Chatta is an iPhone app for chatting at the places you’re at. This policy explains what Chatta collects, why, who else handles it, where it’s kept, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it. If anything isn’t clear, email privacy@gochatta.com.

Where you see Rolling out:, that change has been decided and is being built, but isn’t live yet. We’ll update this page as each one lands.

The short version

• Chatta is for people 16 and over.
• What you post in a chatpoint is public to other Chatta members, with your name and the place. Chat messages are deleted about 8 hours after they’re posted.
• To post, you have to be at the place. We check your location but don’t store your exact GPS position. We do keep a record of which places you were checked in at and posted from.
• Private messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
• An automated safety check run by Anthropic, a US company, reads public posts, photos, profiles and reported private messages.
• Our servers are in Singapore. Some companies that help us run Chatta are in the United States.
• We don’t sell your information, show ads or track you across other apps and websites.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time.

1. Who we are

Chatta is run by Josh Whitehead, an individual based in Australia (“we” or “us” in this policy).

You can contact us at:

• privacy@gochatta.com for privacy questions and requests
• support@gochatta.com for help with the app
• safety@gochatta.com for safety concerns and urgent reports

We get back to every email within 24 hours. Privacy requests, like asking for a copy of your information, are completed within 30 days. If someone is in danger right now, call 000.

2. What we collect

Your account

• An account number (an ID) that Chatta creates for you.
• If you use Sign in with Apple: the ID Apple gives Chatta for you, and the email address Apple shares. That can be your real email or a private relay address that forwards to you.
• If you sign up with email: your email address and a scrambled form of your password (a hash). We never store your actual password.
• Your sign-in sessions: when you signed in, plus the IP address and type of device you used.
• Your 16+ check: whether you’re 16 or over, how it was checked, and when. We never get your birthday (see section 11).
• Which version of the community guidelines you agreed to, and when.
• Earlier versions of the app let people look around as a guest without signing up. Those guest accounts have an account number but no email.

Your profile

• Your display name, username, bio and home area, if you add them.
• Your avatar and, if you choose one, a profile photo. The app re-saves your photo at a smaller size without hidden location data before it’s uploaded.
• Badges and cards you’ve earned.

What you post

• Chat messages in chatpoints, including pinned messages.
• Moments: photos and 8-second videos taken with Chatta’s camera. Videos include sound. A Moment can include a second shot from your other camera, and a caption. The app re-saves Moment photos without hidden location data before they’re uploaded.
• Topics, polls and your poll votes.
• Events, including the venue.
• Local reports, like “Long queue”, and the street they’re about. Also your answers on other people’s reports, like “I see this”.
• Vibe tags you give a place, like “Quiet” or “Live music”.
• Cheers, and the places you follow.
• Chatpoints you start (see section 3).
• Private reports, and “Ask the place” questions and answers, that you made with an earlier version of the app.

Private messages and connections

• Private messages you send and receive, Moments you send to people, any note you add, and when messages were read.
• Who you’re connected with, your connection requests, and who you’ve blocked.
• If you send a connection request from a chat, the chatpoint it came from. The other person sees it.

Your phone and how you use Chatta

• A notification token from Apple, so we can send you notifications.
• An App Attest key record. App Attest is an Apple feature that proves a request really comes from the Chatta app on a real iPhone. The private part of the key never leaves your phone.
• A scrambled code made from that key, which helps us spot one phone being used to fake activity.
• Which days you opened Chatta, which chats you opened, and which Moments you viewed.
• Technical logs kept by our hosting provider: your IP address, a rough location worked out from it, your device type, and each request your app made. A request can include what you typed into a search, like a name you looked up.
• If you’re testing Chatta through Apple’s TestFlight: the email address you were invited with, and any feedback, screenshots or crash reports you choose to send through Apple.

Safety and reports

• Reports you make, and the reason you give.
• Reports about you or what you’ve posted.
• Results of safety checks on your posts and profile, and any action taken, like hiding a post, pausing posting or a ban from a chatpoint.
• Emails you send us.

What we don’t collect

• We don’t upload your contacts. Chatta can’t see your photo library. If you choose a profile photo from your library, Chatta gets only the photo you pick. Chatta’s camera can also save your own photos and Moments to your Photos if you choose.
• We don’t use advertising IDs, ads, tracking, or analytics tools from other companies.
• We don’t collect your birthday.
• We don’t ask for sensitive information, like your health, religion or sexuality. If you post about it, it’s part of your post.

