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Chattr — Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
Chattr is operated by Chattr Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17199526). Chattr Ltd is the "controller" of your personal data — this means we are responsible for deciding how and why it is used. Our registered office is at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office ("ICO"), the UK's data protection regulator, under registration number ZC149597.
2. The short version
We try to collect as little as possible. Chattr is anonymous to other users, and we want to keep it that way. The essence: - We use your phone number and (where required) your university email only to verify that you are a real, eligible student. They are never shown to other users. - Your posts, comments and votes are shown to others without your name attached. - We use limited technical and analytics data to run the Service safely and keep it working. - We do not sell your personal data. - You can download your data or delete your account from within the app.
The rest of this policy gives the full detail, as the law requires.
3. What personal data we collect
3.1 Information you give us
- Mobile phone number — collected at sign-up and used to send a one-time verification code. - University email address — where verification is required, used to confirm you are an eligible student and to determine your campus. We store whether you are verified and the institution your email belongs to. - Age confirmation — your confirmation that you are 18 or over, and the date you gave it. - Content you create — your posts, comments, poll answers, votes, bookmarks, and any images you upload. - Reports and appeals — information you submit when you report content or appeal a decision. - Messages to us — anything you send to our support or other contact addresses.
3.2 Information we collect automatically
- Usage and activity data — such as your karma score, when you are active, and how you interact with content, used to run features like leaderboards and to keep the Service safe. - Technical and log data — such as IP address, device and browser type, and timestamps, generated through our infrastructure providers and used for security, abuse prevention, and diagnosing faults. - Error and performance data — collected through our monitoring tools to detect and fix problems. - Product analytics and session replay — we use a privacy-focused analytics tool (PostHog), which processes this data in the European Union (EU region), to understand how the Service is used (pages and features used, taps, time spent, and where people get stuck) and to view anonymised session replays to diagnose usability problems. We mask all text input — including anything you type into a post — so it is never recorded, and we run this analytics without storing cookies on your device. We configure these tools to reduce the personal data they capture.
4. How we use your data, and our lawful basis
Under UK data protection law we must have a "lawful basis" for each use of your personal data.
We may also republish content you post on Chattr, in anonymised form — with no name or identifying detail — on Chattr's own marketing and social media channels (for example, Instagram and TikTok), relying on our legitimate interests in promoting the Service.
5. Anonymity and identification
Your posts are shown to other users without your name. Internally, however, your account is linked to your verification details. We keep this link so that we can meet our safety and legal duties — for example, to act on illegal content or to respond to a valid request from the police or a court.
We will only identify an account, or disclose the data behind it, where we are legally required or permitted to do so, or where it is necessary to protect someone's safety. We do not reveal who posted what to other users.
6. Who we share your data with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only in these situations:
6.1 Service providers (processors)
They act on our instructions and are bound by contracts requiring them to protect your data:
6.2 Legal and safety disclosures
We may disclose data where the law requires or permits it: to the police, courts, regulators such as Ofcom or the ICO, or organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation or the National Crime Agency, in connection with illegal content or a risk to safety.
6.3 Business transfers
If Chattr is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your data may be transferred as part of that, subject to the same protections in this policy.
7. Where your data is stored and processed
We aim to host data in the UK or European Economic Area where practical. Some of our providers are based in, or process data in, countries outside the UK, including the United States. Where data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on safeguards approved under UK data protection law — such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or an adequacy decision.
8. How we protect and how long we keep your data
8.1 Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data: encryption of data in transit (HTTPS/TLS), access controls and row-level security on our database, restricted administrative access, key rotation, and regular security review.
8.2 Retention
- Verification codes are deleted shortly after use (within a short time-to-live window). - Account and content data are kept while your account is active. - When you delete your account, we begin deletion or anonymisation after a 30-day cooling-off period. Some data may be retained for a limited further period where we must keep it for legal, safety, or backup reasons. - Aggregated or anonymised data that no longer identifies you may be kept indefinitely.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to: - Be informed about how we use your data (this policy); - Access a copy of your data — you can download your data from within the app; - Have inaccurate data corrected; - Have your data erased — you can delete your account from within the app; - Restrict or object to certain processing, including processing based on our legitimate interests; - Data portability — to receive your data in a usable format; and - Withdraw consent, where we rely on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, use the tools in the app where available, or contact privacy@chattr.uk. We will respond within one month, which we may extend by up to two further months for complex requests, telling you if we do. There is normally no charge.
10. Complaints about how we use your data
You have the right to complain to us about how we handle your personal data, and we make this straightforward. You can complain by emailing privacy@chattr.uk, or by any other reasonable means — we accept complaints however they reach us, and you do not need to use any special form or particular wording. Tell us what the problem is and what you would like us to do.
In line with our duties under the Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025), we will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it, investigate it, and respond without undue delay in plain language, explaining the outcome.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office ("ICO"), the UK's data protection regulator — though we would welcome the chance to put things right first. You can contact the ICO by post at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF; by telephone on 0303 123 1113; or online at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
11. Cookies and similar technologies
We use only the cookies and local storage necessary to run the Service — for example, to keep you logged in and secure. We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies. If this changes — for instance if we introduce advertising — we will update this policy and seek consent where the law requires.
12. Children
Chattr is for adults aged 18 and over and is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn that we hold data about someone under 18, we will delete it. If you believe a child is using Chattr, please tell us at privacy@chattr.uk.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will tell you through the app or by other appropriate means. The "last updated" date at the top shows when it last changed.
Last updated: 14 July 2026