user reports you, we create a safety record. This can include the message content, the matched text, your user or session ID, your IP address, and a timestamp. We delete these records 12 months after they are made, or when a ban they support ends if that is later — and later still if legally required or if needed for an ongoing investigation — so we can enforce bans, catch repeat offenders, and respond to lawful requests. This deletion runs automatically every day. The exception is a report a moderator confirms as child safety or under 18: we keep that report, a frozen copy of the messages shown with it, and its audio clip and any transcript (if not already deleted) as evidence for one year from the confirmation, or longer if a moderator extends it for the authorities, even after you delete your account. Reports marked Under 18 are shown to moderators first.

Human review. Flagged content and reports may be reviewed by a person.

Abuse prevention. We use Cloudflare Turnstile to prevent abuse. It ran every time you posted a Stranger Jury case or comment (until Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026). It runs when you ring someone from their invite link (hearme.chat/u/…) (a check you normally don't see, which sends Cloudflare a one-time token and your IP address), and otherwise only when we see unusually rapid activity, such as many new chats or messages in a short time. It may process your IP address and browser details to do so. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy at https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.

Voice calls. Audio is transmitted peer-to-peer using WebRTC, and goes through a relay server run by us or by Cloudflare only when a direct connection isn't possible. We do not record or store your calls. Every one-to-one call is private. The only exception is a report: if the person you are talking to is on the website, they can send us the last 60 seconds of audio held in their browser, which a person reviews and which we delete within 7 days, except a clip on a report a moderator confirms as child safety or under 18, which is kept as evidence for one year from the confirmation. The Android app holds no audio. Reported audio is not transcribed today. If we start transcribing reported clips, to help with the review of a report, we will update this policy first. A transcript is deleted no later than its clip, except on a report a moderator confirms as child safety or under 18, where it is kept with the clip for as long as the clip is kept (Section 4). There is no video on HearMe Chat.

Stranger Jury. Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026; you can delete your own case with your private link until 16 Nov 2026; after that all Jury case data is deleted. While Jury ran, everything you wrote for a case or a comment was checked by automated filters when you sent it: for contact details (phone numbers, email addresses, social media handles, links), names, sexual content, signs that someone is under 18, threats and hate, and signs that someone may harm themselves. Contact details were blocked. If something in a case looked like a person's name, we asked you to confirm it wasn't a real person's name before it was posted, and those cases were flagged for review; in a comment, anything that looked like a name was blocked. A person looked at flagged items. If a case or comment looked like someone might hurt themselves, it was not posted and not stored: we showed support lines instead. For cases we kept only an event with the reason, the country and your session ID, no text. Our usage counts that a case was posted, voted on or blocked (no text; Section 6) are not case data and stay as described in Section 8. People could report a case or a comment; when several different people reported one, or the person who asked and one other person reported a comment on their case, it was hidden until a moderator reviewed it, and a moderator could remove it or stop the writer using Jury (the same bans as elsewhere, up to 30 days for a device, session or connection, and linked to your account if you have one).

General room. Messages in the General room pass the same automated checks as chats when you send them, and are blocked if they break our rules. Anyone can send GIFs and stickers; guests have a lower limit. Other people see your nickname and picture, never your session ID; each message carries a random public ID for your profile, so tapping your name opens your profile card (see "Your profile" below). When two different people, on different connections, report a message, it is hidden from everyone until a moderator reviews it. Our moderators, who are HearMe Chat's own admins, can see every message from the last 7 days, including hidden ones, which session wrote each one, and the reports on it, including who made them. They can delete, hide or restore a message, mute someone in the room for 10 minutes or 24 hours, pin a message, turn on slow mode, or ban an account; each action is logged with the moderator and the time. So that a mute also reaches the device and connection someone posts from, we keep, for 8 days, your session, your device ID and a keyed code of the connection you last posted from (never the IP address itself). For each reported message we keep for 8 days who reported it and a keyed code of their connection, and, until 30 days pass without reports hiding a message, which people's reports hid whose messages, so moderators can spot people reporting someone together. We don't keep who was online or typing. When you join the General room we keep a record that your session is a member of it, when you joined and when you last opened or posted in the room (at most once an hour) and your role in the room (today always "member"), nothing else, so the room lets you back in (on any device where you're signed in to your account; a guest's session stays in one browser) until you leave it, and so the member count only counts people who opened or posted in the room in the last 30 days. If you joined as a guest and then sign up or log in on the same browser or phone, your membership moves to your account (the guest's record is removed), so you are counted once. It doesn't move if the device is blocked as under 18, if the guest or the account is banned, or if the account hasn't confirmed it is 18 or over. When you sign up or log in, a short-lived note on our server (about 10 minutes) tells the guest's other open tabs to switch to your account. The record is removed when you choose Leave room, when you are banned from HearMe Chat (at the latest the next time you try to join), when we block a person under 18, or when the account is deleted (a guest account after 30 days without use). Other people see only how many members the room has, and only from three, never who they are; our moderators can see who the members are.

