Privacy Policy | ChattyCam

ChattyCam Privacy Policy

Last updated: 19 July 2026

1. About this privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how ChattyCam collects, uses, stores and shares personal information when you visit or use chattycam.com, create an account, upload content, post comments, communicate with other users, use camera or microphone features, contact us, or interact with our safety and moderation systems.

In this policy, “ChattyCam”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the operator of chattycam.com.

Data controller: ChattyCam
Trading name: ChattyCam
Privacy email: [email protected]

The data controller is responsible for deciding why and how personal information is processed.

2. Who can use ChattyCam

ChattyCam is intended for people aged 13 and over.

People under 13 must not create an account, upload content or use ChattyCam’s social, messaging or live communication features.

Users aged between 13 and 17 should involve a parent or guardian when appropriate and should never disclose their home address, school, telephone number, exact location, financial information or other sensitive personal details to another user.

We may use proportionate age-assurance measures, account information, moderation signals or reports to determine whether someone meets our minimum-age requirements. We may restrict or remove an account where we reasonably believe that the user is under the permitted age.

3. Information we collect

The information we collect depends on the features you use.

Account and profile information

This may include:

Your username, display name or account identifier.
Your email address and encrypted password.
Your stated age, date of birth or age range.
Your profile photograph, biography, interests and other profile information.
Your account settings, privacy choices and communication preferences.
Information about your account status, roles, permissions, warnings or restrictions.

You should not use your full legal name as a public username unless you are comfortable making it visible to other users.

Photographs, comments and other content

We may process content that you upload, publish, send or submit, including:

Photographs, images, GIFs and profile pictures.
Captions, descriptions, comments and reactions.
Text chat messages and private messages, where those features are available.
Reports, appeals and messages sent to moderators.
Information contained within content submitted as evidence of abuse or a breach of our rules.

Uploads may contain hidden metadata, including information about the device or location where a photograph was created. You should remove location metadata before uploading content where you do not want that information disclosed.

Camera, microphone and live-session information

When you choose to use a live camera, video-chat or audio feature, your browser or device will ask for permission to access your camera or microphone.

ChattyCam may process:

Live audio and video streams.
Camera and microphone permission status.
Session and connection identifiers.
The time and duration of a live session.
Connection quality and technical diagnostic information.
The users connected to, viewing or participating in a session.
Reports made during or following a live session.

Live audio and video may pass through ChattyCam’s media infrastructure or contracted communications providers so that the session can be delivered.

ChattyCam does not routinely record or permanently store live audio or video streams. However, limited content or evidence may be retained where a user submits a report, where a safety feature clearly informs you that evidence is being captured, where recording is required by law, or where it is reasonably necessary to investigate serious abuse.

Other users may be able to take screenshots or make recordings using their own devices. ChattyCam cannot completely prevent another person from copying content that you choose to show them. Recording or sharing another person without permission may breach our rules or the law.

You can disable camera or microphone access through your browser or device settings.

Technical, device and security information

When you visit or use ChattyCam, we may automatically collect:

Your IP address and approximate country, region or general location derived from it.
Browser type, browser version, operating system and device type.
Screen size, language, timezone and general device settings.
Referring pages, requested pages, timestamps and server logs.
Session identifiers, cookies and browser-storage identifiers.
Network, WebSocket and connection diagnostic information.
Login attempts, failed authentication attempts and security events.
Information indicating possible spam, abuse, automated access, ban evasion or account compromise.

To protect ChattyCam and its users, we may also create or receive security identifiers based on browser or device characteristics. These can include persistent random identifiers and technical characteristics such as browser configuration, screen information, language, timezone, graphics characteristics, audio-processing characteristics and device capabilities.

These security identifiers are used to detect abuse, recover security identifiers, enforce bans, prevent repeated evasion and protect accounts. They are not intended to identify you by name and are not used by ChattyCam for cross-site advertising.

Communications with us

When you contact us, we may collect your name, email address, account details, the contents of your communication and any attachments or evidence you provide.

Information received from other people

We may receive information about you from:

Other users who report content or behaviour.
Moderators and administrators.
Security, hosting, fraud-prevention or content-moderation providers.
Publicly available sources where reasonably necessary to investigate impersonation, fraud, threats or other serious misuse.
Law-enforcement bodies or other authorities.

We will assess reports and will not automatically assume that information submitted by another person is accurate.

