Privacy Notice

Controller

The controller is Melvin Erk, Cothmannstraße 5-7/22, 1120 Vienna, Austria, contact@kaiserbyte.com (see the Imprint). vchad is free and requires no account. You can use it without giving us any personal data; the limited processing described below is only what is technically necessary to run the service securely.

What we process, why, and on what basis

• Connection data / short-lived server logs (a salted, hashed form of your IP address and basic technical request data): to establish connections between participants and keep the service secure, stable and abuse-free — Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
• Session metadata (the room code and the display name you choose): held in the signaling server's memory only for the duration of a session, to route connections between participants — Art. 6(1)(f). It is not stored once the session ends.
• Contact requests: if you contact us by email or via the contact form, we process your email address and message to handle your enquiry — Art. 6(1)(b)/(f).

The content of your sessions — audio, any video and text chat — is transmitted directly between participants (peer-to-peer, encrypted with DTLS-SRTP). We do not record, store or access it. Because connections are peer-to-peer, your IP address may become visible to the other participants in a session; when a direct connection isn't possible, media is routed through our relay (TURN) server, which only forwards already-encrypted data and stores nothing.

Cookies

The vchad app sets no cookies for visitors. The name and preferences you choose are stored only in your own browser (local storage) and are never sent to us. We use no analytics, advertising or tracking. (Our internal operator panel uses a single strictly necessary session cookie, but that panel is not part of the public service.)

Recipients

We share data only with providers that help us run the service: our hosting provider and our media-relay (TURN) server, both operated in the EU; the relay only forwards already-encrypted media and stores nothing. Messages sent through the contact form are handled on our own mail server. We do not use third-party analytics or advertising, and we do not sell data.

Retention

Server logs are kept only briefly (typically up to 30 days) and then deleted. Messages you send us are kept only as long as needed to handle your request. Session metadata is not retained after a session ends.

Your rights

You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction and data portability, and to object to processing based on our legitimate interests. To exercise any right, contact contact@kaiserbyte.com.

Complaints

You may lodge a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority, dsb@dsb.gv.at.

Is provision required?

No. You can use the free service without providing personal data. If you contact us, we need your email address in order to reply.