3. Location

Chatta only uses your location while you’re using the app (“While Using the App”). It never tracks you in the background. You can turn location off in your iPhone’s Settings. You can still read chats, but you can’t post.

Checking you’re there. You can only post in a chatpoint if you’re there. While you’re using a chatpoint, your iPhone sends your precise location to our server, signed with App Attest so we know it’s real. Chatta needs Precise Location turned on for this. The server checks you’re within range, then throws the coordinates away. It keeps a short pass that says you were checked at that chatpoint, with no coordinates in it. A pass lasts about 2 minutes. Today, it’s deleted an hour or more after it expires, the next time anyone’s location is checked. Rolling out: a schedule that clears expired passes every 15 minutes, so each one is deleted about an hour after it expires.

The app also sends your location along with each post. The server doesn’t use it or store it.

What we keep.

• The chatpoints you were checked in at, and on which days.
• The chatpoints you posted from, what kind of post it was, and when. This record stays even after the post itself is deleted. It powers your badges and stats.
• The chatpoint you’re at or last used, and when, so we can count how many people are there.
• The chats you opened recently, to limit how many chats one account can read at once.
• Vibe tags you give a place. You can only tag a place while you’re there, so a tag shows you were there at that time.

Today we keep your check-in and posting history for as long as you have an account. Rolling out: we’ll keep dated history for 90 days. After that we’ll keep only totals: how many days you’ve been at each place, with no dates, and how many posts you’ve made, with no places or dates. Your badges stay the same.

Chatpoints you start. Today, a chatpoint you start is pinned at the exact spot where you were standing. Other members can see the pin, and the chatpoint is linked to your account in a way other members’ apps can read. Please don’t start a chatpoint at your home. Rolling out: new chatpoints will be pinned on the Apple Maps place you pick, or rounded to about 100 metres, and who started a chatpoint won’t be visible to other members. Existing member-made chatpoints will be rounded the same way. A new chatpoint will be visible only to you until your phone proves you’re there, and a closed chatpoint won’t be visible to anyone.

Local reports and events. A local report is tied to a street, rounded to about 100 metres, and shows who posted it. Events show their venue.

Your position on the map is shown only to you. Other people may see how many people are at a chatpoint or viewing it, but not who.

Apple Maps. Map searches and street-name lookups go from your phone to Apple Maps, under Apple’s privacy policy. The app keeps your last 6 map searches on your phone.

4. How we use your information

We use it to:

• run Chatta: your account, showing posts, delivering private messages and sending notifications
• check you’re at a place before you post
• keep people safe: the 16+ rule, filters, the safety check, reports, blocks, bans and posting pauses
• stop spam, fake activity and attacks on the service
• work out your badges and stats
• suggest “People you may know”, based on mutual connections and people who posted in the same chats as you in the last 8 hours (it never says where)
• see how Chatta is used overall, as counts, like how many people opened the app today
• reply when you contact us
• meet legal requirements, like answering the eSafety Commissioner or the police

We don’t sell your information. We don’t use it for advertising, and we don’t share it with data brokers.

5. The safety check by Anthropic

Since 12 October 2026, Chatta has used an automated safety check to help keep posts within the community guidelines. It’s run by Anthropic, the US company that makes the Claude AI.

What goes to Anthropic:

• public chat messages and local reports, topics, polls (the question and options) and events (the title, details and venue name)
• Moments: the caption and the photo, or for a video, its cover image (not the video itself or its sound)
• profiles: display name, username, bio and profile photo
• private messages and privately sent Moments, but only when someone reports them

We send the words or the image and what kind of post it is. We don’t send your account number, email address or location. The words themselves can still include names or places, like an event’s venue or your username.

What happens next:

• A word filter blocks some phrases straight away, like threats and telling people to hurt themselves.
• If the check finds a clear breach of the guidelines, the post is hidden.
• Some messages that look like threats are held back until the check is done.
• If 3 of your posts are removed within 7 days, you can’t post for 24 hours.
• A person reviews removals and can put posts back. If you think we got it wrong, email support@gochatta.com and we’ll take another look.
• Removing an account is always a person’s decision.

What Anthropic keeps: Anthropic deletes what it checks within 30 days. If Anthropic’s own systems flag something as breaking its usage policies, it can keep it for up to 2 years, and the safety scores its systems gave it for up to 7 years. Anthropic may process the content in the US or other countries where it runs its systems, and stores it in the US.

