Privacy policy
What we know about you, and what we don't
randomchat.social is built to need as little about you as possible. This page lists everything the service processes, in plain words.
Last updated 15 October 2026
The short version
- No account is needed. We never ask for your name, email or phone number.
- Before your first chat we ask for your gender and your country, which are used for matching and are not shown to the other person.
- The person you chat with sees a random name and your messages and, in a video chat, your camera and microphone.
- Messages are relayed through our server and are not saved, unless a chat is reported.
- Messages are checked automatically on the way through: slurs, threats and sexual content about children are refused, and swearing is hidden on the other person's screen until they tap it.
- Video, photos and clips you receive are checked for nudity by your own browser. No picture is sent anywhere for this.
- Photos and video clips sent in a chat are held on our server only while that chat is open and for about two minutes after it ends.
- Your recent chats are kept as a history in your own browser, not on our server. You can clear it at any time.
- If you add friends, we keep your friends list and the direct messages between you and each friend, for up to 30 days per message. This is the one kind of conversation we store.
- Video and audio go directly from your browser to the other person's. They do not pass through our server and we cannot record them.
- If you choose to save your account, we keep your display name, interests and, if you uploaded one, your profile photo against a scrambled Google ID. Not your email, real name or Google picture.
- We use no advertising, no analytics scripts and no cookies. The cookie policy lists what is kept in your browser instead.
Anonymous names are not the same as technical anonymity
Your random name hides who you are from the other person. It does not make you invisible to the network. To deliver messages to your browser, our server has to know your IP address, exactly like every other website you visit, and so do your internet provider and our hosting provider.
We do not show your IP address to anyone, and we do not try to work out who you are from it. But we will not promise something no website can deliver: if you need protection from a capable adversary, a random chat site is not the right tool on its own.
Anything you type is seen by the other person, who can copy it or take a screenshot. Do not share details you would not hand to a stranger.
Video chats reveal more than text chats. A video call is a direct connection between your browser and the other person's, so each browser learns the other's IP address, and the other person can record what your camera and microphone send. Choose text chat if that matters to you.
What is processed, and for how long
| Information | Why | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| Your random display name | So two people can tell each other apart, and no two active people share a name | In memory, until about 30 seconds after you disconnect |
| Your messages | To deliver them. The last 30 of the current chat stay in memory so the chat survives a brief connection drop and can be reported | In memory only. Dropped when you move to a new chat, when your session ends, or at most 10 minutes after a chat ends |
| Your gender and country, and who you asked to meet | To match you with people who asked to meet your gender or people in your country, and to apply your own filters if your plan includes them. Both are whatever you tell us; we do not verify them, we do not work your country out from your IP address, and the other person is shown neither | In memory while you are connected, and in your browser's local storage until you clear it |
| Photos and video clips you send in a chat | To deliver them to the person you are chatting with. Photos are re-encoded in your browser before they are sent, which removes details the camera adds, such as where the picture was taken. Video clips are sent as they are | On our server while the chat is open and for about two minutes after it ends, then deleted. They are not attached to reports |
| Whether a message has been read | To show "Seen" to people whose plan includes read receipts | In memory, for the length of the chat |
| Chat history | So you can look back at your recent chats: the other person's display name, the time, and the text of the messages | In your browser's local storage only, never on our server. It holds your most recent chats, as many as your plan allows, until you clear it |
| A browser ID | So friends and direct messages find you again on your next visit without an account. Your browser makes a random key and keeps it; we store only a scrambled (salted and hashed) form of it, next to the display name you last used and the date you first visited. That date is shown as "Joined" to the people you chat with and to your friends | The key stays in your browser's local storage until you clear it. Our copy stays while you have friends or requests |
| Friends and friend requests | To connect two people who both agreed to it. A request can only be sent to someone you were matched with, and nothing is shared until they accept. Friends see each other's display name and whether the other is online | Until either of you removes the other |
| Direct messages between friends | So a friend can read what you wrote while they were away | On our server for up to 30 days, at most the latest 500 per friendship. Editing a message replaces its text; deleting one erases the text from our server. Removing a friend deletes the whole conversation for both of you at once |
| Your interests, for your friends | So your friends can see what you are into on your profile. Only accepted friends see them, never people who only sent a request | On our server while "Show my interests to friends" is on. Switching it off deletes our copy |
| Camera and microphone, in video chats | To show and play them to the person you are matched with. Your browser asks for permission first | Sent directly between the two browsers and never stored by us. Our server only relays the short setup messages that let the two browsers find each other |
| Your IP address | To connect you, to limit spam and connection flooding, and to enforce bans | Used while you are connected, as a scrambled (salted and hashed) value that we cannot turn back into the address. Not written to disk unless a report or ban is involved |