Your profile. What it shows. If you have an account, your profile card, except a card opened from a 1:1 chat, shows your nickname, your emoji or the photo you uploaded (as a still picture), and the month you joined. If you add them, it also shows a short bio (up to 60 characters; a longer bio, or one our filters don't allow, is saved but not shown), your interests, up to three languages, what you're here for (friends, just talk, or language practice) and "Listening to": a song from Apple's catalogue with an optional note of up to 100 characters, shown for 24 hours. Your profile card never shows your age, gender, country, email address or session ID. A guest's card shows only a nickname, an emoji and the word "Guest". Your detailed profile page, which only you and your friends see in full, also shows your @username, "Member since", your bio and interests (the same filtered text as the card), your Premium or staff badge, your frame, name colour, banner, title, chat-bubble style and profile effects if you set them, how many friends you have (their names and pictures only to your friends), and your badges and achievements; on your detailed profile page your uploaded picture plays if it is animated. Someone you have chatted with who isn't your friend sees only what the card from a 1:1 chat shows (described below) and not how many friends you have. Someone you've blocked, or who has blocked you, can't open it. Your full profile page is at your @handle (for example hearme.chat/@yourhandle). It shows what your card shows, as a still picture: your nickname, your emoji or photo, your @handle, the month you joined, and your bio, interests, languages, what you're here for and your song if you added them.

Your public profile can show your display name, @handle, picture, banner and badge, About, your Ask me about answers, interests (with any you share with the viewer highlighted), languages, what you're here for, and a song you picked (with the hour it was added). It never shows your gender, age, email, country or when you were last online. People you meet in a random chat can tap "See more" to see your About, your Ask me about answers, interests, languages, what you're here for and your song. They never see your @handle, your friends or when you joined.

Who can see it. People on HearMe Chat can open your card from a chat or call with you, their chat and call history, a direct message, a friend request or notification, a message you posted in the General room, a friends list, or a link to your full profile page (who can open that page is described below). Anyone signed in who opens your card by your public ID or your full profile page sees whether you are online (your friends right now, anyone else as it was up to a minute ago) if they have confirmed they are 18 or over and aren't banned, unless you turn off "Show me as online" in Edit profile: then nobody sees you online anywhere, not your friends, not Who's online, not your profile, not your direct messages and not an invite link you sent. Guests and signed-out visitors never see it on your card or your full profile page, except on a card opened from Who's online: there a guest who has confirmed they are 18 or over and isn't banned sees your card as a signed-in person does, your online status and interests included. A card opened from a one-to-one chat with a stranger shows it only to your friends. In the General room, people see your photo next to your messages if you have an account and uploaded one (otherwise your emoji). Someone you've blocked, or who has blocked you, can't open your card. Any logged-in person who has confirmed they are 18 or over can open your full profile page at your @handle. Guests who have confirmed they are 18 or over can open it too, with the same checks, but they never receive your interests or your "Ask me about" answers; they are asked to sign in to see them. Someone who hasn't confirmed they are 18 or over can't open it. A person you've blocked, or who has blocked you, can't open it either, and neither can a banned account. Your @handle is shown to the people who are allowed to open your full profile (on your card and on the page itself); a card opened from a one-to-one chat with a stranger doesn't show it. On Who's online, people see your nickname, your picture (your photo if you have an account and uploaded one, otherwise your emoji), a Premium badge unless you've hidden it, a staff badge, whether you're in a chat or call, whether you're up for text, voice or either, and whether you take Say hi. Your country is never shown to other users, in chats, calls or profiles. If the other person uses a Premium gender or country filter, they're told when a match fits it, so they can tell the gender you gave us or the country you connect from. We use it for matching (the Premium country filter), prices, the cookie notice, local helplines and our own aggregate statistics. The card they open from there shows only your nickname, your picture, whether you have an account and whether you're friends or have a friend request open, and lets them say hi, add you as a friend, report or block you. A guest's photo is never shown. Someone who sees your photo on Who's online or in the General room may have it kept in their browser for up to 5 minutes. To let you open someone from Who's online, we keep, for 30 minutes, which people your list showed you.