Rolling out: the next version of the app asks everyone to agree to updated community guidelines that describe this check. You can’t post without agreeing. Once that’s live, your profile and photo will only be sent to the check after you agree, or if someone reports them.

6. Who can see what

• Your profile (display name, username, bio, home area, avatar, profile photo and earned badges you haven’t hidden): anyone signed in to Chatta.
• Your 16+ result, email address and sign-in details: only you and Chatta’s operator.
• Chat messages and topics: other members, with your name and the place, while they’re live.
• Polls: other members, with your name and the place. When a poll’s time is up, the app stops showing it. But today, anyone signed in to Chatta can still read old polls through our servers, including who made them and where. Rolling out: old polls hidden from everyone except the person who made them.
• Moments: signed-in members aged 16 and over, for 8 hours, with your name and the place. Guests and under-16 accounts can’t see Moments.
• Together, your live posts show where you’ve been in the last 8 hours. Think about that before posting somewhere that says a lot about you, like near your home.
• Local reports and events: other members, with your name.
• Vibe tags: other members see a tag only once at least 2 people have given it, and never who gave it.
• Private messages: in the app, only you and the person you’re talking to (see section 10).
• Your connections, follows, blocks, check-ins and badge progress: only you. People you’re connected with know you’re connected. Suggestions may show how many mutual connections you have, never who they are.
• How many people viewed your Moment: nobody. Cheers counts are shown.
• Reports: when you report something, the person isn’t told who reported it.
• Hosts: people who host a chatpoint can remove messages and ban people from that chatpoint.
• Chatta’s operator can access everything stored in Chatta to run it and keep it safe. Right now that’s one person, named in section 1.

7. Who else handles your information, and where

Chatta’s information is stored in Singapore. Some companies that help us run Chatta are in the United States. Their laws can be different from Australia’s. We only give each one what it needs for its job.

Supabase

• What it does: hosts Chatta’s database, sign-in system and file storage, on Amazon Web Services.
• What it gets: everything stored in Chatta.
• Where: Singapore (Amazon’s ap-southeast-1 region). Supabase support staff, including Supabase Inc. in the US, may access it to help us. Some processing, like the location check, runs on Supabase servers closest to you, normally Sydney or Singapore. Requests to our servers pass through Cloudflare’s network on the way.
• Email: if you sign up with email, Supabase sends the confirmation and password-reset emails.

Anthropic

• What it does: the automated safety check (section 5).
• Where: the US, and other countries where Anthropic runs its systems.

Apple

• What it does: delivers notifications through the Apple Push Notification service, and runs Sign in with Apple, App Attest, Apple Maps, the age range check and TestFlight.
• Notifications: a private message notification includes the sender’s name and up to the first 180 characters of the message. For a Moment sent privately, it includes the place name and any note. For a connection request, it includes the person’s name and the chatpoint. Notifications can show on the lock screen and stay in the phone’s notification history, even after a message is unsent.
• Where: Apple is a US company. Apple handles this under its own privacy policy.

GitHub

• What it does: stores Chatta’s nightly backups. GitHub is a US company owned by Microsoft.
• What it gets: a full copy of Chatta’s database, but not photos or videos. Each night a copy is made on GitHub’s servers and encrypted with our own passphrase before it’s stored. Encrypted backups are kept for 30 days.
• Testing backups: every few months we check a backup works. It’s decrypted into a temporary copy on GitHub’s servers, which is deleted when the test ends.
• Where: the United States.

ntfy.sh

• What it does: sends safety and health alerts to the operator’s phone.
• What it gets: alerts never include the post itself, but can include a username (for example, when someone’s posting is paused), a place name and the reason something was removed.
• How long: ntfy keeps alerts for about 12 hours. Copies stay in our database, which doesn’t delete them automatically yet.
• Where: ntfy doesn’t publish where its servers are.

Cloudflare and our email provider

• Cloudflare runs this website and the gochatta.com domain.
• Our email provider stores emails you send to our gochatta.com addresses.

When the law requires it

We may share information when the law requires it, for example with the police or the eSafety Commissioner, or when it’s needed to protect someone’s safety. If the operator sets up a company to run Chatta, your information will move to that company under this policy, and we’ll tell you.

