Privacy Policy
Chatline 1980 Tribute (the "App") is a live chat room inspired by the chat lines of the 1980s (QSD, Minitel, Teletel, Videotel). This page explains which personal data the App and its chat server use, why, for how long, and the choices you have. It applies only to Chatline 1980 Tribute; the general Tecworks policy covers our other apps.
- We keep only what a chat needs: your username, your password in a protected form, the country of your connection, and the messages waiting for you.
- Messages waiting for you are deleted after 24 hours (7 days for premium users). A moderation log of messages is kept for 30 days to handle abuse.
- No GPS location, contacts, photos, files, camera, microphone, SMS or phone permissions.
- No advertising, no analytics, no tracking. We never sell your data.
- Email is optional and only for premium users, to recover their account.
- You can delete your account at any time in the App: Profile › DELETE ACCOUNT.
1. Who is responsible for your data
The data controller is Tecworks development (the "Company", "we", "us"), with its main office in Italy, near Rome.
Contact for any privacy question or request: jitec@katamail.com
2. Data we collect and why
| Data | Why we use it | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Username and the color of your name | To create your account and show you on the list of users online. | Until your account is deleted. |
| Password | To log in. Your phone turns the password into a code (PBKDF2) before sending it; the server stores only a salted hash of that code. Nobody, including us, can read your password. | Until your account is deleted. |
| Country of your connection | Shown next to your name, as in the original chat lines, e.g. "(Italy)". It is worked out by our hosting provider from the network address of your connection. We store the country name only, not your IP address, and we never use GPS. | The last country is kept with your account. |
| Premium style (premium users and admins) | The text you choose to show instead of your country, e.g. "Top/Universe". | Until you change it or your account is deleted. |
| Messages waiting for you | To deliver private messages from other users, also while you are offline. | Until you read or delete them, and at most 24 hours (7 days for premium users). |
| Moderation log: sender, recipient, text and time of each message | To handle reports of abuse, harassment, spam or illegal content, and to enforce the rules of the chat. | 30 days, then deleted automatically. |
| Your contact lists: users you put on priority, ignore or block | To order, hold back or block messages as you chose. | Until you change them; "ignore" ends by itself after its time. |
| Email address (optional, premium users and admins only) | To confirm the address and to send you your username and a link to choose a new password if you forget them. Never used for newsletters or advertising. | Until you change it, your premium status ends, or your account is deleted. Confirmation links expire after 24 hours, password links after 2 hours. |
| Phone identifier: a one-way code (SHA-256) made from the Android ID | To protect the chat: at most 3 new accounts per phone per day, protection against password guessing, and 24-hour bans for users who break the rules. The Android ID itself never leaves your phone. | Kept with your account; with a ban, until the ban ends. |
| Session and activity: login session and the sign-in key of each phone that stays signed in (both stored as a hash), time of last activity, account creation date, account type (standard, premium, admin) | To keep you logged in, to welcome you back without the password on your phone, to log you out of the room after 8 hours without activity, and to apply the rules of the room (for example, room capacity). | Sessions end 24 hours after your last connection. A sign-in key is deleted when you tap Logoff, change your password or delete the account, and after 60 days without use. The other data stays with your account. |
| Anti-spam copy: a simplified copy of long messages or messages with a link | To detect the same message sent to many people (copy-paste flooding or scam links). | 10 minutes. |
| Reports: who reported whom, the reason, and the last messages (up to 10) the reporting user received from the reported one | To let users report insults, threats, spam or other abuse (REPORT in a user's menu), and to let the admins check them. | Until an admin closes the report, at most 30 days. |
| Moderation measures: kicks, lockouts, word filters, with their reason | To enforce the rules of the chat. | Kicks end after 24 hours; lockouts until an admin removes them. |
3. Automated chat characters
To keep the room lively, the chat may include automated characters operated by Tecworks. Their answers are written by an artificial intelligence: the Gemma language model, run by Cloudflare Workers AI on behalf of Tecworks. When you write to one of them, our server sends Cloudflare your username, the country shown next to it and the last messages of that conversation (yours and the character's), only to write the answer. Nothing else about you is sent.
The characters remember the last messages of each conversation for 24 hours after the last message, then forget them. If you sincerely ask one of them whether it is a person, it tells you it is an automated character. You can report an answer like any other message (REPORT).
