Privacy Policy

ChatRamen ("we," "us," or "our") operates a friend-based social messaging platform that lets people chat, call, and play games with friends through the ChatRamen iPhone app and chatramen.com. On ChatRamen, private messaging is unlocked only after a friend request is sent and mutually accepted. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about how we collect, use, share, retain, and safeguard your information. By using ChatRamen you agree to this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Account information (provided by you)

• Basic profile: username, age, gender, country, language preference
• Preferences: relationship status, interests, lifestyle choices (gym, smoking, drinking, pets, travel, etc.)
• Extended profile: profile photo, city, height, occupation, hobbies, zodiac sign, social media handles (Snapchat, Instagram)
• Contact information: email address (optional, for account verification)

1.2 Device & technical information (automatically collected)

• Device details: device model, operating system version, app version
• Device identifiers: device ID, Firebase Installation ID, push notification token
• Platform: iOS or web
• Network information: IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, IP-derived location (country, city)

1.3 Usage & activity data

• Account activity: first login time, last login time, account creation timestamp, online/offline status
• Interaction metrics: friend requests sent/received/accepted, number of conversations with friends, voice/video calls initiated/joined
• Discovery activity: searches and browsing used to find people to send a friend request to (username, country, gender, language)
• Engagement data: chat frequency, message counts, feature usage patterns

1.4 Content you create

• Messages: text messages sent within the app (stored temporarily for delivery)
• Media: photos, images, and videos you share in conversations
• User-generated content: profile descriptions, status updates
• Interest tags: interests extracted from your conversations on your device (on-device MiniLM model on iOS) to improve suggestions, stored as approved tags only. The conversation content used for this extraction stays on your device.

1.5 Safety & moderation data

• Account status: active, suspended, or banned status
• Verification status: email verification, photo verification
• Moderation signals: aggregate counters for policy violations (profanity detections, image moderation flags)
• Integrity signals: device attestation results from Apple App Attest / Firebase App Check, and related anti-abuse risk signals
• Reports: total number of reports received (no raw content stored)
• Appeal metadata: diagnostic details you choose to send when you contest a moderation, integrity, or account-access decision

1.6 Subscription & billing information

• Subscription tier (Lite, Plus, Pro), subscription period (weekly, monthly, yearly), expiry timestamp
• Purchase history: transaction IDs, purchase timestamps (processed by Apple for App Store purchases or Razorpay for web purchases)
• Payment information: handled by Apple or Razorpay — we never store your full card details

1.7 Location information

• Device country: country setting from your device
• IP-derived location: country and city derived from your IP address (not precise GPS)
• We do not collect precise GPS location or track your movements.

2. How We Use Your Information

2.1 Provide core services

• Display user profiles and help you find people to send a friend request to, based on your preferences and filters
• Enable messaging, voice calls, and video calls between mutually accepted friends
• Deliver push notifications for friend requests, messages, and calls

2.2 Personalization & improvement

• Suggest connections based on shared interests and preferences
• Personalize your experience based on usage patterns
• Extract interests from conversations using on-device machine learning (MiniLM on iOS) to improve suggestions; this processing happens entirely on your device
• Improve app performance and fix technical issues

2.3 Safety & security

• Detect and prevent spam, abuse, and policy violations
• Moderate content using AI (Hive Image Moderation, profanity filters)
• Enforce community guidelines and terms of service
• Investigate reports and take action against violators
• Verify legitimate app traffic through Apple App Attest and Firebase App Check device attestation
• Use automated safety systems to evaluate message content, uploaded images, report metadata, device identifiers, IP/network metadata, device-attestation results, account status, subscription status, and anti-abuse counters for warnings, rate limits, temporary suspensions, or account-access restrictions
• Provide appeal and contestability support for automated safety decisions, including diagnostic information needed for human review

2.4 Account management

• Authenticate your identity during login
• Manage your subscription and billing status
• Provide customer support and respond to inquiries
• Send service-related notifications (account updates, policy changes)

2.5 Analytics & business operations

• Analyze app usage patterns to understand user behavior
• Track feature adoption and engagement metrics
• Monitor app crashes and performance issues (Firebase Crashlytics)
• Conduct A/B testing to improve features

3. How We Share Your Information

3.1 With other users (publicly visible)

The following information is visible to users you interact with:

• Profile information (username, age, gender, country, profile photo)
• Extended profile details (if you choose to fill them in)
• Online/offline status, last seen timestamp
• Interest tags (extracted from conversations, displayed on your profile)

3.2 With third-party service providers

We share data with trusted partners who help us operate the app:

• Firebase (Google): Cloud database (Firestore), authentication, analytics, crashlytics, messaging — privacy policy
• Amazon Web Services (AWS): Image storage (S3), email delivery (SES) — privacy policy
• Agora.io: Real-time voice and video communication. Calls are peer-to-peer and not recorded — privacy policy
• Hive AI: Image content moderation — privacy policy
• On-device machine learning (MiniLM): interest extraction runs entirely on your device; no conversation content is sent to an external server for this purpose.
• Venice AI: powers optional AI chat features. When you use an AI chat feature, the messages in that AI conversation are processed by Venice. AI-assisted features are labeled in-app — venice.ai
• Apple / Razorpay: Payment processing and subscription management — Apple, Razorpay

