Privacy Policy

Lounge Chat ("we", "us", or "our") is an anonymous real-time chat platform operated at theloungechat.com and via our mobile applications. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about how we handle data.

We collect as little data as possible. Here is what is processed:

• ›IP address — used temporarily to estimate your country for matching and dashboard analytics. It is not stored persistently and is never shared.
• ›Nickname & avatar emoji — chosen by you at the start of each session. These are stored only in memory for the duration of your session and deleted when you disconnect.
• ›Chat messages — private 1-on-1 messages are transmitted directly to your chat partner and are never written to any database or log. Room messages are held in short-term memory (last 50 messages per room) to provide history for new joiners, and are cleared when the server restarts.
• ›Aggregate statistics — anonymous counts such as total connections per day, messages sent, and country-level visit counts. These cannot be traced back to any individual.

• ›No name, email address, phone number, or any personal identifier — unless you voluntarily provide one in chat (which we advise against).
• ›No account registration or password.
• ›No persistent device identifiers or advertising IDs.
• ›No cookies beyond what is strictly necessary for the session socket connection.
• ›No tracking pixels, third-party analytics SDKs, or behavioural profiling.

• ›To connect you with other users in real time (matching, room membership).
• ›To estimate your country for location-based matching preferences.
• ›To enforce community safety rules (rate limiting, spam detection, reporting).
• ›To display anonymous aggregate usage statistics to platform administrators.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any commercial purpose beyond operating the service.

All session data (your nickname, avatar, chat messages, and connection status) exists only in memory and is automatically deleted the moment you disconnect or the server restarts. We operate no persistent user database. Aggregate counters (e.g. daily connection count, country visit totals) are reset daily and do not contain personal information.

We use the following third-party services to operate the platform:

• ›Railway — cloud hosting provider for our servers. Your IP address passes through their infrastructure. See railway.app/legal/privacy for their policy.
• ›ip-api.com — used to convert your IP address to a country name. Your IP is sent to their API for this purpose only. See ip-api.com/docs for their terms.
• ›Anthropic (Claude AI) — if enabled, AI-powered chat bots in rooms use Anthropic's API to generate replies. No user messages are used for AI training. See anthropic.com/privacy.

Lounge Chat is intended for users aged 13 and over. Users under 18 should have parental or guardian consent before using the platform. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 is using the service, please contact us immediately so we can take appropriate action.

Because we collect no persistent personal data, most standard data rights (access, correction, deletion) are satisfied automatically — there is nothing stored to access or delete after your session ends. If you have concerns, you are welcome to contact us:

All connections to Lounge Chat are encrypted via HTTPS and WSS (secure WebSocket). We do not transmit or store unencrypted personal data. While no service can guarantee absolute security, our design minimises risk by retaining virtually no data.

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.