Stats and frames. Your card and your full profile page show four numbers: how many friends you have, how many real chats you've had, your streak (active days in a row) and your minutes of voice chat. Everyone who can open them and has confirmed they are 18 or over, guests included, sees them, unless they are banned. Other people see the numbers as they were at the end of the previous day (India time); only you see them up to the minute. Wherever your profile shows how many friends you have, other people, your friends included, see that same end-of-day number. If you turn on "Hide my stats" in Edit profile, only you see them, and your page doesn't show others how many friends you have or who they are. Your full profile page also shows the frames you own (frames that come with Premium only while your Premium badge shows), and the frame you wear is shown around your picture on your card, your page and to the people you chat with. Nobody you meet in a random chat sees your stats. A banner picture you upload is shown only while you have Premium; otherwise people see the banner colour you picked, if any.

Karma. After a 1:1 chat or call that lasted at least 60 seconds, you can give the other person karma once, up to 24 hours after the chat ended. Karma can only go to someone with an account who has confirmed they are 18 or over, and each account, or each guest device or session, can give the same account karma only once. When you give karma we store which chat it came from, your session (and your account, if you are signed in), the account you gave it to and when. The account's karma total is shown on its card and its full profile page to everyone who can open them, and on the card the other person sees during and after a chat. If you turn on "Hide my stats" in Edit profile, only you see your karma total. The person you give karma to isn't told it was you.

To keep karma to once per person and to stop it being faked, when you give karma as a guest we also keep, for the account you gave it to, a fingerprint of your device ID (from the Android app) and of your network address (your IPv4 address, or the first half of an IPv6 address). A fingerprint is a one-way code made with a secret key, so it can't be turned back into the address or ID. The network fingerprint is deleted after 30 days; the device fingerprint is kept until the account you gave karma to is deleted. To enforce daily limits we count, for 24 hours, how much karma each session and each network address gave, and how much karma each account received from guests (an account can receive karma from at most 5 guests a day).

Real chats. To count chats, streaks and frames, when a chat or call meets our rules for a real conversation (long enough, with both of you taking part) we record the day it happened (India time), who it was with, how long it lasted and how much of it was voice, and for each day whether you were active. For this count we don't record what was said: to check the rules we keep, until about 6 hours after the chat, short fingerprints of each side's last 3 messages and of each side's network address and device. A chat counts at once and is checked again about 72 hours later; it is taken out then if either of you reported or blocked the other since, or one of you is banned. These records, the frames you earn and wear, and which frame messages you've already seen are kept with your account (or your guest session). When it is deleted, they are deleted too, except that a chat you had still counts for the other person, with nothing left in it that names you. If you sign up after chatting as a guest, the records of your first active days move to your account.

Your public ID. Your profile has a random public ID, never your session ID. It is not sent in chats or calls with strangers. It goes with your General room messages and appears in friends lists, friend requests and direct-message lists, so people can open your card. We keep it until your account is deleted.

Your @handle. If you have an account, you get an @handle the first time it is needed: two ordinary English words and four digits, like calmriver4821, not made from your nickname, and it stays the same if you change your nickname. You can pick your own in Edit profile (letters, numbers and underscores, 3 to 20 characters; names that read as HearMe Chat or its staff are refused), once every 30 days. People who know your handle can open your full profile. When you change it, the old one is kept for nobody for 30 days (you included), then it can be taken, and nothing forwards from it. When you delete your account, your @handle is normally kept for nobody for 30 days, then it can be taken. We keep it until your account is deleted. Guests have no @handle.

How to change or remove it. On your profile page, tap Edit profile to change your bio, emoji, photo (Remove photo), your @handle, languages, "Here to" and song (Remove song). Your interests are edited in "Your profile in a chat" on your profile page. A song also disappears by itself after 24 hours, and we delete it within a day after that. When you delete your account, we delete your profile.

The reminder to add a bio and interests. If you have an account, it is shown to you only once. We note when we showed it, whether you closed it or opened Edit profile, and whether you added a bio and interests within a day. This is deleted with your account.

