Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 26, 2026

ChatQR is a private place for the people you actually know. There are no ads, we don't sell your data, and nothing you share is public. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. "ChatQR", "we" and "us" mean ChatQR, LLC, a US company.

The short version

We collect what we need to run ChatQR, and nothing to sell. We have never sold personal information and never will.
There's no advertising and no third-party ad trackers. The only analytics we use count visits and measure how fast pages load, without cookies and without identifying you.
Nothing on ChatQR is public. Profiles, posts and photos are seen only by the people you're connected to, in the ways described below.
Teens under 16 use ChatQR with a parent or guardian, who can see some things — never their messages.
You can delete your data, or your whole account, any time.

What we collect and why

Your account. Your name, email address, password (stored only in scrambled form), date of birth, and anything you choose to add such as a photo, username, bio, location, website or phone number. We use your date of birth to apply our age rules: who can find you, whether a parent or guardian is needed, and which protections apply (see "Teens and children").

Your age range from the App Store or Google Play. Where the law requires it (for example in Texas, Utah and Louisiana), our apps ask Apple or Google for your age range — such as "13–15" — and whether a parent has approved the app, and we record it along with an identifier for that app install. We use it only to apply our age rules, and we never share it.

What you share. Posts, photos, videos, comments, reactions, polls, circles, events and RSVPs, pages you build, and the people you choose to share them with. We store these so we can show them to the people you share them with.

Messages. The text of your chat messages is encrypted before it is stored in our database. Messages are seen only by the people in the conversation. We don't read your messages, and neither can a parent or guardian. The one exception is safety alerts, which a guardian can turn on for a supervised child (see "Teens and children"): then an AI reads that child's chats to look for signs of danger, and no person reads them.

Your connections. Your friends, friend requests, the people you block, and the circles and events you're part of.

Contacts you choose to add. If you tap "Find friends in your contacts", upload a contacts file, or pick contacts on your phone, we save the names, phone numbers and email addresses you choose to your ChatQR contacts. Only you can see them. We use them to show you who you know that's already on ChatQR, to suggest people you may know, and to let you invite the others. The ChatQR apps read your phone's contacts only when you tap that button, and only after you allow it. You can remove contacts at any time.

Facebook import. If you import your Facebook data, we use your export file to bring your photos, videos, posts and friend names into ChatQR and to create your private privacy report. The export file itself is deleted once it has been processed. If you connect Dropbox to import automatically, we only ever read the folder Facebook saves its exports to, and the connection details are stored encrypted. You can disconnect at any time.

Notifications. If you allow notifications, we store a device token so we can send them. We send email when you don't have notifications turned on, or when a notification went unseen, according to your notification settings.

Voice and video calls. A call goes straight between the two people's devices, encrypted; when a direct connection isn't possible it passes through an encrypted relay that can't see or hear it. Calls aren't recorded. We keep who called whom, when, whether it was answered and how long it lasted, and show that in the chat — and, for a supervised child, to their guardians.

Questions to @Bernie. If you mention @Bernie, our AI helper, in a chat, post or comment, only that question is sent to Anthropic to answer it — not your name, profile, photos or anyone else's messages. Before it's sent, other people's names, email addresses and phone numbers are removed. Its answer is saved in the conversation like any message, where everyone in it can see it. We record how much AI each question used, to show you (and, for a supervised child, their guardians) in AI usage. Bernie is off for supervised children until a guardian turns it on.

Payments. If you buy something, such as the Facebook import unlock, your card details go directly to our payment processor, Stripe. We keep a record of the purchase, not your full card number.

Technical information. Like any website or app, our servers record basic technical information — such as your IP address, device and browser type, and the pages requested — in logs we use to keep ChatQR running and secure. We set cookies needed to keep you signed in and remember your preferences. We don't use advertising cookies. Cloudflare, which delivers our website, also gives us web analytics and performance measurements — such as how many visits a page gets and how fast it loads — without cookies, without following you across other websites, and without telling us who you are.

When you contact us. If you email support, we keep that conversation so we can help you.

Who can see what

Nothing is public. People who aren't signed in can't see anyone's profile, posts or photos.
Profiles can be seen by you, your friends, your parent or guardian if you're supervised, and friends of your friends who are in the same age group as you (under 18, or 18 and over). What's on your profile — your posts and photos — is for friends only.
Posts go to the audience you choose: all your friends, a circle, or specific people. You can change that later, move a post back to drafts, or delete it.
Finding people. Search and "people you may know" only show friends and friends of friends, and only within your own age group: people under 18 only find other people under 18, and adults only find adults. Connecting across that line takes a direct invite, such as scanning someone's ChatQR code or opening their invite link.