4. How we use personal information

We use personal information to:

Create, maintain and secure user accounts.
Provide profiles, photographs, comments, messaging and live communication features.
Connect users and operate live camera or video-chat sessions.
Display content according to the visibility settings selected by the user.
Provide customer support and respond to enquiries.
Review reports, moderate content and enforce our Terms, Community Guidelines and safety rules.
Detect spam, scams, harmful content, unauthorised automation, fake accounts and ban evasion.
Protect users, accounts, our infrastructure and the public.
Diagnose errors, improve reliability and measure how our services are used.
Maintain records of consent and privacy choices.
Comply with legal obligations, court orders and lawful requests.
Establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
Notify users about important service, safety or policy changes.
Send optional marketing communications where the recipient has agreed to receive them.

We do not sell personal information.

5. Our lawful bases

UK data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Performance of a contract

We rely on performance of a contract where processing is necessary to provide the service you request, including creating an account, displaying your profile, publishing your content, delivering messages and providing live communication features.

Legitimate interests

We rely on legitimate interests where processing is reasonably necessary for the operation, improvement and protection of ChattyCam, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.

These interests include:

Maintaining the security and reliability of the service.
Preventing fraud, spam, abuse, exploitation and ban evasion.
Moderating content and enforcing site rules.
Protecting users and responding to reports.
Understanding general service performance.
Establishing or defending legal claims.

We consider the nature of the information, the potential effect on users and the safeguards available before relying on legitimate interests.

Consent

We rely on consent where required, including for:

Optional analytics, advertising or personalisation cookies.
Optional marketing communications.
Certain optional features that clearly ask for permission.
Any processing of special-category information for which explicit consent is the appropriate condition.

Camera and microphone access is also controlled through permissions provided by your browser or device. You may revoke those permissions at any time.

Withdrawing consent does not make processing carried out before withdrawal unlawful.

Legal obligation

We may process information where necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, court orders or legally valid requests.

Vital interests

In rare and urgent circumstances, we may process or disclose information where it is reasonably necessary to protect someone’s life or physical safety.

6. Sensitive personal information

ChattyCam does not generally ask users to provide sensitive or “special-category” personal information.

However, photographs, live video, profiles, messages or comments could reveal information about a person’s health, ethnicity, religion, political views, sexual orientation or other sensitive matters.

Please avoid publishing sensitive information unless it is necessary and you are comfortable with the relevant audience seeing it.

Where we intentionally process special-category information, we will identify an appropriate lawful basis and an additional legal condition. Content may also be processed where necessary for safeguarding, legal claims, moderation or other circumstances permitted by law.

We do not use facial recognition to establish a person’s identity unless this is specifically introduced, clearly explained and supported by an appropriate legal basis.

7. Public content and interaction with other users

Depending on your settings and the feature used, your username, profile information, photographs, captions, comments and live-camera status may be visible to other users or the public.

Public content may:

Appear in search engines.
Be viewed without an account.
Be copied, quoted, downloaded or shared by another person.
Remain in another person’s possession after you delete it from ChattyCam.

You should only publish information that you are comfortable sharing with the intended audience.

Private messages and restricted content are not intended to be public, but recipients may still copy or disclose them. Do not send passwords, payment details, identification documents, home addresses or other highly sensitive information through ChattyCam.

8. Content moderation and safety systems

ChattyCam uses administrative, technical and moderation measures to detect and respond to content or conduct that may breach our rules.

Content such as images, GIFs, comments, profiles and reports may be reviewed by authorised moderators or analysed by automated content-safety systems.

Automated systems may look for indicators of:

Spam or automated activity.
Sexual, violent or otherwise unsafe imagery.
Scams, prohibited links or repeated unwanted messages.
Suspicious account behaviour.
Attempts to avoid an existing restriction or ban.

These systems may temporarily block an upload, restrict an account, interrupt a session or refer content for human review.

We do not intend to make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on users. Users may contact us to request a review of a moderation or security decision.

Reports may include copies or excerpts of relevant profiles, messages, photographs or session information. We restrict access to reports to authorised personnel and service providers who need the information for safety, investigation or legal purposes.

9. Cookies and browser storage

ChattyCam may use cookies, local storage, session storage, IndexedDB, service-worker storage and similar technologies.

Essential storage

Essential technologies may be used without optional consent where necessary to:

Keep you signed in.
Maintain a session.
Remember security and privacy choices.
Prevent fraud and abuse.
Store or recover a security identifier.
Balance traffic and maintain network security.
Provide a feature specifically requested by you.

Disabling essential storage may prevent parts of ChattyCam from working correctly.

Optional storage

With your consent, optional technologies may be used for analytics, advertising, measurement or personalisation.

Where optional cookies or similar technologies are used, you will be given a choice through our cookie controls. Refusing optional technologies will not prevent access to essential site functions.

You can change your choices through the cookie settings provided on the site or through your browser settings.

