Privacy Policy
You can chat on Stranger Talk without giving us your email or phone number. That doesn't mean we store nothing. This page tells you exactly what we keep, why, and how to get rid of it.
1. Who we are
Stranger Talk is an online chat service for adults 18 and over. You can talk to random people, use private codes, find people in your area or on your train, and join groups and community spaces. It's run by the Stranger Talk team, and when this policy says "we" or "us", that's who we mean.
2. What this policy covers
It covers the Stranger Talk website and everything you can do on it: Random Chat, Private Chat, Area Chat, Travel Chat, Community, Groups, Games, Top Chatters, profiles, friends, feedback, reports and account settings. It also covers what we keep in our database and what we save in your browser to make the site work.
3. You must be 18 or older
When you start, you confirm you're 18+ and agree to our Terms and this policy. If you give an age under 18, our server rejects it, and it checks the 18+ rule again before some chat features open. We don't ask for a government ID to verify age.
4. What you tell us
Depending on what you use, you might give us a display name, age, gender, a short bio, country, state, city, an Instagram handle (optional), your ST code, a PIN, posts and replies, poll votes, group activity, feedback, reports and friend requests.
A display name is optional. If you skip it, you show up as "Stranger". We ask for gender because Random Chat uses it when picking who to match you with.
5. Your ST code, PIN and login
Every profile gets an ST code (ST plus five digits). We create it for you, and you can change it later. You can also set a PIN so you can come back to the same account (new PINs are 6 digits). We never store your PIN or your recovery code itself, only a salted, deliberately slow one-way hash (PBKDF2) that can't be turned back into the original.
To keep you logged in, we create a session token. The token sits in a secure, HTTP-only cookie in your browser, and we store only a hash of it on our side. A session record holds your ST code, a device ID, when it started, when you were last seen, and when it expires or was ended. Sessions expire after 30 days. We may link a device to your profile so we can recognise you when you return.
6. What we save in your browser
Your browser keeps a device ID and your current ST code in local storage, plus a few small values for onboarding and navigation. These help the site pick up where you left off. Your actual login is checked on our server through the session cookie, not through these values.
7. Analytics and IP addresses
We use Google Analytics to understand how people use the site, like which pages get visited. Google Analytics uses cookies and receives technical details from your browser, such as your IP address and device type, under Google's own privacy policy.
We don't load Google Analytics inside the app once you're signed in, and private chat codes are removed from the page addresses sent to analytics.
We never store your IP address itself. To stop password guessing and mass fake sign-ups, we store a one-way hash of the IP address for failed logins, recovery attempts and new account creation. These records are cleared automatically after about 2 days. Our hosting and security providers may still keep network logs as part of running the service.
8. Location
Area Chat asks you to pick a country, state and city. We save those choices on your profile and use them to find people in the same area. We don't ask your browser for GPS and we don't store GPS coordinates.
We can't stop you from typing your own location into a chat, though. Please don't share your home address, workplace, live location or train seat number with someone you just met.
9. Your messages
We do store messages. Each one is saved with the chat room, the sender's ST code and display name, the text and the time. We need this to run conversations and to look into reports.
Random, Area, Travel, Private and Group chats each use rooms with a list of who's in them. While you're in a chat, your browser sends regular "I'm still here" updates, and we keep a record of which room you're in and when you were last active.
10. Private Chat
Private Chat uses a 6-digit code. Creating one opens a waiting room. The code can be used to join within 10 minutes, only one other person can join, and the chat goes live when they do. Shared links look like /private/123456. A private room is not a public profile.
"Private" means only the two of you can get in. It does not mean end-to-end encrypted, and the messages are still stored on our system like any other chat. Don't send anything there you wouldn't want an online service to keep.
11. Reports and blocks
When you report someone in a chat, we save the room, your ST code, their ST code and the reason you gave. Reports on posts can also save which post it was. When you block someone, we save who blocked whom and when. Our moderation tools use these records to take action.
Your report is not anonymous to us, because it's linked to your ST code. It is never shown to other users.
When a conversation is reported, our moderators can read that conversation to review the report, and it is kept until the review is done. Conversations that aren't reported are not reviewed. Reports about an underage user or child safety are reviewed first.
12. Community, groups and polls
Questions, discussions, answers and comments are saved with the author's ST code and the time. Polls save the question, options, who created it and when it ends. Votes save who voted, what they picked and when.