Notes and "Looking for". If you add a note (up to 60 characters) or up to two "Looking for" choices, they are shown for 24 hours to people who see your card and on Who's online, and a note is also shown to your chat partner. They are separate from the "Here to" choice on your profile, which stays until you change it. If people report a note, it can be hidden. We delete a note or choice within 9 days of it ending: when it clears, when you remove it, or when you delete your account.

Checks and reports. We check bios, interests, notes and songs (title, artist and note) with our text filters. One that suggests you are under 18 is kept as a safety record (see above); this includes notes. A new photo is shown to other people only after an automatic image check passes. If the check can't run, the photo waits on our server where other people can't see it, and they keep seeing your previous picture (or your emoji if you had none) until a later check passes; a photo that fails the check is deleted. For a GIF photo or banner every frame is checked: if only its first frame could be checked, others see that first frame as a still until the rest passes. A banner whose first frame can't be checked, or a profile effect that can't be checked, is refused, so you can try again later. GIFs are checked again after they are saved: if a later check flags a frame, the GIF is removed from your profile at once and not kept, and you see a note that it didn't pass our safety check. Nobody reviews them by hand. When someone reports you, from a chat, a call, a direct message, a General room message or your profile, a copy of your profile as saved goes with the report, including a bio or note the card hides: bio, interests, languages, what you're here for, your current note, which emoji you use and whether you have a picture, and your song (title and artist, Apple's track ID, its note, when it was set and when it was due to expire, even if it has since expired). A copy in a report follows the report (Section 8).

Law enforcement and child safety. We will preserve and disclose data to law enforcement or child-protection authorities where we are legally required to, or where we believe in good faith it is necessary to prevent serious harm — including any case involving child sexual exploitation or abuse. We have zero tolerance for this content.

5. What We Store, and What We Don't

6. Cookies and Local Storage

Essential cookies handle your session and keep you signed in. These are required for the Service to work. The hm_general cookie only says whether the General room is open, and the hm_pv2 cookie only whether the new profiles are on; neither holds anything about you.

Analytics. We measure page views, and what you do on HearMe Chat (for example starting a search, finding a match or opening Premium), with Google Analytics 4. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, or when we can't tell your country, it runs only if you accept cookies in the banner; everywhere else it runs by default, and you can turn it off at any time in "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page on the website.

Advertising. We may show ads from Google (Google AdSense) on our articles and guides: the blog and our guide, comparison and country pages. We never show ads in chats, voice calls, rooms, messages or profiles, and Premium members see no ads. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar identifiers to show ads, measure them and, if you allow it, personalise them based on your visits to HearMe Chat and other sites. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, or when we can't tell your country, we ask for your consent first and use advertising cookies only if you accept; everywhere else they are on by default. Anyone can switch off personalised ads at any time in "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page on the website, or in Google's My Ad Center. Without that consent Google may still show non-personalised ads, chosen from the page you are reading rather than from your activity, and it never affects your access to HearMe Chat. To learn more, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Our own usage counts. Separately from Google Analytics, our servers count how HearMe Chat is used so we can fix what doesn't work: that a visit happened, the name of the site that sent you (for example "google.com", never the full link) or a campaign tag, which features were used (a search, a match, a reminder), a message posted in the General room (whether it was text, a GIF or a sticker, never its words; before polls were removed in October 2026, also a poll and a poll vote), your country (from Cloudflare, never from you), the gender answer you gave when you searched (counted as man, woman or not specified, for our private statistics only), whether a search asked to meet only men or only women and whether that filter was applied, call-quality measurements, and how long searches and calls took. These counts are tied to a random ID kept in your browser's local storage and to your session, never to your IP address, name, email or what you say. They are not shared with anyone and are not used for advertising. If you're in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, or we can't tell your country, the counts your browser sends (visits and page steps) are kept without that ID or your session until you turn analytics on (Accept in the banner, or Cookie settings). Nothing is stored in your browser for them, and any ID saved earlier is removed. The counts our servers make themselves (searches, matches, calls and call quality) are always stored with your session ID.

At the start of every voice call, the two browsers exchange network (IP) addresses so they can try to connect directly; when a direct connection isn't possible, the call's audio goes through a relay server run by us or by Cloudflare. Text chats always go through our servers.

