Privacy policy

The short version

• We keep what Hearth needs to work: your account, your profile, and the things you post.
• No ads. No analytics or tracking scripts, in the app or on this website. We don’t sell your data or share it for advertising.
• Your messages, files and voice are not used to train AI, and nothing in Hearth uses AI to read your chats.
• Voice and video calls happen live and are not recorded.
• You can download your data or delete your account in Settings at any time.
• Messages are encrypted while they travel and while they’re stored, but Hearth is not end-to-end encrypted. We explain what that means below.

Who we are

Hearth is a free app for chatting, calling and hanging out with friend groups and communities. You can use it in your browser at app.hearthchat.xyz or in the desktop app for Windows. In this policy, “Hearth”, “we” and “us” mean the people who run Hearth.

Questions about privacy go to privacy@hearthchat.xyz.

What we collect

Your account

• Email address, used to sign in, to send sign-in codes and password resets, and to tell you about your account.
• Password. Our sign-in provider stores it as a secure hash, so we never see the password itself.
• If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your email address, your name and a link to your Google profile picture.

Your profile

Username, display name, avatar, banner and accent colors, bio, pronouns, interests, your status and custom status, and any avatar decoration you pick. Other people on Hearth can see your profile.

What you post and create

Messages (in servers, threads and direct messages), reactions, attachments such as images, files and voice messages, polls and votes, notes and who you share them with, events and RSVPs, messages you schedule to send later (kept until they go out), reminders, saved messages, and anything you add to a server like emoji, stickers, sounds, roles or channels. When you edit a message, we keep the earlier version (see how long we keep things).

Your connections

The servers you join and your roles in them, friends and friend requests, people you’ve blocked, your direct message conversations, and private notes you write about other people (only you can see those).

Presence and activity

• Whether you’re online, when you were last seen, where you’ve read up to in each channel (so unread badges work), and your notifications, such as mentions.
• Activity status (“Playing Minecraft”) is off unless you turn it on in Settings → Activity status, and only the desktop app can show it. When it’s on, the app compares the names of programs running on your computer against a list of games (plus any you add yourself). Only the name of the matching game is shared. The list of programs never leaves your computer.

Sign-in sessions

Each time you sign in, our sign-in provider records the IP address and the type of device and browser for that session. We use it to keep you signed in and to spot abuse. It is removed when you sign out of that session or delete your account. A session that is never signed out stays on record until you delete your account.

Safety and anti-abuse

• Records of how often you do certain things, like sending messages or friend requests, so we can stop spam.
• Reports you file or that are filed about you, including a copy of the reported message.
• Moderation logs that server moderators can see, such as who removed which message.
• If an account is banned from Hearth, we keep its email address so it can’t simply sign up again. We also block sign-ups from known throwaway email services.

Link previews

When a message includes a link, our server visits that page to show a title, a short description and an image. The website sees our server, not you. Previews are stored and reused for everyone who posts the same link.

Bots and webhooks

If you make a bot or webhook, we store its name, avatar, settings, access token, and the blocks or code you give it.

On your own device

The app keeps you signed in by storing a session on your device (in the desktop app this uses your operating system’s encrypted storage) and remembers preferences like your theme and recently used emoji.

What we don’t do

• No ads, and no plans for them.
• No analytics, trackers or tracking cookies, in the app or on hearthchat.xyz.
• We don’t sell or rent your data, and we don’t share it with anyone for advertising.
• No AI training. We don’t use your messages, files or voice to train AI models, and Hearth has no AI features that read your chats.
• Calls aren’t recorded. Voice, video and screen sharing go through our real-time media provider live and are not saved. Voice messages are different: they’re recordings you choose to send, and they’re stored like any other attachment.
• No location tracking.
• We don’t read your messages. The people who run Hearth can technically access the database. We only look at content to handle a report, to investigate abuse or a security problem, when the law requires it, or when you ask us to look at something.

How we use your information

• To run Hearth: deliver messages and calls, show profiles, servers and notifications, and keep your settings.
• To keep Hearth safe: stop spam and abuse, act on reports, and enforce our Terms and Community guidelines.
• To email you about your account: sign-in codes, email confirmation and password resets. We don’t send newsletters or marketing.
• To fix problems and answer you when you contact us.

If you’re in the EU, UK or a similar place, our legal reasons for this are: running the service you signed up for, our legitimate interest in keeping Hearth safe and secure, your consent for optional things like activity status and Google sign-in, and legal obligations.

Who can see what

• Server messages can be seen by members who have access to that channel, by the server’s moderators, and by bots the server has added, depending on their permissions.
• Direct messages can be seen by the people in that conversation.
• Your profile can be seen by other Hearth users.
• Server moderators can remove messages, review reports filed in their server, see earlier versions of edited messages in channels they manage, and see their server’s moderation log.
• Hearth staff can act across Hearth to enforce the rules, for example by removing content or banning accounts. Staff actions are logged.

We share information with outside parties only with the providers listed below, when you choose to (for example by posting in a server), or when the law requires it. If we ever get a legal request for your data, we’ll check that it’s valid and only hand over what it requires.

Services we use

Hearth runs on a few outside services. They handle data so Hearth can work, under their own terms and privacy policies.

Hearth is run from the United States, and your information is stored there. If you use Hearth from somewhere else, your information is transferred to the US.

How long we keep things

• Your account and profile: until you delete your account.
• Messages and files: until you delete them, a moderator removes them, or the channel or server is deleted.
• When a message is deleted, its text, files and reactions are erased and only an empty “message deleted” marker is left. A few copies can remain: earlier versions saved when the message was edited (moderators of that channel can still see these), an excerpt of up to 500 characters in the server’s moderation log if a moderator removed it, and a copy in any report about it.
• When you delete your account, we delete your profile, sign-in details and sessions, settings, friends, notes, the reports you filed, and every server you own along with everything in it. Messages you sent in other people’s servers and in direct messages stay for the other people in those conversations, but they’re no longer linked to you. If you want those gone too, delete them before you delete your account.
• Banned accounts: we keep the email address after the account is gone so it can’t sign up again.
• Logs and backups: our providers keep short-lived technical logs and backups, so deleted information can remain there for a limited time before it’s overwritten.

Your choices and rights

• Download your data: Settings → Privacy & safety → Download my data. You get a file with your profile, settings, servers, friends, notes, bots and every message you’ve written.
• Fix your information: edit your profile and settings at any time.
• Delete things: delete any message you sent, or your whole account in Settings → My account.
• Control who reaches you: choose who can send you direct messages, block people, and keep activity status off.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or California), you may have legal rights to access, correct, delete or move your data, and to object to or limit how we use it. Most of these you can do yourself in Settings. For anything else, email privacy@hearthchat.xyz and we’ll answer within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. We don’t sell or “share” personal information as California law defines those words.

Children

Hearth is not for children under 13. If your country sets a higher age for using services like Hearth without a parent’s permission, you need to be that age. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we’ll delete it. Parents can contact us at privacy@hearthchat.xyz.

Security

Everything between your device and Hearth is encrypted in transit (HTTPS and secure WebSockets), and our database host encrypts stored data. Access rules on our servers mean each person can only read what they’re allowed to: your direct messages, and channels in servers you belong to. Passwords are stored only as secure hashes.

Hearth is not end-to-end encrypted. That means the service itself can technically read messages, which is what makes features like search, link previews, moderation and reports possible. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we’ll tell you as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update this page and the effective date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll tell you through Hearth or by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Email privacy@hearthchat.xyz with any question about your privacy or this policy.