legal

Privacy Notice

Controller

The controller is Melvin Erk, Cothmannstraße 5-7/22, 1120 Vienna, Austria, hi@vchad.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, we process your email address and message to handle your enquiry - Art. 6(1)(b)/(f).
• Tips (only if you choose to send one): the payment is made on Stripe's own pages - your card details never reach us. Stripe gives us the payment record (amount, date, and the name and email address you enter there) so we can process and account for the tip - Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, and Art. 6(1)(c) for the bookkeeping records we are legally required to keep. A tip is entirely optional, you receive no goods, services or benefits in return, and VCHAD is fully usable without one.

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. The tip button, where shown, is an ordinary link that takes you to Stripe's payment page - no Stripe code, cookies or trackers are loaded inside VCHAD itself, and simply seeing the button transmits nothing. Stripe's pages are governed by Stripe's own privacy notice and cookie settings. (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 are operated in the EU; the relay only forwards already-encrypted media and stores nothing. Messages you send us by email are handled on our own mail server.

If you leave a tip, the payment is processed by Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. (Ireland), which acts as an independent controller for the payment data and may transfer data to Stripe, Inc. in the United States, safeguarded by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses and Stripe's certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. See stripe.com/privacy. This applies only if you actually start a payment - visitors who never use the tip button share no data with Stripe.

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. Records of tips are kept for seven years, because Austrian bookkeeping law requires it (§ 132 BAO).

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 hi@vchad.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. Tips are optional and are never required to use VCHAD; if you choose to leave one, Stripe needs your payment details in order to process it.