Age-check cookies. hearme_age_verified (essential, 30 days) remembers that you passed the 18+ check: a yes, the time you answered, and a signature that shows our server set it — nothing else. Both screens set it. hearme_u18 (essential, 7 days) is set only if you confirm a birth year under 18 on the birth-year screen, and blocks starting chats on that device. hm_gate (a random ID, 180 days) decides which of the two screens you see, so you keep seeing the same one. It is saved on the checkbox screen's record (Section 2). We set it when the checkbox screen is about to show. If you're in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, or we can't tell your country, we don't set it until you turn analytics on, and you get the birth-year screen. It is not used for advertising.

Invite link cookie. When you open someone's invite link (hearme.chat/u/…), we set hearme_via_link, a first-party cookie, for 7 days. It holds only the link's public code, nothing about you. If you create an account in that browser while it is there, we count the sign-up as coming from a link and, where invites are on, record who invited you (Section 2); the cookie is then removed. If you open several invite links, the last one counts. If you're in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, or we can't tell your country, we set it only after you turn analytics on (Accept in the banner, or Cookie settings). It is not used for advertising.

Stranger Jury. Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026; you can delete your own case with your private link until 16 Nov 2026; after that all Jury case data is deleted. Jury used one essential cookie, hm_ud: a random device ID, kept for 1 year. Nothing sets it any more; a browser that has one keeps it until it expires or you clear it. We stored only a hash of it, to count one vote per person, apply limits and link your reports. It was never used for advertising or analytics. If you asked about a case, your browser also keeps the private owner code for it in local storage (hm_jury_own). It goes to us only when you open your private link, or hearme.chat/r in this browser, to delete your case, and it is removed from this browser when you do.

Local storage remembers your preferences (sound, theme), the random usage-count ID above, a random device ID used to apply bans to this browser, how long an under-18 block on this device lasts, and for the General room: the time you last read the room, whether you left the room rules open or closed (so they open the way you left them; the first time, they open expanded), whether this browser is one of the 1 in 10 that don't see the General room preview while waiting for a match (a random draw kept in this browser; our usage counts of a search or a room visit say which of the two groups it is in, so we can tell whether the preview helps. If you're in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, or we can't tell your country, we don't make it until you turn analytics on, and you always get the preview), when to show the GIF button again after GIFs were busy (at most 10 minutes), and, if you send a GIF or sticker, the random GIF ID described in Section 7. It also keeps your chat preferences on this device (the interests you match on, what you're here for, your gender filter and your country filter), which of them are not yet saved to your account, and a short code (not your email) for the account they were last synced with. Logging out removes them from this device.

You can clear cookies and local storage at any time to reset your session.

7. Third-Party Services

Each has its own privacy practices:

• Cloudflare — CDN, security (including Turnstile abuse checks), country detection, and a relay server for some voice calls when a direct connection isn't possible
• Google Analytics — usage statistics on the website: only after you accept in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland (and where we can't tell your country), on by default elsewhere and can be switched off in Cookie settings
• Google STUN servers — during a voice call your browser asks them for your public address so a direct connection can be tried; they see your IP address, never your audio
• KLIPY — GIFs and stickers in the General room, in one-to-one text chats and in direct messages to friends. Anyone can send GIFs; guests have a lower limit. When you open the GIF picker, your browser contacts KLIPY to load GIFs. A GIF or sticker someone posts in the room, or sends you in a one-to-one chat or in a direct message, is also loaded from KLIPY by the browser of everyone who sees it (with reduced motion on, only once you tap to play it). KLIPY sees your IP address and browser like any website your browser loads from, that the request came from hearme.chat, the words you search for and the categories you tap. Searches ask for KLIPY's strictest content setting. We don't send KLIPY your name or account, and our servers send KLIPY nothing. So that the picker can show your recent GIFs and stickers, the first time you send one your browser makes a random ID that stays on this device; it is sent to KLIPY with each GIF or sticker you send (with the words you searched for, if any) and when you open Recent. We never link it to your account or keep it on our servers. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland (or where we can't tell your country), unless you have allowed analytics cookies, no such ID is made or sent and the picker has no Recent tab. A GIF you send in the room is stored as a link to KLIPY's image, as part of your message. A GIF you send in a direct message is stored as links to KLIPY's GIF and its still image, with its size and kind, as part of that message, and is kept and deleted like your other direct messages. In a one-to-one chat, a GIF isn't saved as a message. We pass its link to your partner and, like a text message, keep it for about 24 hours with the recent chat lines a report can read. If you report a GIF, its link stays with the report. In the Android app, the app (not a browser) contacts KLIPY directly. It makes and sends no such ID or device ID: KLIPY sees your IP address, the words you search for, the categories you tap and which GIF or sticker you send.
• Apple (iTunes Search) — the song on your profile. When you search for a song, your browser asks Apple's iTunes service directly; Apple sees your IP address and browser, that the request came from hearme.chat, and the words you search for. In the Android app, the app (not a browser) asks Apple directly, only after you tap Add a song and type at least two characters, and sends no cookies or sign-in. Apple sees your IP address, the app's user agent and the words you search for, and nothing is linked to your account. A song's picture loads from Apple's servers in the search results and when anyone views the profile card, and its 30-second preview only when someone plays it. Our servers send Apple nothing; we store the song's title, artist, Apple's track ID and links (picture, preview, page), your note, and when it was set and when it expires. Apple and Apple Music are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
• Google OAuth — optional sign-in with Google
• Our payment processor (currently Freemius) — Premium subscription billing on the website (we do not store full card details)
• Resend — sends the emails we send you, such as verification codes, password-reset links and a welcome email, so it receives your email address and the message
• Zoho Mail — receives the email you send to our support address and your replies to our emails, so it sees your address and your message
• Browser push services — run by your browser's maker (for example Google, Apple or Mozilla); they deliver the web notifications you turn on
• Backblaze B2 — stores our encrypted backups (Section 11); we encrypt them before they leave our server, so the provider cannot read them