8. How long we keep things

What	How long
Chat messages	Deleted within about 10 minutes after their 8 hours end. Reported messages are kept hidden for up to 30 days for review.
Moment photos and videos	Deleted about an hour after the Moment ends. If a Moment is reported, or reported in a private message, the photo or video is kept for up to 7 days.
Moment records (caption, place, time and who posted)	Today: kept, but hidden from everyone, including you. Rolling out: deleted within a day of the Moment ending. Reported or removed ones kept for up to 30 days.
Topics	Today: hidden from everyone when their time is up, but kept. Rolling out: deleted within a day of disappearing. Reported or removed ones kept for up to 30 days.
Polls and votes	Today: kept. The app stops showing a poll when its time is up, but anyone signed in can still read old polls through our servers (section 6). Rolling out: old polls hidden from everyone except the person who made them, then deleted within a day. Reported or removed ones kept for up to 30 days.
Local reports	Kept for 30 days, even after the card disappears from the app.
Events	Deleted 30 days after the event ends.
Private messages	Kept until the sender unsends it, both people erase the conversation, or either person deletes their account. Reported private messages are kept for up to 30 days for review.
Your account, profile, connections, follows, blocks and badges	Until you change them or delete your account.
Old profile photos	Deleted about a day after they’re replaced or removed.
Guest accounts from earlier versions of the app	Until they’re deleted. Rolling out: unused guest accounts deleted automatically.
Your 16+ check result	While you have an account (see section 11 for under-16 accounts).
Check-in and posting history	Today: while you have an account. Rolling out: 90 days, then totals only (section 3).
The chatpoint you’re at or last used	Today: until you use another chatpoint. Rolling out: deleted after 1 hour.
Chats you opened	Each opened chat is deleted after 1 hour. A count of chats opened today is deleted the next day.
Location passes	Valid for about 2 minutes. Today, deleted an hour or more after they expire. Rolling out: deleted about an hour after they expire (section 3).
Days you opened Chatta	400 days.
Sign-in sessions, with IP address and device type	Until you sign out or delete your account.
Notification token	Until you sign out, it stops working, or you delete your account.
App Attest key record	Until you delete your account.
Safety check results and moderation records (no copy of the post)	90 days, or 7 days if the post was fine. Posting pauses are deleted a day after they end.
Removed posts kept as evidence	Today: a removed post is deleted on its normal schedule. Rolling out: posts removed for breaking the rules kept as evidence for up to 90 days. Possible child sexual abuse material, credible threats and abhorrent violent material kept until we’ve reported them to the authorities, for up to 12 months unless the police ask us to keep them longer. Possible child sexual abuse material locked away so it can’t be opened in Chatta’s tools, even by us.
Reports	Deleted with the post they’re about. Reports about profile photos aren’t deleted automatically yet.
Host bans and other host actions	Not deleted automatically. If you delete your account, bans you issued stay without your name.
Earlier private reports, and “Ask the place” posts	Until you delete your account. A private report keeps the location pass that backed it, which has no coordinates.
Vibe tags	Shown for 3 hours, but kept until you delete your account.
Alerts to the operator	Not deleted automatically yet. Routine health checks are deleted after 2 days.
Emails you send us	As long as we need them to deal with your request and keep a record of safety reports and complaints.
Backups	30 days.
Hosting logs	About 1 day.
Anthropic’s copies	Up to 30 days, or up to 2 years if Anthropic’s systems flag them. Safety scores for flagged items up to 7 years.

9. What “disappears after 8 hours” really means

When a post’s time is up, the app stops showing it to everyone. Here’s what’s left after that:

• Chat messages are deleted from our database within about 10 minutes. Reported ones are kept hidden for up to 30 days.
• Moment photos and videos are deleted about an hour later, or up to 7 days later if reported.
• Today, the record of a Moment (its caption, place, time and who posted it) stays in our database, hidden from everyone. So do old topics.
• Old polls stay in our database too. Today, anyone signed in to Chatta can still read them through our servers (section 6).
• Rolling out: old polls hidden from everyone except the person who made them, and old Moment records, topics and polls deleted automatically within a day.
• A record that you posted at that place stays in your posting history (section 3).
• Copies can stay in our encrypted backups for up to 30 days, and with Anthropic for up to 30 days, or longer if flagged.
• Pictures may stay for a while in the temporary storage (cache) on the phones of people who saw them.
• Anyone who saw your post could have taken a screenshot or a screen recording. Chatta can’t stop that.
• Private messages don’t disappear after 8 hours (section 10).

