Datenschutzbestimmungen
Last updated: July 2, 2026.
This Privacy Policy explains what information LGBT Chat (“we”, “us”) collects when you use the website located at lgbtchat.org (the “Website”), why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have. Terms not defined here have the meaning given in our Bedingungen und Konditionen.
The short version
- You do not need an account to use this Website. We do not ask for your name, email address, or phone number.
- The public chat is anonymous. We do not store any record linking chat messages to IP addresses, and we cannot identify who wrote a given message.
- Chat messages are not archived. They are removed from our servers automatically within 24 hours.
- We do not sell, rent or trade personal data, and we do not build advertising profiles about you.
- If another user has published information about you, write to [email protected] and we will remove it — normally within 24 hours, with no cost and no need to prove who you are.
Who is responsible for your data
For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR, the operator of lgbtchat.org is the data controller for this Website. You can reach us at [email protected] for any privacy matter, including requests to exercise your rights, and at [email protected] to report content or to have content about you removed. Both mailboxes are monitored and you will get a human reply.
What we collect
1. Information you choose to type into the chat
The chat on this Website is public and unregistered. Anything you type — including a nickname and the content of your messages — is visible to other visitors of the same page while the message is displayed, and can be screenshotted by any reader.
Please do not type personal information into the chat, either about yourself or about anyone else. Do not post your real name, address, phone number, messenger IDs, email address, photographs, or workplace. Posting another person’s personal information is prohibited by section 3.2 of our Bedingungen und Konditionen and will be removed.
We use chat content only to operate and moderate the chat. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in providing a functioning, lawful public chat (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) and compliance with our legal obligations as a hosting provider (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR).
Chat messages are stored transiently in order to display the conversation and are deleted automatically within 24 hours. We do not keep a searchable archive of chat history.
2. Technical information handled automatically
Like any website, our servers receive your IP address, the type of browser and device you use, your operating system, the page that referred you, and the time of your request. This is technically unavoidable: an IP address is required to deliver a web page to you at all.
We do not operate our own logging of this information. It may, however, be written to standard access logs by our hosting provider and by our security and content delivery provider, as happens with any website, and kept by them for a limited period for security, abuse prevention and troubleshooting. Those logs are created and controlled by those providers rather than by us.
No such log is linked to chat content. We do not operate, and have no access to, any record that maps a chat message to an IP address. This information is never used to profile visitors and is never used for advertising. Legal basis: legitimate interest in the security and integrity of the Service (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
3. Cookies
We use a small number of cookies and equivalent local storage:
- Strictly necessary — to remember that you confirmed you are over 18, to remember your language selection, and to keep the chat session working. These do not require your consent and cannot be disabled without breaking the Website.
- Analytics — to count visits and understand which pages are used. These are set only if you accept them in the cookie banner, and you can withdraw your acceptance at any time using the banner controls or by clearing cookies for this site.
Most browsers let you block or delete cookies. If you block strictly necessary cookies, parts of the Website will not work.
4. What we do not collect
We do not knowingly collect special categories of personal data (Article 9 GDPR). We never ask you about your sexual orientation, gender identity, health, religion, or political opinions, and we do not infer, record, tag, or share any such characteristic about you. We do not use visits to this Website to build audience segments, interest categories, or advertising lists.
How we use and share information
We use the information described above to display and moderate the chat, to keep the Website secure and working, to handle reports and legal requests, and to understand aggregate traffic levels.
We do not sell, rent or trade personal data. We do not share personal data for marketing purposes. We share information only in these cases:
- Service providers that operate the Website on our behalf — hosting, CDN and security, and, if you accepted analytics cookies, our analytics provider. They act as processors under contract and may use the data only to provide the service to us.
- Legal requirements — where we must disclose information to comply with a binding legal obligation, a court order, or a lawful request from a competent authority, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. We will only ever disclose data we actually hold, which in the case of anonymous chat is usually nothing.
Some service providers may process data outside the European Economic Area. Where that happens, transfers are covered by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or by an adequacy decision.
How long we keep data
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Chat messages | Deleted automatically within 24 hours; no archive |
| Server access logs (IP, user agent, timestamp) | Not kept by us. Where our hosting or security provider keeps such logs, they are retained by that provider for a limited period and are not linked to chat content |
| Blocklist entries (e.g. a phone number or messenger ID we were asked to block) | Kept indefinitely, to prevent the same content being re-posted |
| Abuse and privacy correspondence | Up to 3 years, to demonstrate that we handled reports correctly and to defend legal claims |
| Cookies | As stated in the cookie banner; necessary cookies expire within 12 months at the latest |
Age of users
This Website is intended exclusively for adults aged 18 or older and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor is using the Website, or that content involving a minor has been posted, contact [email protected] immediately and we will remove it and take further action as required by law.
Content about you posted by someone else
If another user has published your personal data — a phone number, a messenger ID such as QQ, WeChat or Telegram, an email address, an address, a photograph — or has attributed sexual statements, offers or advertisements to you, you can have it removed.
Write to [email protected] with the URL of the page and a description or screenshot. This is both a request under Article 17 of the GDPR (erasure) and a notice under Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. We treat this category as urgent and remove it normally within 24 hours. The offending identifier is then added to a permanent blocklist so it cannot be posted again.
You do not need a lawyer, you do not need to fill in a form, there is no cost, and you do not need to prove your identity for us to delete contact details published without consent. The full procedure, including how to challenge our decision, is in section 5 of our Terms and Conditions.
What we cannot do: we can delete content, but we generally cannot tell you who posted it. The chat has no accounts, and we keep no record linking messages to IP addresses. If you need an author identified, that requires a request from law enforcement or a court — and our honest answer may still be that the data does not exist.
Your rights
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to request access to your personal data and its rectification or erasure; to object to processing based on legitimate interests; to request restriction of processing; to receive your data in a portable format; and to withdraw any consent you have given, at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, write to [email protected]. We reply within one month. There is no charge. Because the chat is anonymous, we may be unable to locate data relating to you — in that case we will tell you so plainly rather than asking you for additional identity documents.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority. In the EEA this is the supervisory authority of the country where you live or work.
California residents
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, California residents may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected about them, request deletion of that information, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioural advertising. To make a request, write to [email protected]; we respond within 45 days. We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.
Security
The Website is served over HTTPS. We keep the amount of personal data we hold to the minimum required to run the Service, which is the most effective protection we can offer. No online service can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
Links to other websites
The Website contains links to sites we do not control, some of them affiliate links — see our Erklärung über die Offenlegung. Those sites have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for their content or practices. Review their policies before providing them with any information.
We do not send marketing email and we do not add visitors to mailing lists. We will only email you if you contacted us first, and only to answer you.
Changes to this Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy. If we make a material change, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, post a notice on the Website. The current version always applies from its Last updated date.
Contact
- [email protected] — privacy and data protection requests; reply within one month.