8. Data Retention

• Random 1-on-1 text chat (the last 30 messages of a chat you were in): deleted 24 hours after the chat's first message, so moderators can see context if someone reports in that time. Deleting your account does not remove it sooner. The exception: a line that looks like an under-18 statement is kept, with the lines around it, for up to 12 months for a person to review, or longer while a ban or an open review depends on it (Section 4)
• Messages in the General room (text, links to GIFs and stickers; old polls are kept but not shown), with their reactions and votes: shown in the room for 7 days. We don't delete them on a schedule yet, so they stay until you delete them, a moderator deletes them, or you delete your account (an old poll isn't shown, so only a moderator or your account's deletion removes it). Reports about room messages and the log of moderators' room actions follow the safety-record and moderator-log lines below
• Your General room membership (that your session joined the room, when, and when you last opened or posted in it; a guest's moves to the account when they sign up or log in, unless the device is blocked as under 18, either side is banned, or the account hasn't confirmed 18+): until you leave the room, are banned from HearMe Chat (at the latest the next time you try to join), are blocked as under 18, or delete your account; a guest account's goes with it after 30 days without use
• Signing in from a guest session: when you sign in or sign up, we keep for 24 hours a note of which guest session became your account, so an open chat and Keep in touch carry over. Blocks you made as a guest, and blocks other people made against your guest session, move to your account and stay until they are undone. Not when the device is blocked as under 18 or either side is banned. If you sign in during a chat and get back into it, that chat's record names your account (so a report about it reaches you), and for 31 days we keep a note of the guest session you were in it, so the other person keeps seeing the guest card they chatted with, not your account, until you are friends. While Sparks is on, we also keep a note of the guest session your account was, for up to 30 days, so the check-ins earned there can move to your account; it is deleted once they have moved, or when you delete your account
• Keep in touch: when you tap it in a chat we note the tap for that chat; only when you and the person you chatted with both tap it do we keep a note linking your two sessions, for 24 hours. If both of you have an account, or sign in or sign up in that time, you become friends; otherwise it is deleted. Neither of you sees the other's name or details before that. Blocking either of you, or deleting your account, removes it at once. We count taps (at most 10 a day) for a day and a half
• A friend request you tap as a guest: saved for 14 days and sent when both of you have an account; blocking either of you removes it at once
• Recent chats for guests: History shows a guest the chats of the last 24 hours (three, plus any where both of you tapped Keep in touch), with no names and no messages, from the chat records above and a list kept on your device (the chat and when, at most 15, for 24 hours)
• Reloading a chat: your browser tab keeps the person's card and the last 30 text messages of the chat you are in for 10 minutes, so a reload shows the same chat. It stays in that tab only and goes when the tab closes; it is never sent to us
• The song on your profile: shown for 24 hours, then deleted within a day. Your other profile details: until you change them or delete your account
• Chat records (which two sessions were matched, when, for how long, text or voice; no content): until the account is deleted, then removed within 24 hours
• Karma: the record of who gave karma to whom, from which chat and when, is kept until the account that gave it or the account that received it is deleted; then it is deleted and the receiver's total is counted again. Karma a guest gave is kept when the guest is deleted (after 30 days without use), with the guest's session and fingerprint removed from it. Guest network fingerprints: 30 days. Guest device fingerprints: until the receiving account is deleted. Daily limit counters (which include your network address): 24 hours
• A moderator's warning after a report (a one-time reminder about the community guidelines): which session or account it is for, the general reason (for example spam or harassment), when it was made and when you saw it; never who reported you or what was said. Kept until you see it, or deleted after 30 days if you never do; once you have seen it, kept for 90 days, then deleted within a day
• Reported voice clips (last 60 seconds): deleted within 7 days, except a clip on a report a moderator confirms as child safety or under 18, which is kept as evidence for one year from the confirmation
• Stranger Jury cases, with their votes, comments and reports: Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026; you can delete your own case with your private link until 16 Nov 2026; after that all Jury case data is deleted (copies in our backups go as described in Section 11). Our usage counts that a case was posted, voted on or blocked (no text; Section 6) are not case data and stay as described in Section 8. Until then a case goes as soon as you delete it with your private link, or when you delete your account
• The keyed IP hash kept with a Jury case, vote, comment or report: cleared 30 days after it was made, and in any case with the rest of the Jury case data after 16 Nov 2026 (00:00 India time)
• People you blocked from commenting on your Jury cases and comments you hid from your own view: deleted with the rest of the Jury case data after 16 Nov 2026 (00:00 India time) (and when you delete your account)
