1. Scope
This policy describes personal information processed when you visit www.chitachatter.com, join as a member, use Dating, read news, look up weather or contact us. The store at shop.chitachatter.com is on Shopify and follows Shopify’s checkout practices in addition to this overview.
2. Information we collect
- Account: email address, password or Google sign-in identifiers, username, about line, profile photo, preferred language and approximate place (city, region and country derived from hosting geo headers when you join or stay active).
- Messages and invites: chat text, optional images you attach, invite status between members and translations stored for the language you chose.
- Dating: whether you confirmed you are 18 or older, whether you opted into the Dating deck, likes and passes you make and matches that result.
- Activity: visit sessions used for internal Stats (start and last-seen times plus country, region and city from Vercel geo headers; those sessions do not store IP addresses).
- Signup IP: an IP address may be stored on your profile at signup for abuse prevention and admin tools.
- Contact form: name, email and message you send. For rate limiting we store a short hash of your IP, not the raw address, for a limited time.
- Weather lookups: the city or ZIP you type is sent to WeatherAPI to return a forecast. US radar maps are loaded from the National Weather Service.
- Device storage: the site uses cookies and browser storage for sign-in sessions, language choice, home layout order, join drafts and (in the EU/UK/Switzerland) your Google Analytics cookie choice.
3. How we use information
We use this information to run accounts and chat, translate messages when needed, show Dating cards and matches to opted-in members, serve news and weather, prevent abuse, answer contact messages and understand how the public site is used.
4. Analytics and cookies
We use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-79LVLZ3VQ4) and Vercel Analytics. On public pages GA may receive the page path, query and title. On member-only pages GA is limited to the first path segment (for example /chat) with a generic title so chat IDs, usernames and message text are not sent. Visitors in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland see a cookie banner. Until they Accept, gtag.js is not loaded. A Reject choice keeps it off. The choice is stored in the cc_ga cookie for up to 12 months. You can reopen Cookie settings from the footer where that link appears.
5. Sharing
We share data with processors that help run the site, including our database host, Google (sign-in and Analytics when allowed), Vercel (hosting and analytics), WeatherAPI (forecast lookups), Resend (contact emails), xAI (message translation and related assist features when configured) and YouTube when you play an embed. Shopify processes shop orders at shop.chitachatter.com. We do not sell your personal information. Other members see the profile fields you publish (and Dating fields if you opt in). Admins may see account details needed to run the community.
6. Retention
Account and chat data stay while your account is open. Contact rate-limit hashes are kept only briefly. Analytics cookies last up to 12 months for the consent choice described above. You can ask us to delete an account by contacting lockart@gmail.com. Members can also remove friendships from Delete User and turn off Dating visibility from Profile.
7. Children
ChitaChatter is not directed at children under 13 and Dating is limited to people 18 or older. If you believe a child created an account or used Dating, contact us so we can remove the data.
8. Your choices
You can edit your profile, upload or remove a photo, change language, opt into or out of Dating, manage Google Analytics cookies where the banner applies or contact us about access or deletion. Depending on where you live you may have additional rights under local law.
9. Changes and contact
We may update this policy and will change the effective date when we do. Questions about privacy: lockart@gmail.com or Contact Us. See also our Terms of Service.