| A session token in your browser tab | To put you back in your chat if your connection drops for a moment | In the tab's session storage. It disappears when you close the tab |
| Your display name and settings in your browser | So you keep the same name, theme, chat mode and safety settings on your next visit, and are not asked again to confirm that you are 18 or older | In your browser's local storage, until you clear it |
| A saved account, only if you choose "Save account" or buy a plan | To give you back your display name, interests and profile photo on another device or after your browser storage is cleared, and to know which paid plan is yours. It holds your display name, the interests you last added, the profile photo you uploaded (shrunk to 128 × 128 pixels; only if you uploaded one), your plan and when it ends, and a scrambled (salted and hashed) form of your Google account ID, which we cannot turn back into the ID. Your browser keeps a sign-in key for it | Until you remove it. Removing your profile photo deletes our copy of it at once |
| Payment records, only if you buy a plan | To count each payment once, and to answer questions about it and refund it. A record holds NOWPayments' payment number, the plan and how many days it bought, the date, and the same scrambled account ID. No wallet address, name or email | As long as the law requires us to keep records of sales, even after the account is removed |
| Reports | To review abuse. A report holds the reason, any note the reporter added, both display names, the scrambled IP values of both people, and the last 30 messages of that chat. A message edited or deleted during the chat is included as it was first sent, so deleting something does not hide it from a review | 30 days, then deleted automatically |
| Automatic moderation records | To ban people who keep breaking the guidelines, and to check that the filter is not too strict. A record is made when a message is refused, and when someone's browser detects nudity in what you send. It holds what kind of rule was broken, the word or phrase that was caught (never the rest of the message), your scrambled IP value and, for nudity, the scrambled IP value of the person whose browser detected it. No picture is ever part of it | 30 days, then deleted automatically |
| Bans | To keep out people who break the guidelines. A ban holds a scrambled IP value and an expiry time | Until the ban expires |
| Server logs | To keep the service running: counts of connections and matches, errors, rate-limit events | Short-lived operational logs. They never contain message text or IP addresses |
What we never collect
- Real names, email addresses, phone numbers or Google profile pictures. The only photo we keep is one you upload yourself to a saved account
- Recordings of video or audio
- Location or contacts
- Advertising identifiers or cross-site tracking data
- A history of who you have talked to. The chat history feature lives in your browser only, and we learn that two people met only if one of them sends the other a friend request
Reports and moderation
When someone reports a chat, the recent messages of that chat are saved so a moderator can see what happened. This is the only case in which message text is written to disk. A photo or clip appears in a report only as a note that one was sent, not as the file itself. The person who was reported is not told that a report was made or who made it.
If an address is reported by several different people in a short time, it can be blocked from the service for a while automatically.
Automatic checks on messages. Every message is checked against a list of words and phrases as it passes through our server. Slurs, threats and sexual content about children are not delivered, and each one counts as a strike against the sender's scrambled IP value. Everyday swearing is delivered, and the other person's browser hides it until they tap it, unless they switched that off. Links and phone numbers from strangers are hidden the same way. Messages the word list finds borderline may also be checked by OpenAI's moderation service, which receives the text of that one message and nothing else: no name, address or other messages.
Automatic checks on video and pictures. When you receive video, a photo or a clip, your own browser checks it for nudity with a small model that runs on your device. The picture never leaves your device for this, and we never see it. If nudity is detected, your browser blurs it and tells our server only that it happened, so that a person several different people's browsers flag can be banned.
Spoken words in video calls are not checked. Use the mute button, Next or Report if someone says something you do not want to hear.
Who else is involved
The service runs on a hosting provider, which necessarily handles network traffic on our behalf. Video calls use Google's public STUN servers to help two browsers find each other; those servers see your IP address but none of the call. GIFs are loaded from KLIPY. If you choose "Save account", Google handles the sign-in under its own privacy policy. Borderline messages may be checked by OpenAI's moderation service, as described above, under OpenAI's own privacy policy. If you buy a plan, NOWPayments handles the cryptocurrency payment on its own page under its own privacy policy; it tells us only the payment's status and which account and plan it was for. We do not sell or share information with advertisers or data brokers. We may disclose stored information, which is limited to the reports, bans and moderation records described above, if the law requires it or to protect someone from serious harm.
Your choices
- Close the tab at any time. If you never saved an account or added a friend, there is nothing to delete.
- To delete a conversation with a friend, remove that friend under "People".
- To delete a saved account, open "Save account" in the chat and choose "Remove my saved account".
- To ask about a report that may involve you, or to raise any privacy question, write to [email protected]. Because we hold no contact details, we may need details such as the date, time and display names to find anything.
Age
randomchat.social is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly allow anyone younger to use it.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it.