• Stranger Jury notification links: deleted with the rest of the Jury case data after 16 Nov 2026 (00:00 India time), or earlier when you turn notifications off, your push subscription ends, or the case is deleted
• Server logs (our web server): your IP address and the page address, 90 days. The private link's code is never in a page address. Our own voice relay server can log the IP address of any device that connects to it while setting up or during a call, for up to 15 days. Our app's own logs also record the IP address with suspected abuse, such as a failed bot check, and are deleted after 14 days (logs written before 10 October 2026 are deleted by 25 October 2026)
• Browser push subscriptions: until you turn notifications off, the push service tells us the subscription has ended, or you delete your account. "Ring me" and voice-hour opt-ins also end after 30 days without a tap on a notification
• Usage counts and other event records (Section 6): we plan to delete them 13 months after they are made, but nothing deletes them on a schedule yet, so for now they stay. Counts kept with your session ID are also deleted when you delete your account
• Your session cookie: it expires 30 days after it was last set; the data linked to your session follows the guest account and account lines below
• The log of our moderators' actions (for example that an account was banned or unbanned): 12 months, also after the account is deleted
• After you delete your account: a short record that the session was deleted, for 31 days, or for as long as a ban on it lasts, so a deleted account can't be used to escape a ban; and the name you went by, for 24 hours
• When you delete your account, your General room membership, messages, reactions and votes are deleted; replies other people wrote to you no longer quote you, and messages that @mentioned you no longer point to your account (the words others wrote stay as they wrote them). Logging out, or deleting your account on the website, also removes the random GIF ID from that device; KLIPY's list of GIFs sent under the old ID stays with KLIPY, linked to nothing of ours.
• Guest accounts: a guest session ends after 30 days of inactivity. We delete the guest account then too, automatically, along with the data linked to it. A guest account whose Premium is still running is kept until that ends, and deleted once it has ended and the guest has been inactive for 30 days
• Account data, including the last IP address we saw for your account: until you delete your account
• Safety and moderation records: until we delete them. We do that automatically after 12 months, or when a ban they support ends if that is later, or later still where legally required or needed for an ongoing investigation. A report a moderator confirms as child safety or under 18, with a frozen copy of the messages shown with it, is kept one year from the confirmation (or longer if a moderator extends it for the authorities), even after you delete your account
• Under-18 review records (Section 4): the flagged line and the chat lines around it, up to 12 months, or longer while a ban or an open review depends on it. A pause on a device stays until the owner has reviewed it, even after you delete your account, and is deleted 12 months after it is lifted
• Age-confirmation records of the checkbox screen (Section 2): we delete them automatically after 12 months. The ones linked to your session are deleted at once when you delete your account; a record with only the screen ID can't be linked to you, so it stays until that 12-month deletion
• Ban records: kept for as long as the ban is in effect. A record of the connection (IP address) stops blocking after at most 30 days (72 hours for a child-safety or under-18 ban), but we do not delete it on a schedule yet
• Ban appeals: kept until the ban ends or is lifted, or for 12 months after the appeal, whichever is later, and while any other ban on you is in effect. We delete them then, automatically
• When an account is banned, we make a keyed one-way code (hash) of its verified email address and of its Google account. The email code ignores anything after a "+" in the address, and dots in a Gmail address, so those forms count as the same address. These codes are kept for as long as the ban lasts, including after the account is deleted, so the ban can't be dodged by signing up again. GIFs sent from an account whose email address isn't verified yet and matches one of these codes aren't delivered. The address itself is not kept. When a timed ban ends the code stops blocking anyone, and we then delete it automatically.
• Billing records: when you buy Premium we keep a record of the purchase. For payments on the website that is the payment processor's full notice to us: it includes the email address you paid with and whatever else the processor sends (such as your name or country), the plan, the amount and the processor's IDs. It is no longer tied to your account record, but the email address still identifies you. These records stay when you delete your account so we can handle refunds and disputes. We keep them for as long as tax and accounting law requires; we have no automatic deletion for them yet, so for now they stay. Our payment processor, Freemius, also keeps its own records
• Premium bought without an account: we keep it waiting for 30 days from the payment. To get it, sign in with the address you paid with: with Google, by entering the code we email to it, or by logging in to an account whose address is already verified (in the app too). If nobody signs in with that address within 30 days, we close the purchase and refund it in full, usually within a few days; it can't be claimed after that. The purchase record stays as a billing record, marked refunded, as above.

9. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, object to or restrict our processing of your data, withdraw consent, request data portability, and complain to your local data protection authority.

Stranger Jury: Jury ended on 17 Oct 2026; you can delete your own case with your private link until 16 Nov 2026; after that all Jury case data is deleted. To delete your case before then, open your private link (it looks like hearme.chat/r#…) and tap Delete my case. The case and everything on it, its votes, comments and reports, are deleted right away. Copies people made, link previews that messaging apps already fetched and push notifications already delivered can't be recalled. Keep the link private: anyone who has it can delete your case. If you delete your account before then, your cases and everything on them are deleted with it, and so are the votes, comments and reports you made and your Jury notification links.

You can delete your account yourself, from Settings on the website or from You → Delete account in the Android app. If your account has a password, the app asks you for it. If you can't, email us from the address on your account: we reply to that address to confirm the request, then delete the account the same way, within 30 days of confirming. Deleting an account, yourself or through us, does not delete a child-safety report held as evidence, or the ban records of a banned account (they stay, so a ban still holds). The Delete account page lists what is deleted and what we keep.

To exercise any of these, email support@hearme.chat. We'll respond within the time required by applicable law, and may need to verify your identity first.

Please note: deleting your account, yourself or through us, doesn't delete safety records, ban records or data we're legally required to keep, and doesn't lift a ban.

10. International Data Transfers

HearMe Chat is available globally. Your data may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own, including by the third-party providers listed in Section 7. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for those transfers. Our own servers are run by a hosting provider, with servers located in India; Cloudflare, Resend, Google, KLIPY, Apple and the backup provider in Section 7 process data elsewhere too.

11. Security and Data Breaches

We use HTTPS/TLS encryption, access controls, and encrypted backups. Database backups are made daily and weekly. Our encrypted backups are deleted automatically: daily ones within about a month and weekly ones after about 8 weeks, so something you deleted can remain in a backup until then. Backups include held child-safety evidence, including audio clips, and are encrypted. No system is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

If we become aware of a breach that poses a risk to you, we will notify affected users and the relevant authorities as required by law.

12. Children's Privacy

HearMe Chat is not for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

If you are under 18, do not use this Service and do not send us any personal information.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child under 18 has given us personal information, report the account or email safety@hearme.chat, and we will ban the account and its device.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. The "Last updated" date will change, and material changes will be announced on the Service. Continuing to use HearMe Chat after a change means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact

support@hearme.chat