Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 27, 2026
Short version: you have an account (email, password and date of birth) so your playthroughs follow you and we can check you are old enough, and what you type goes to the narrator model to write the next turn. Readers aged 13 to 17 also give a parent’s email so that parent can set their permissions. Purchases are handled by Stripe, the website shows optional rewarded Google ads (not in the EU/EEA, UK or Switzerland), and the iOS app can send notifications if you allow them. We don’t sell your data, and you can delete your account and everything in it from Settings.
1. Who Is Responsible for Your Information
chattr (“we”, “us”) runs the website at chattr.art and the chattr iOS app (together, the “Service”) and is responsible for the personal information described here. Contact details are in section 13.
2. Information We Collect
Information you give us
- Account. Your email address and password. The password is stored only as a salted scrypt hash; we never store or log it in readable form. Your email is used to identify your account and to send password-reset emails.
- Date of birth. Collected when you create an account so we can tell whether you are old enough to use the Service and whether parental controls apply. We keep the date itself, and it is not shown to anyone else. Accounts created before we introduced this are treated as adult accounts.
- A parent’s email address, for readers aged 13 to 17. If you tell us you are under 18, we ask for a parent or guardian’s email address and send them an invitation to link their own account to yours. We use that address to send the invitation and any resends, and it is stored alongside the link. If they accept, we also keep which account is linked to yours and the three permissions they set (comments, writing stories and purchases). A parent can remove the link at any time, which deletes it.
- Player name and profile picture. The name you use in stories and an optional picture you choose in Settings (shrunk to 256px on your device before upload). Both are shown with your playthroughs, comments and any stories you publish.
- Player input. Every choice you pick and every action you type. Please do not put real personal information about yourself or others into a playthrough.
- Community stories, comments and upvotes. Stories you write (drafts are private; published ones are public, shown with your player name), comments you leave on playthroughs, and which stories you upvoted (counts are public, who voted is not).
- Shared playthroughs. If you invite people to a playthrough or join one, the members of that playthrough can see each other’s player names, pictures and turns.
- Messages to us. Anything you send to support.
Information created while you use the Service
- Playthroughs and turns. The narrator’s text for each turn, the story state after each turn, the suggested choices, a rolling summary the narrator keeps for continuity, and timestamps.
- Generated images. Illustrations you ask for on a turn, and the scene description used to make them.
- Purchases and balances. Your Quill and Star balances, when you last watched a rewarded ad, your chattrbox subscription status and renewal date, your Stripe customer id, and a record of each pack or subscription bought (what, when, amount). For purchases in the iOS app we also keep Apple’s transaction id. Card details go straight to Stripe or Apple and never reach us.
Information collected automatically
- Login cookie. One essential, http-only cookie (
chattr_session) that keeps you logged in for up to 30 days. Logging out deletes it and revokes the session on our server. - Preferences on your device. Your light / dark mode choice (
chattr-theme) and, in the iOS app, the push-notification token for that device, kept in local storage. - iOS app push token. If you allow notifications in the iOS app, Apple gives the app a device token, which we store with your account so we can tell you when someone takes a turn in a playthrough you share. We don’t collect other device identifiers, contacts, location or photos (a photo you pick for your profile picture is the only image read from your device).
- Advertising (website only). The website shows rewarded ads from Google (Google AdSense / Ad Manager) that you can choose to watch for Quills. Google may set cookies and receive information such as your IP address, browser details and the pages you visit in order to serve and measure ads. The iOS app shows no ads, and we do not show ads to visitors in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland. See section 4.
- Server logs. Standard request logs (IP address, user agent, requested path, time) kept by our hosting provider for security and debugging.
We do not collect your date of birth, phone number, precise location or payment card details.
3. How We Use the Information We Collect
- to run your account, keep you logged in and reset your password;
- to write each turn — your player input and the story context are sent to the narrator model;
- to save your playthroughs so you can continue them, and to let people you invite play with you;
- to make the illustrations you ask for and store them with your playthrough;
- to process purchases, keep your Quill and Star balances, and manage a chattrbox subscription;
- to send push notifications you turned on in the iOS app;
- to show rewarded ads on the website when you choose to watch one;
- to show rankings such as most-played and top-voted stories (counts only);
- to keep the Service secure, diagnose problems and prevent abuse; and
- to respond when you contact us.