10. Private messages

• You can only message people you’re connected with.
• Private messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They’re encrypted on the way to our servers and stored on encrypted disks, but Chatta’s systems can read them.
• Chatta’s operator can access private messages. We only do that when we need to, for example to review a report or fix a problem.
• The start of each message travels through Apple as notification text (section 7), and private messages are in our encrypted backups for up to 30 days.
• If you report a private message, it’s checked by Anthropic’s safety check and we can read it.
• Private messages don’t expire. They stay until the sender unsends them, both people erase the conversation, or either person deletes their account.
• Unsending deletes the message from our database. If the message has been reported, it’s kept hidden for up to 30 days for review first.
• A notification already shown on the other person’s phone may stay there after you unsend.

11. Chatta is for people 16 and over

Australian law requires social media platforms to take reasonable steps to stop under-16s having accounts. Chatta’s community guidelines say the same.

How we check. On iOS 26 or later, Chatta first asks Apple, through your iPhone, whether you’re 16 or over. You choose whether to share that. If Apple can’t answer, or you choose not to share, we ask for your birth month and year. Your birthday never leaves your phone. We only keep whether you’re 16 or over, how it was checked (through Apple, or by your birth month and year), and when. Your phone also remembers the result.

If the answer is under 16. You can’t create an account. If an existing account’s answer is under 16, that account can’t post, see Moments, connect with people or send private messages. Rolling out: an account whose answer is under 16 will be held, then deleted after 14 days. If it’s a mistake, email support@gochatta.com before then.

If you think someone on Chatta is under 16, report one of their messages and choose “May be under 16”, or email safety@gochatta.com. More at gochatta.com/age.

12. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app: Settings → Delete account. You’ll confirm it’s you first.

What’s deleted straight away:

• your account, profile, username, avatar and profile photo
• your messages, Moments, polls, topics, votes, cheers and vibe tags
• private conversations you’re part of, for both people
• your connections, follows, blocks, check-in and posting history, and badges
• reports you’ve made
• your notification token and App Attest key record

If you use Sign in with Apple, we ask Apple to stop Chatta using your Apple ID.

What can remain:

• Chatpoints you started are closed for everyone. Today, a closed chatpoint’s record, including its pin, stays without your name. Rolling out: closed chatpoints hidden from everyone.
• Bans you issued as a host stay, without your name.
• Copies stay in our encrypted backups for up to 30 days, then they’re deleted.
• Anthropic’s copies of anything it checked, for up to 30 days, or up to 2 years if flagged.
• Our hosting provider’s technical logs, for about a day.
• Notifications already delivered to other people’s phones, and anything other people saved or screenshotted.
• Alerts to the operator that mentioned your username or a place.
• A few internal records that only hold your old account number, like reports you made about profile photos.
• Emails you sent us.
• Today, deleting your account also deletes reports and safety records about your posts. Rolling out: evidence of serious rule-breaking will be kept for the periods in section 8, even after an account is deleted.

13. Keeping it secure

• Everything between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit (HTTPS, TLS 1.2 or later).
• Our hosting provider encrypts stored data (AES-256).
• Backups are encrypted again with our own passphrase.
• On your phone, your sign-in is kept in the iPhone’s Keychain.
• App Attest helps stop fake apps and scripts faking where people are.

No system is perfectly secure. If there’s a data breach that’s likely to cause serious harm, we’ll tell the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as soon as we can, as Australia’s Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

14. Your choices and rights

• See or fix your information. You can change your profile in the app. To get a copy of the information we hold about you, or to ask us to correct something, email privacy@gochatta.com. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours and complete your request within 30 days. We may need to check it’s really you first. It’s free.
• Delete it. Delete your account in the app (section 12). You can also unsend private messages and erase conversations.
• Notifications and location. Turn them off in your iPhone’s Settings. Without location you can still read, but you can’t post.
• Suggestions. Turn off “Suggest me to people I may know” in Settings.
• Block and report anyone, from their messages, Moments or profile.
• Use a nickname. You don’t have to use your real name on Chatta.

Complaints. Email privacy@gochatta.com first. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours and give you our answer within 30 days. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the OAIC at oaic.gov.au. For online safety problems, like bullying or someone sharing intimate images of you, you can also go to the eSafety Commissioner at esafety.gov.au.

We aim to handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

15. This website

gochatta.com doesn’t use cookies, analytics or tracking, and doesn’t load anything from other websites. Cloudflare, which hosts it, may keep visitors’ IP addresses in its security logs.

16. Changes to this policy

We’ll update this policy when Chatta changes, including when each “Rolling out” change goes live. The version number and date at the top will change. If we make an important change, we’ll tell you in the app.