Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to Puggle. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle "Your Data", which includes any communication, interaction, and your IP address, while you use our anonymous chat service.

2. Data Collection

Puggle is designed to minimize the amount of personal data stored on our servers. The information we may process includes chat messages, anonymous identifiers, IP addresses, timestamps, and technical information required to operate and protect the service.

IP addresses may be processed for security and abuse-prevention purposes, including detecting malicious traffic, preventing abuse, and enforcing restrictions on users or networks that violate our rules.

When a user reports another user, a limited portion of the recent conversation may be permanently stored as part of the moderation report. This may include messages from the reported user, the reporting user, and other participants whose messages are relevant to the reported incident, together with associated identifiers and timestamps.

This information is used for moderation, platform safety, abuse prevention, and, where necessary, compliance with legal obligations. It is not used to build advertising profiles or for personalized content.

3. Data Retention

Most messages sent in ordinary, non-persistent rooms are kept in memory only and are not permanently stored by Puggle. Once removed from memory, these messages cannot normally be recovered from our servers.

Messages included in moderation reports may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to investigate the report, enforce our rules, protect users, resolve disputes, and comply with applicable legal obligations.

4. Security & Encryption

Messages that are permanently stored by Puggle, including messages retained as part of moderation reports and messages in persistent rooms, are encrypted at rest using industry-standard cryptographic protections.

Encryption is used to protect stored message content from unauthorized access. However, encryption at rest does not mean that messages are end-to-end encrypted. Puggle may be able to decrypt stored messages when necessary for moderation, safety, or legal compliance.

5. Moderator Access

Moderators may access recent messages when reviewing a report or investigating activity that may violate our rules. Messages included in a report may be permanently stored as described in this Privacy Policy.

Moderators may join or inspect rooms when reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, protect users, enforce our rules, or maintain the security of the service.

6. Local Storage & Anonymous Identity

Your Anonymous Identity is maintained via local browser storage across sessions. This identity is randomly generated and does not connect to your personal identity. You can clear this data by clearing your browser history or using the "Full Reset" option in the Settings tab.

If you choose to set your own Anonymous Identity (by updating your password manually), that identifier is recorded with each message you share.

7. Persistent Rooms

Some rooms on Puggle are designated as persistent rooms. Messages sent in these rooms are stored on our servers so that their conversation history can be retrieved after users disconnect.

Persistent rooms may be used for official, community, moderator, VIP, or other designated purposes. The persistent status of a room is determined by Puggle and may be indicated within the service.

Persistent room messages are encrypted while stored on our servers. Authorized moderators may access these rooms and their message history for moderation and safety purposes.

8. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on applicable data protection law, you may have rights regarding the personal data we process about you, including rights of access, rectification, deletion, restriction of processing, objection, and portability.

To exercise a privacy right or ask questions about how your data is handled, contact us at legal@puggle.chat.

We may need to verify your request before providing access to or modifying personal data, particularly where doing so could affect the privacy or safety of another person.

You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority.

9. Analytics & Ads

We use Google Analytics to collect basic information and may use cookies for this purpose. "Enhanced" information gathering is not enabled. We also use cookies for Google AdSense and other advertising services to personalize ads and measure their effectiveness.

10. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data.

We may share or disclose information when necessary to comply with a valid legal obligation, respond to lawful requests from competent authorities, protect the rights and safety of users or Puggle, investigate abuse, or enforce our Terms of Service and Chat Rules.

We may also use service providers that process data on our behalf to operate and secure Puggle. Such providers may only process data according to their applicable contractual and legal obligations.

11. Third-Party Services

Puggle uses certain third-party services to operate, analyze, secure, and monetize the service. These may include analytics, advertising, hosting, content delivery, payment, and security providers.

These providers may process technical information such as IP addresses, browser information, device information, approximate location, cookies, and usage information according to their own privacy policies and the configuration of the services used by Puggle.

Puggle does not sell your personal data. Advertising and other revenue generated through the service is generally used exclusively to support Puggle and cover the costs of operating, maintaining, securing, and improving the platform. This includes infrastructure, hosting, bandwidth, security, development, and other costs necessary to keep the service available.

Revenue generated through third-party services is not intended to create personal profiles for sale or to fund unrelated activities. Where third parties retain fees or commissions as part of providing their services, those amounts are handled according to the applicable provider's terms.

Where required by applicable law, non-essential cookies and similar technologies will only be used after obtaining the required consent.