Groups save the name, description, category, privacy setting, owner, rules, invite codes, members and comments. So even if your posts look anonymous to other users, they're linked to your ST code in our system.
13. Games, activity and ranking
Game sessions save the game, room, game state, who started it and when. We also count your daily sessions and active days. Top Chatters uses your profile and activity to build the ranking, and it may show your display name, rating and rank publicly. We don't publish the exact scoring formula.
14. Friends, notifications and sharing
Friend requests save who sent them, who received them, the status and the time. Accepted requests become friendships. Notifications save who they're for, what kind they are, their content, whether they've been read and when. When you share something, we save your ST code, what you shared and when.
15. Feedback and contact messages
Feedback can include your ST code, a category, your message, an optional rating and the time. Messages sent through the Contact page are saved the same way, marked as contact requests.
16. Why we use your information
- to create your ST code and keep you logged in
- to run Random, Private, Area, Travel and Group chats
- to store and deliver your messages
- to run profiles, friends, notifications, games and community features
- to work out activity and ranking
- to stop abuse, look into reports and enforce our rules
- to reply to feedback and support requests
- to fix bugs, keep the site reliable and protect it
17. Legal grounds
Where the law asks for a legal reason to process data, ours generally fall into these groups: giving you the service you asked for, keeping the site secure and free of abuse, meeting legal obligations, and our legitimate interests where the law allows. Exactly which one applies depends on the feature and where you live.
18. Who we share it with
We share information with companies that host, run, secure or maintain Stranger Talk, including our hosting provider and Google Analytics. We may also share it when the law requires it, or when we need to for safety or to stop fraud. We don't sell your data and we don't use advertising or email marketing providers.
Anything you post publicly, like a profile, a community post or a poll, can be seen by other users the way that feature is designed. And anyone you chat with could copy or screenshot your messages. We can't stop that.
19. Security
We check sessions on the server, store only hashed tokens and PINs, use secure HTTP-only cookies, check room membership before showing messages or accepting reports, rate-limit several actions and keep moderation records in our database. These protect you, but no online service can promise it will never be breached.
Chats are not end-to-end encrypted. Treat what you write as something our system can process.
20. How long we keep things
Different data is cleaned up on different timers. Sessions expire after 30 days. Private codes can be joined for 10 minutes. Waiting queues are cleared after about 2 hours, and old "in this room" records after about 2 hours too.
Random Chat messages are temporary: they are deleted as soon as either person taps Next or Leave, and otherwise within about 1–2 hours after the chat ends. Reported chats are the exception and are kept for moderation. Security records of hashed IP addresses are cleared after about 2 days.
Profiles, other messages, reports, feedback, community posts, ratings and friendships stay until you delete your account or we remove them. We don't have one fixed retention period for these yet. When we set one, we'll update this page.
21. Deleting your account
Go to My Profile → Account & Devices and choose delete. You need to be logged in. This removes your profile and the records linked to it: messages, friendships, blocks, feedback, community posts and replies, poll votes, activity, game sessions and sessions. Groups you own, and everything in them, are deleted too.
This is a real delete, not a "hide my account". Backups, security logs or anything we're legally required to keep may take longer to disappear.
22. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to see, correct or delete your data, limit or object to how we use it, take a copy of it, withdraw consent or complain to a regulator. Which of these you have depends on the law that applies to you.
To ask about any of this, email strangertalk.in@gmail.com or use our Contact page, and say your request is about privacy. Include your ST code so we can find your account. We don't have a self-serve download tool yet.
23. Users outside India
You can use Stranger Talk from different countries, and the servers that run it may be outside your country. That means your information may be processed somewhere else.
24. Under 18s
Stranger Talk is only for adults. If you're under 18, please don't use it. If we find out a minor has an account, we'll delete it and follow the law that applies.
25. Links to other sites
Users can share links, including social profiles. Other websites have their own privacy rules, so check them before you share anything there.
26. Changes to this policy
We'll update this page when the product, the law or how we handle data changes. The "Last Updated" date at the top shows the current version. If a change is big, we'll also tell you on the site.
27. Contact us
Stranger Talk team
Email: strangertalk.in@gmail.com
Or use the Contact page for privacy questions, account deletion help or safety issues.
28. Complaints
Amit Kumar, Founder & CEO
Email: strangertalk.in@gmail.com (subject: Complaint)
We confirm every complaint within 24 hours and complete our review within 15 days. See Complaints & Redressal for details.