10. Who we share information with

We may share information with trusted service providers that help us operate ChattyCam, including:

Website, database, server and backup providers.
Content-delivery, network-security and denial-of-service protection providers, such as Cloudflare.
Real-time communications infrastructure and media-server providers using technology such as LiveKit.
Email and customer-support providers.
Automated image or content-moderation providers.
Error-monitoring, security and fraud-prevention providers.
Analytics or advertising providers where optional consent has been obtained.

These providers may process information only for the agreed purpose and are required to protect it appropriately.

We may also disclose information:

To police, courts, regulators or public authorities where required or permitted by law.
Where reasonably necessary to prevent or investigate serious harm, exploitation, fraud, threats or criminal activity.
To obtain legal advice or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
In connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring or transfer of the website, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards.

We do not disclose personal information to advertisers so that they can directly identify you unless we have clearly explained this and obtained any required consent.

11. International transfers

Some service providers may process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we use an appropriate legal mechanism where required. This may include:

A UK adequacy regulation.
The UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
The UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses.
Other safeguards permitted by UK data-protection law.

You may contact us for more information about the safeguards used for a particular transfer.

12. How long we retain information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

Our retention decisions consider the nature of the information, account activity, safety requirements, legal obligations, potential disputes and the risk of harm if information is retained or deleted.

Generally:

Account and profile information is retained while the account remains active.
Published content is retained until it is deleted, the account is removed, or we remove it under our rules.
Messages may be retained while needed to provide message history, investigate reports or operate the service.
Support communications are normally retained for up to 24 months after the matter is closed.
Routine security and access logs are normally retained for up to 24 months.
Ban, fraud-prevention and serious-abuse records may be retained for longer where necessary to prevent repeated abuse or protect users.
Moderation records may be retained after content has been removed where necessary to document a decision, handle an appeal, protect users or defend a legal claim.
Consent records may be retained for as long as necessary to demonstrate the choices that were made.
Deleted information may remain temporarily in restricted backups until the relevant backup is overwritten through the normal backup cycle.

We may retain information for longer where required by law, where there is an ongoing investigation, where litigation is reasonably anticipated, or where deletion would create a significant safety risk.

Where possible, information that is no longer required may be anonymised rather than retained in identifiable form.

13. Account deletion

You may request deletion of your account and associated personal information by using any account-deletion feature provided or by contacting [email protected].

Deleting an account may not immediately remove:

Content copied or shared by another user.
Information contained in another user’s messages or comments.
Moderation, ban or security records that we still reasonably require.
Information that must be retained for legal reasons.
Restricted backup copies awaiting deletion through the normal backup cycle.

Where information must be retained, we will limit its use to the purpose for which retention remains necessary.

14. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

Be informed about how your information is used.
Request access to personal information we hold about you.
Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Ask us to delete your information.
Ask us to restrict the use of your information.
Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Receive certain information in a portable format.
Withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.
Ask for human review of certain automated decisions.
Complain to a data-protection supervisory authority.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal exceptions.

To exercise a right, contact [email protected]. We may ask for information necessary to verify your identity and locate the relevant account or records.

We will not ask you to provide more identity information than is reasonably necessary.

15. Children’s privacy rights

Children have privacy and data-protection rights in their own right.

We aim to explain privacy information clearly and provide age-appropriate settings and protections for younger users. Where we know or reasonably believe that a user is under 18, we may apply additional privacy, visibility, messaging or moderation safeguards.

A parent or guardian may contact us about a child’s information. We will consider the child’s age, understanding, privacy rights and best interests before disclosing information or acting on a request.

If you believe that a person under 13 has provided personal information to ChattyCam, contact [email protected] so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

16. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

These measures may include:

Encrypted connections.
Password hashing.
Access controls and administrative authentication.
Network and application monitoring.
Firewalls, rate limiting and security challenges.
Abuse-prevention and device-security identifiers.
Restricted access to moderation and administrative systems.
Backups and recovery procedures.
Logging and investigation of suspicious access.

No internet service can guarantee complete security. Users are responsible for choosing a strong password, keeping login details private and signing out of shared devices.

17. External links

ChattyCam may contain links to websites or services operated by other organisations.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of external services. You should read their privacy information before providing personal information or allowing access to your device.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy where our services, technology, providers or legal obligations change.

The updated version will be published on ChattyCam with a revised “last updated” date. Where a change materially affects how we use personal information, we will take reasonable steps to provide additional notice.

19. Contacting us

Questions, requests and complaints about this privacy policy or your personal information should be sent to:

Email: [email protected]
Data controller: ChattyCam

Please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to investigate and address your concern.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO can be contacted through its online complaints service or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.