3.3 Legal requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law or to:

• Comply with legal obligations, court orders, or government requests
• Protect our rights, property, and safety, or that of our users
• Detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues
• Enforce our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines

3.4 Business transfers

If ChatRamen is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred. We will notify you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

4. Data Retention

• Account data: retained while your account is active.
• Messages: stored in our database until you delete them; cached locally on your device.
• Images / media: stored on AWS S3 until you delete your account or remove the content.
• Logs & analytics: retained for 90 days for debugging and improvement purposes.
• Deleted accounts: account data is permanently deleted within 30 days of the deletion request.

5. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your information:

• Encryption: data in transit is encrypted using TLS/SSL.
• Firebase Security Rules: access controls on database reads/writes.
• Authentication: Firebase Auth with secure token management; credentials stored in the iOS Keychain.
• Firebase App Check / Apple App Attest to attest legitimate traffic.
• Content moderation: AI-powered filtering to prevent harmful content.
• Regular audits: periodic security reviews and updates.

While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. Use ChatRamen at your own risk.

6. Children's Privacy

Age restriction: ChatRamen is intended for users aged 18 years and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you are under 18, do not use this app or provide any personal information. If we discover that a user under 18 has provided personal information, we will immediately delete their account and associated data.

See our Child Safety Standards page for our complete approach to preventing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), our NCMEC reporting commitment, and how to report a child-safety concern.

7. International Data Transfers

ChatRamen operates globally. Your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located in different countries, including the United States (Firebase, AWS). By using ChatRamen, you consent to the transfer of your information to countries outside your residence.

8. Third-Party Links

ChatRamen may contain links to external websites or social media profiles (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat handles). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third-party sites. Please review their privacy policies before sharing information.

9. Automated Safety Decisions and Appeals

ChatRamen uses automated safety systems to detect spam, abuse, harmful content, account-integrity risk, and suspected policy violations. These systems may use message content, uploaded images, reports, moderation counters, device identifiers, IP/network metadata, device-attestation results, app-version data, account status, subscription status, and related anti-abuse signals.

Automated safety decisions may show warnings, apply cooldowns or rate limits, temporarily suspend features, or restrict account access when multiple risk signals or confirmed violations meet our safety thresholds. We use these systems to protect users and the service, but they can be contested.

If you believe an automated moderation, integrity, or account-access decision is wrong, use the in-app appeal link or contact info@peppty.com. A human reviewer can evaluate the decision and the diagnostic details included with your appeal.

10. Your Rights & Choices

10.1 Access & correction

• You can view and update your profile information in the app.
• Request a copy of your data by contacting us.

10.2 Account deletion

• Delete your account anytime through app settings (or via the data deletion page).
• Your data will be permanently deleted within 30 days.
• Some data may be retained as required by law.

10.3 Data portability & requests

You have the right to request a copy of your personal data. To make a data request:

• Email info@peppty.com
• Include your username and the email associated with your account (if any)
• Specify whether you want to: (a) export your data, or (b) delete your account

We will respond to your request within 30 days. For account deletion, you can also use the "Remove Account" feature in the app settings.

10.4 Marketing communications

• We do not send marketing emails unless you opt in.
• Opt out anytime by contacting us.

10.5 Cookie & storage policy

iPhone app: our mobile app does not use browser cookies. We use device identifiers and session tokens for authentication and analytics.

Web application: chatramen.com uses localStorage and IndexedDB for essential functionality:

• Authentication and session management
• User preferences and app settings
• Firebase Analytics for usage analytics (in production only)
• Offline message cache (local cache for parity with the iPhone app)

We do not use third-party advertising cookies. You can clear localStorage / IndexedDB through your browser settings at any time. Use the in-app consent banner to manage analytics consent.

10.6 California privacy rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

• Know what personal information is collected
• Request deletion of personal information
• Opt out of the sale of personal information
• Non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights

Do Not Sell My Personal Information: ChatRamen does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for monetary compensation. We do not participate in data broker activities.

10.7 GDPR rights (European users)

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have the right to:

• Access, rectify, or erase your personal data
• Restrict or object to processing
• Data portability
• Withdraw consent at any time
• Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

10.8 India DPDP rights

If you are a resident of India, you have the rights granted under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, including the right to access, correct, complete, update, and erase your personal data, the right to grievance redressal, and the right to nominate.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Material changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date and surfaced in-app as a re-acceptance prompt where applicable. Continued use of ChatRamen after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

12. Contact

For our legal terms, see the Terms of Service and our Community Guidelines. To request deletion of your account see the Data Deletion page.