4. Moderation by the admins
The chat is moderated by a small number of admins appointed by Tecworks. To prevent and handle abuse they can see the list of accounts (username, country, account type, last activity; never passwords or emails), read the conversations of an account and the 30-day moderation log, read the reports sent by users, filter words, and kick or lock accounts. Any user can report another one: hold their name on the list and choose REPORT.
5. Permissions on your phone
On the very first launch the App explains these permissions before asking for anything:
- Internet: to connect to the chat server.
- Notifications (optional): the ongoing "Connected as <your name>" notification and one when a new message arrives while the App is in the background. You can refuse or turn them off at any time in Android's settings; the chat still works while the App is open.
- Foreground service (special use): while you are logged in, the App keeps you connected when you switch to another app or turn the screen off, so other users can still write to you. It starts only when you log in and stops when you tap Exit, Logoff or EXIT CHAT, or after 8 hours without activity.
The App does not ask for location, contacts, camera, microphone, storage, SMS or phone permissions.
6. Data stored on your phone
The App keeps on your phone only its own settings (for example, that you read the first-launch disclosure) and, on the rare phones without an Android ID, a random code used instead of it for the phone identifier described above. Your login session lives in memory while the App runs. Your password is never saved on the phone.
To welcome you back without asking for the password, the App also keeps your username and a random sign-in key that works only on that phone. It stays until you tap Logoff in the App, and the server stops accepting it after 60 days without use. Being signed in doesn't keep your place in the room: after Exit, or after 8 hours without activity, you go back in like everyone else, when there is room. Uninstalling the App removes all this data.
7. Who processes the data for us
We do not sell or share your data for advertising. We use these service providers, only to run the chat:
- Cloudflare, Inc.: hosting of the chat server and its database (placed in Western Europe), and Workers AI, which writes the answers of the automated characters (section 3). Cloudflare may keep short-lived technical logs, including IP addresses, to run and protect its network.
- Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France): sending the confirmation and recovery emails.
- Google (Gmail): backup service for the same emails, used only when Brevo can't send them.
- Google Play: distribution of the App, under Google's own privacy policy.
Some of these providers may process data outside the European Union. In that case the transfer is protected by the safeguards required by the GDPR, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
We may disclose data to the authorities only when the law requires it.
8. No advertising, analytics or tracking
The App contains no advertising, no analytics and no tracking libraries, and it does not follow you across other apps or websites. Because there is no tracking, the App has nothing to change in response to "Do Not Track" signals.
9. Legal bases (GDPR)
- Contract: account, login, messages, premium features: to provide the chat you asked for.
- Legitimate interest: security, anti-spam, phone identifier, moderation log and bans: to keep the chat safe for everybody.
- Consent: notifications and, for premium users, the recovery email. You can withdraw it at any time.
- Legal obligation: when the law requires us to keep or disclose data.
10. Your rights and how to delete your account
Delete your account in the App: open Profile, tap DELETE ACCOUNT and confirm with your password. The account is deleted at once.
Or ask us: if you can't log in any more, write to jitec@katamail.com with your username. To protect your account, we may ask you to confirm the request from the email saved in your account. We answer within 30 days.
When an account is deleted, its password data, sign-in keys, email, style, contact lists, waiting messages (including the ones it sent that were still waiting) and what the automated characters remembered are removed at once. To protect other users, a few things stay for a limited time: moderation log entries and reports by or about the account (at most 30 days), a ban on the phone (until it ends), and the username with the phone identifier and creation date, so that the name can't be taken by someone else for 30 days and a phone can't create unlimited accounts. Backup copies are overwritten in the normal backup cycle.
Under the GDPR you can also ask to access or correct your data, to restrict or object to its use, and to receive a copy of it, writing to the same address.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In Italy: Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.
11. Age
Chatline is a chat with people you don't know. You must be at least 16 years old to use it. We don't knowingly collect data from younger children; if you think this happened, write to us and we will delete the account. Our child safety standards explain how we prevent and handle child sexual abuse and exploitation.
12. Security
All traffic between the App and the server is encrypted (HTTPS and secure WebSocket). Passwords, sessions and email links are stored only as hashes. Access to the server and its data is limited to Tecworks.
13. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will publish the new version on this page and update the date at the top.
14. Contact
Tecworks development, Italy · jitec@katamail.com