Teens and children

ChatQR is designed so younger people can use it with a parent or guardian:

Under 13: a parent or guardian creates the account from their Family center. If a child under 13 tries to sign up, we don't create an account or keep anything about them: we only use the parent's email they give us to tell that parent how to set them up.
13 to 15: a parent or guardian has to approve the account before it works — either the teen signs up and names their parent, who approves it, or the parent creates the account from Family center. Until it's approved, the account is switched off and can't be seen or found.
16 and 17: teens can sign up on their own. A parent can ask to supervise their account, and the teen decides whether to accept.
What a guardian can see and do: approve or decline new friends; block people; see who the teen has blocked, and be told when they block someone; see the posts and comments the teen shares; choose some of the teen's settings, and whether they can use the feed, chats and events; and see an activity history of who approved or changed what. A guardian cannot read the teen's messages, post or chat as them, or hide that the account is supervised.
Safety alerts (if a guardian turns them on): the chats, comments and posts the child sends and receives are read by an AI (Anthropic) a few minutes after they're written, to look for signs of danger such as self-harm, bullying, grooming or an adult arranging to meet. If it finds something, the guardian is told what kind of thing it was, how serious, who it involved and a short summary, written so as not to repeat the messages. The guardian never sees the messages themselves. Other people in the conversation are covered too, because what they say to the child is part of what's read. The child can always see that safety alerts are on.
If a parent withdraws approval through Screen Time or Family Link, the account is switched off until they allow ChatQR again.
What the teen always controls: their own language, sounds and other personal settings.
Ending supervision: a guardian can step back at any time, except that a child under 16 always keeps at least one guardian. At 18, a teen can end supervision themselves.
Parents' rights: a parent or guardian can review the information in their child's account, change it, or ask us to delete it — from Family center or by emailing support@chatqr.com.

We collect from children only what's needed for ChatQR to work, we never use children's information for advertising, and we don't let adults search for or be suggested children.

Invites

When you invite someone, we use only the contact details you chose to give us. An email invite is sent by ChatQR on your behalf, once, with your name and your invite link, and includes a link to stop all future ChatQR invites to that address — which we honor. A text invite is sent by you, from your own phone: ChatQR only fills in the message for you. We never text people on your behalf. Please only invite people you know.

Services we use

We use a small number of companies to run ChatQR. They process information only to provide their service to us:

Hosting — our servers and database, in the United States.
Cloudflare — delivers our website and apps quickly and protects them from attacks, relays calls when two devices can't connect directly, and provides the cookie-free web analytics and performance measurements described above.
Backblaze — storage for the photos, videos and files you upload.
Postmark — sending email.
Apple and Google — delivering push notifications, and the app stores' rating prompts.
Stripe — payments.
Anthropic — the AI that helps you draft pages with the page builder. When you use it, what you type and upload for that page is sent to Anthropic to generate a draft. Anthropic also reads a supervised child's chats and comments when a guardian turns on safety alerts (see "Teens and children"), and answers questions people ask @Bernie. Anthropic doesn't use what we send it to train its models.
Mapbox — maps for event locations.
Dropbox — only if you connect it for automatic Facebook imports.

When you share a link, our server visits that page to build a preview, so the website you linked to sees a request from ChatQR (not from you).

We may also share information when the law requires it — for example, a valid court order — and we'll tell you about such requests unless we're legally prevented. If ChatQR were ever acquired or merged with another company, we'd tell you before your information became subject to a different privacy policy.

Your choices and rights

See and change your information in your profile and settings at any time.
Delete things: posts, contacts, friend connections and more, from inside the app.
Delete your account: Settings → Danger Zone → Delete. Your account and content are removed from ChatQR right away and permanently deleted from our systems, including backups, within 60 days. Instructions: chatqr.com/delete_account.
What happens to deleted things: when you delete a post, comment, message, circle, chat or your account, it disappears from ChatQR right away. We keep a private copy for 30 days, so we can look into abuse and respond to legal requests, then erase it for good. Nobody can see it in the app during that time. We keep it longer only when the law requires us to, such as a court order or an official request to preserve evidence, and only for as long as that requires.
Control notifications and email in Settings.
Ask us for a copy of your information, or to correct or delete it, by emailing support@chatqr.com. We'll verify it's you first.

Depending on where you live (for example, under California law or the EU and UK GDPR), you may have additional rights — to access, correct, delete or move your information, and to object to or restrict how it's used. We give these rights to everyone, wherever they live. We don't sell or "share" personal information for advertising, and we won't treat you differently for using your rights.

Keeping your information safe

Information is encrypted in transit (HTTPS), message text is encrypted when stored, and our backups are encrypted. Access is limited to what's needed to run ChatQR. We only look at someone's account to help with a support request they made, to fix a problem, to investigate abuse, or when the law requires it.

Where your information is kept

ChatQR is run from the United States, and your information is stored there. If you use ChatQR from elsewhere, your information is transferred to the United States.

Changes and questions

If we make a significant change to this policy, we'll let you know in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Questions about your privacy or your child's? Email support@chatqr.com — a real person will answer.