We share information only with the services that make chattr work:
| Recipient | What is shared | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Narrator model provider (Z.ai; OpenRouter and the provider it routes to as a fallback) | Story instructions, the rolling summary, recent turns, player names and player input (never your email) | To write the next turn |
| fal.ai (image generation) | A short scene description written from the chosen turn (no names, no email) | To generate the illustration you asked for |
| Cloudflare (hosting, file storage) | Requests to the Service, server logs, generated images and profile pictures | To serve the site and app and store images |
| Neon (database) | Account data, playthroughs, balances and purchase records | To store the Service’s data |
| Stripe | Your email, what you buy and the amount; the payment details you enter at checkout go to Stripe directly | To take payment for Stars, Quills and chattrbox, and to manage subscriptions |
| Resend (email) | Your email address and a one-time reset link; for readers aged 13 to 17, the parent’s email address given at sign-up and a one-time invitation link | To send password-reset emails and parental-control invitations |
| Apple (App Store in-app purchase) | The purchase itself and your chattr account id, which the app attaches so Apple’s record can be matched to your account | To take payment in the iOS app, and to confirm purchases and chattrbox renewals with Apple |
| Apple (Apple Push Notification service) | Your device’s push token and the notification text (a story title and a player name) | To deliver notifications you turned on in the iOS app |
| Google (website ads only, outside the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland) | Cookie and device identifiers, IP address, browser details and page visits, collected by Google’s ad code | To serve and measure the rewarded ads you choose to watch |
Google’s use of this information is governed by Google’s own privacy policy; you can control ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com. We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights or safety of anyone, or as part of a sale or transfer of the Service. We do not sell personal information.
5. Retention of Personal Information
We keep your account and playthroughs until you delete them, because the point is that you can come back to them. Deleting your account (Settings → Account → delete account) cancels any chattrbox subscription and permanently removes your account, playthroughs, comments, stories, images, balances and push tokens from our database. Stripe keeps its own payment records as the law requires. Server logs are kept for the period set by our hosting provider, typically 30 days or less. Narrator, image and ad providers keep their own copies under their own policies.
6. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you;
- have inaccurate information corrected;
- have your information erased;
- restrict or object to how we process it;
- receive a copy of it in a portable format;
- withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
- lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
7. Exercising Your Rights and Your Choices
- See and edit your data. Your playthroughs, name, picture and balances are all visible in the Service, and you can change your name, picture and password in Settings.
- Delete a playthrough. Use the ⋯ menu on the playthrough.
- Delete your account. Settings → Account → delete account. This is immediate and permanent.
- Push notifications. Turn them off any time in iOS Settings → chattr → Notifications. Logging out of the app also detaches that device from your account.
- Ads. Rewarded ads are optional. You can manage Google ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com or block ad cookies in your browser.
- Use a pseudonym. Your player name is free text; you do not need to use your real name.
- Other requests. Contact us using section 13. We may need to verify that a request comes from the account holder before acting on it.
8. How We Protect Personal Information
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, login sessions stored only as hashes, and API keys kept in server-side secrets that are never sent to your browser or device. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If you believe your account has been accessed without permission, change your password and contact us.
9. Children’s Personal Information
The Service is intended for people aged 13 and over and is not directed at children. Sign-up asks for your date of birth, and anyone who gives a date under 13 is refused an account, so we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account anyway, contact us and we will delete it.
Readers aged 13 to 17 give us a parent or guardian’s email address at sign-up, and we email that person an invitation to link their own account. Until they accept, the account cannot leave comments, write stories or make purchases, and a linked parent decides which of those three to allow. Sexual content is never available to a minor’s account and is not something a parent can switch on. Where local law requires parental consent, the parent or guardian is responsible for providing it.
10. Links to Other Websites
The Service links to or opens third-party pages, such as Stripe’s checkout and billing pages (which the iOS app opens in Safari) and social networks when you share a story. Those sites have their own privacy practices, which we do not control.
11. Updates to Our Privacy Policy
We may update this policy as chattr changes or as the law requires. The “Last updated” date at the top shows the current version. For material changes we will post a notice in the Service before the change takes effect.
12. Regional Privacy Disclosures
12.1 Residents of certain U.S. states
In the past 12 months the Service has collected the following categories of personal information:
| Category | Examples | Collected | Sold or shared for targeted ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Email address, account id, IP address, push token, ad cookie ids | Yes | Ad cookie ids and IP address may be shared with Google on the website (see section 4) |
| Commercial information | Packs and subscriptions bought, balances | Yes | No |
| User-provided content | Player name, profile picture, player input, comments, stories | Yes | No |
| Internet activity | Pages requested, user agent, ad interactions | Yes | Website ad interactions may be shared with Google |
| Financial, biometric, precise geolocation, sensitive information | — | No | No |
You have the right to know, correct and delete this information, to data portability, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell personal information for money. To opt out of Google’s ad personalisation on the website, use adssettings.google.com or contact us.
12.2 Residents of the EEA, UK and Switzerland
Our legal bases for processing are:
| Purpose | Information | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Running your account, turns, playthroughs and images | Account data, player name and input, turns, images | Performance of a contract (providing the Service you asked for) |
| Purchases and subscriptions | Email, purchase records, Stripe customer id | Performance of a contract; legal obligations (tax and accounting) |
| Push notifications | Push token | Consent (you allow notifications on your device) |
| Security, debugging, abuse prevention | Server logs | Legitimate interests |
| Responding to you | Messages you send | Legitimate interests |
We do not show ads, or load Google’s ad code, for visitors in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland. Some providers process information outside the EEA and UK. Where they do, we rely on their standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision. The Service makes no decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects; the narrator only writes fiction. You may complain to your local supervisory authority.
13. Contact Us
Email support@chattr.art or use the Contact page for any privacy question or request.