Privacy Policy

Effective: July 27, 2026

3am.chat is operated by 3AM Chat. This policy describes what data the service touches, why, and for how long. It is short because the honest answer is short: the service is designed to work without knowing who you are.

What we don't collect

There are no accounts. We never ask for your name, email address, or phone number to use the chat. There are no profiles, no contact lists, no history tied to you as a person. A nickname is a pseudonym — either one you type or one we hand you, like sleepless_fox_42 — and we remember it for your device so you don't have to retype it every night. The "Your device session" section below says exactly what that means and how to erase it.

What we do collect

• Chat messages. Conversation logs are kept for up to 30 days for moderation, then deleted. They are read by the moderation team only — most often when someone in the conversation files a report.
• Reports and moderation records. If you report someone, or someone reports you, we keep the report and any resulting ban record for as long as we need them to enforce our Guidelines.
• IP address and basic technical data. Browser type and language, country derived from your IP, time zone, timestamps. Used for security, abuse prevention, rate limiting, and simple aggregate statistics — how many people visit and talk, and from where. Never for advertising, and it is deleted on the same 30-day schedule as everything else.
• A profile picture, if you upload one. Optional. Your browser resizes it to 512×512 before uploading, which drops camera metadata like location; it is then stored on our server and reviewed by a moderator before anyone else can see it. Delete it any time from the waiting room, or with "Forget me" below.
• A notification subscription, if you turn pings on. Optional, and only offered after you and someone else agree to stay in touch. Your browser gives us an anonymous delivery address (plus two keys used to encrypt the message); we store it so a friend can send you a "come and talk" notification when the site is closed. It is never used for announcements or marketing, holds no personal details, and is deleted the moment you turn pings off, block notifications in your browser, or use "Forget me" below.
• Contact messages. If you write to us through the contact form, we receive your message and, only if you choose to give one, an email address for the reply.

Cookies

We set exactly two cookies ourselves, both essential:

• An age-confirmation cookie, so you don't have to confirm you're 18 or older on every visit.
• An anonymous anti-abuse identifier, used to enforce bans and to make sure someone you blocked stays blocked.

One more thing, disclosed plainly: when you arrive here from one of our ads (for example on Reddit), the ad platform's measurement pixel may set its own cookie so we can tell the ad worked. That measurement never sees your conversations — it only counts visits. Beyond that there are no analytics cookies, no trackers following you across other sites, and nothing about you is handed to ad networks. If we ever add analytics of our own, we will update this policy first and say so.

Your device session

So the site can remember you without an account, we keep a small server-side record tied to the anonymous identifier in your browser: your nickname, avatar or profile picture, your 18+ confirmation, and the people you have both agreed to keep as friends. It holds no name, email or phone number — it's a pseudonym, not an identity, and it lives only on this device.

You can erase it right here, any time — the record, your friends list, any notification subscription and the analytics rows tied to it are deleted on the spot. Sessions untouched for 90 days are deleted automatically. Ban and moderation records are kept separately and survive this — otherwise "forget me" would be a ban-evasion button, and we say so plainly.

Forget me on this device

How we use this data

To run the service, match conversations, moderate reported chats, enforce bans and blocks, and answer your support messages. That is the complete list.

What we never do

• Sell your data. To anyone, for anything.
• Share it with advertisers.
• Build marketing profiles or track you across other sites.

When we might disclose

Only if a valid legal requirement compels us to — a lawful order from an authority with jurisdiction over us. Given how little we keep, there is rarely much to hand over.

Retention summary

• Chat logs: up to 30 days, then deleted.
• Device session (nickname, avatar, profile picture, friends list): until you erase it, or after 90 days of inactivity.
• Notification subscription: until you turn pings off or erase the session.
• Reports and ban records: as long as needed for enforcement.
• IP and technical logs: short-term, for security and rate limiting.
• Contact correspondence: up to 180 days, or until you ask us to delete it sooner.

Your choices

Clearing your cookies resets your anti-abuse identifier, so bans and blocks are enforced per device session rather than per person — we don't fingerprint you to defeat that. If you have written to us and want that correspondence deleted, email [email protected] and we will remove it.

Security

All traffic is encrypted in transit. Access to stored chat logs is limited to moderators reviewing reports. We keep the amount of data small on purpose — the best way to protect data is to not have it.

Under 18

3am.chat is not for minors. You must be at least 18 to use it. If we learn a user is underage, the session is closed immediately and any logs are handled under this policy — kept only as long as moderation requires, then deleted.

Changes

If this policy changes, we update this page and the effective line at the top. Meaningful changes get a notice on the site before they take effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy go to [email protected] or the contact form. We usually reply within 1–2 days. See also our Terms and Guidelines.