Privacy and your data

Your browser and optional account

When you continue anonymously, Minggly creates an account identified by a secure browser cookie. The cookie lasts 30 days; joining again during its final seven days renews it for another 30 days. Your account holds your saved matching choices, 18+ confirmation, blocks and any Premium purchase. Losing the cookie does not delete these records or cancel a subscription.

Google sign-in is optional. If you choose it, we receive your Google account identifier and verified email when available so we can recognise your account. Your email is not shown to the person you meet. We do not ask for an exact date of birth or match people by age. The 18+ confirmation is your own declaration, not proof of age.

You can add a recovery email while you still have access to your anonymous account. Verify it by opening the link in the browser where you requested it. Later, a recovery link can restore that account in another browser. Each link works once and expires after 15 minutes. We store a protected reference to the link, its purpose and the email it was sent to, rather than a reusable sign-in password. An email entered at Stripe checkout is for billing and does not automatically become a recovery address.

Your browser also remembers your website language choice and camera-access history, and temporarily keeps interest selections so the chat controls work as expected. Browser settings let you remove cookies and saved site data, but doing so may remove anonymous access. Save a recovery method first if you want to keep it.

Connections and matching

We record the IP addresses used by a browser session for security and abuse handling. Cloudflare supplies an approximate country from the connection; that country can appear beside your chat. Neither an IP address nor a country flag proves your identity, nationality or exact location. An IP address cannot restore a purchase.

Matching uses the preferences you choose, including language, interests and, with Premium, country and gender preferences. Shared interests may be shown in a conversation. We record which account identities were paired, whether the match used text or video, and when it started and ended. This helps enforce blocks, investigate reports and resolve connection problems.

Why we use this information

We use account, connection and billing information to provide the chat, sign-in, recovery and subscription services you request. For these necessary activities, our legal basis is performance of the agreement with you. You can leave optional interests blank and use chat without connecting Google or adding a recovery email.

Security records, reports, screening and moderator reviews serve our legitimate interests in protecting participants, preventing fraud and abuse, and enforcing the community rules. Access is limited to the people and systems that need it for those tasks. We may also need to keep or disclose relevant records to meet a legal obligation or respond to a valid legal request. Accepting the chat rules does not give us permission to use your information for unrelated purposes.

Conversations and report evidence

Text messages pass through our servers, but routine conversations are not saved as a chat archive. Video travels through an encrypted relay connection. During a video conversation, your browser keeps up to three small, recent images of the stranger in temporary memory, covering at most six seconds. They are cleared when the conversation ends unless held for a report or automatic incident.

A report or automatic explicit-content flag can send those images and up to twenty recent messages for restricted safety review. The report also includes account and match references, a reason, any explanation supplied by the reporter, and relevant screening results. Ordinary video frames are not continuously uploaded for storage. Browser screening checks incoming video locally; a separate local camera check looks for a visible face. These checks do not save your camera images in permanent browser storage.

Automated screening can cover a video or flag an incident, and may make mistakes. It does not verify age, establish someone’s identity or prove that reported conduct occurred. Moderators can review the available evidence and take action. Browser-supplied images and messages must be considered in context; they are not independent proof.

Live safety review

Authorized operators can observe an active text conversation or receive a separate encrypted audio and video feed for a safety review. The joining notice explains this access before you start. There is no separate notice when a review begins. An operator needs permission and must record a reason; access and review actions are logged.

An observer sees text sent while the review is active, not an earlier chat history. A review lasts up to five minutes and stops sooner if its connection is not renewed. Temporary observation messages and connection queues expire when the review ends. This feature does not record live audio or video. Pressing Stop ends your conversation and its observation feed. A connected chat does not mean someone is watching it.

How long information stays

Report images and message excerpts normally expire after seven days. Daily cleanup and evidence-access checks remove expired material. A serious incident can be preserved for up to thirty days at a time with a recorded reason; a renewed hold can extend that period. The expiry of the images does not delete the underlying report or the action taken on it.

IP audit entries last used more than 30 days ago are removed during session activity. Used or expired recovery-link records are removed by scheduled cleanup; the verified recovery email remains part of your account. Session expiry and the end of a subscription do not automatically erase your account, match records or billing history.

Account records, match references, reports, blocks, review notes and operator action logs currently have no automatic deletion deadline. Retention depends on whether they are needed to maintain the account or a block, investigate an unresolved incident, prevent repeat abuse, meet financial recordkeeping duties or handle a legal claim. They are separate from the short-lived report images and messages. Database backups can contain earlier copies until the provider’s backup window expires.

Who receives information

Your conversation partner receives what you choose to say or show, along with relevant chat details such as the country flag. Do not share sensitive personal information you do not want another person to keep. Our rules prohibit recording or publishing a conversation without permission, but another person may still do it.

Cloudflare provides hosting, databases, network protection and video relays. Google processes optional sign-in. Stripe handles checkout, payment details and subscription billing; Minggly keeps customer and subscription references, status and access dates rather than card numbers. Resend receives the destination email and verification or recovery message to deliver it. These providers process information under their own applicable terms and privacy notices as well as their service arrangements with Minggly.

These services operate internationally, so processing is not confined to your country or to the United Kingdom. The location depends on the provider and the service involved. We do not promise that choosing a country filter keeps your data in that country.

Your choices and rights

You can change matching preferences, decline optional account linking, leave a chat and revoke camera or microphone permission in your browser. Revoking a device permission stops that use of the device; it does not remove a report already submitted or cancel billing. Keep access to your linked account if you need to manage a subscription.

Depending on the law that applies to you, you may ask to access or correct your personal data, receive a portable copy, have it deleted, restrict its use or object to processing based on legitimate interests. Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw it without changing the lawfulness of earlier processing. These rights have exceptions: for example, relevant records may be needed for legal obligations or a legal claim. Identity checks may be needed before information can be released or an account changed.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection regulator. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you live elsewhere, your local regulator may also be able to help. Minggly is for adults only; if you believe a participant is under 18, stop the conversation and report it.

We update this notice when our data handling changes. The date above identifies this version; any new use requiring a separate choice will be presented before that use begins.