Privacy.

01Who is responsible

Skye Unger
c/o Block Services
Stuttgarter Str. 106
70736 Fellbach
[email protected]

skyetalk. runs on its own server. There is no advertising, no tracking and no analytics. Fonts and all other files come from this server; your browser does not contact anyone else to show this site.

02What this is

skyetalk. is a live chat: everything you type in a room is shown to the others in that room while you type it, letter by letter, in the browser and in the terminal apps. What you type in rooms is not stored. It only lives in the server's memory while you sit in the room and is gone when you clear it or leave. The exception: when someone reports you, or the word list catches something, the moment of text that led to it is kept for the team (see below).

03Without an account

• A random identity your browser keeps (local storage), so the server knows it is still you after a reload. It contains no personal data.
• The name you pick, and if you want to, a location (free text) and your age. Others in your room see them. The names you used are kept with your identity so the team can follow abuse.
• A keyed hash of your IP address (HMAC with a secret only this server knows). The address itself is never stored by the chat. The hash still counts as personal data: with the server's secret it could be matched to an address again. It lets the team block a network after serious abuse and see which identities share one.
• Your settings (emote button, start page and the like) stay in your browser only. For guests this includes how the site looks. For members, the design, light or dark, accent colors, page size and the terminal colors are also kept with the account, so every device they sign in on looks the same; they are deleted with the account.

04With an account

• Username and password. The username is only for signing in and is never shown to others. The password is stored as a scrypt hash, never in plain text.
• Quests (members): to hand out quest badges we count a few things you do, such as how many messages you wrote in rooms (not what they said), how many rooms you joined, the days you came by, and when a quest was done. Kept with your account, part of "Download my data" and deleted with the account.
• Your profile, as far as you fill it in: display name, bio, profile picture, pronouns, age, location, badges, name style. Others see it on your seat and your profile card. Pictures are re-encoded in your browser before upload, and the server removes any camera and location data (EXIF, XMP) that is left.
• Email address, only if you choose to verify your account by email. It is used once to send the confirmation link, then kept privately to show the "email confirmed" mark. Nobody else sees it, and it is never used for newsletters. You can remove it in Settings.
• Verification video, only if you ask the team to verify you: a short video recorded live in your browser with your camera and microphone, while the page shows you a few random instructions (a code to say, a movement to make). Only team members who may verify can watch it, to check that a real person stands behind the account. It is deleted as soon as they decide, or after 30 days if nobody did. What stays is the result (verified or not, with the reason if not) for 180 days. While you record, your own device checks whether you did each move (it finds face and hands in the picture; nothing leaves your device for that), and the server checks the video again the same way and estimates an age range from your face (for example "about 25 to 35"), as a hint for the team. The estimate is often off by several years; it is never used alone to decide anything. Only the result per step (seen or not), the estimated age range and the name your browser gives for the camera (for example "HD Webcam", to spot camera software that plays a recording) are kept with your request. If you go on on your phone, your computer shows a link and QR code that works for 15 minutes and only for this one verification; it does not sign the phone in. This is not face recognition: nothing identifies you or compares your face with other pictures, and the video is not used for anything else.
• Music account, only if you add one to your profile card (Last.fm or ListenBrainz): we keep the service and your user name there. When someone opens your card, this server asks that service for the song you play now or played last, and shows it with its cover. Your listening history stays with that service and is not stored here; the answer is only kept in the server's memory for a minute. The request comes from this server, so the services do not learn who looked at your card, and covers are passed on by this server, so viewers' browsers do not contact them either. Last.fm is run by Last.fm Ltd. (UK, part of Paramount, USA); ListenBrainz is run by the MetaBrainz Foundation (USA); what they keep about your listening is covered by their own privacy policies. Remove the account from your card in Settings whenever you like.
• Profile views: how often your profile card was opened, counted once a day per person; your own visits do not count. Shown on your card unless you hide it in Settings > Profile. To count each person only once, this server keeps who opened which card for two days, then forgets it; nobody, the team neither, sees who looked.
• Room wallpapers: a room shows a generated pattern (only its settings are stored) or a picture. Room admins can ask for a picture of their own: we keep the picture (made smaller and re-encoded, so camera data such as the location is gone), its name, where it is from and the link they gave, which room it is for, who asked and when. The site team looks at each one; a declined picture is deleted at once and the room keeps a note with the reason for 30 days. Approved pictures stay with the room (or the site's library) until they are removed or the room is deleted; when the account of the person who asked is deleted, their name is taken off, and pictures still waiting are deleted. "Download my data" lists your requests. Everyone in the room sees the picture and the credit.
• Stickers on your profile card, if your style level allows them: where each sticker sits on your card. Stickers you upload yourself are kept as pictures (re-encoded, so camera data such as the location is gone); the team looks at each one before anyone else sees it, and a declined one is deleted at once. Delete your stickers in the sticker editor whenever you like; they also go when your account is deleted, and "Download my data" lists them.
• Songs on profile cards (your favorite song, and what you play now): to show a cover when there is none and to link the song on YouTube, this server looks up the artist and the title, and nothing else, at Deezer (Deezer SA, France), the iTunes Search API (Apple, USA) and the YouTube search (Google, USA). Results are kept in the server's memory for a day. Your browser only talks to YouTube when you open one of those links.
• 18+ / NSFW and your birthday (members, only if you turn on 18+ / NSFW in Settings > Profile or get verified by video): whether the switch is on, and your birthday. Others never see the birthday; your age on the profile follows it, and it is only shown if you show your age. You set it once; the team can correct it. With the switch off you see no 18+ rooms. When the team verifies you, they also note whether you are 18 or older or under 18, from your video; members verified as under 18 cannot turn on 18+ / NSFW.
• Rooms for women and FLINTA* (members, only if you tick it in Settings > Profile): whether you count yourself in for rooms that are only for women or only for FLINTA*. You decide this yourself; nobody checks it, and nobody sees it on the site, the team neither. It is only used to let you into such rooms. Untick it to remove it; it is part of "Download my data".
• The 18+ part of your profile (members with 18+ / NSFW on, only what you fill in): how much you lean dom and sub (in percent; both above 0 shows as switch), your limits, and who may see the limits (everyone with 18+ on, friends, certain people you pick, or only you). Only members who also have 18+ / NSFW on see any of it, never someone you blocked. It is only saved after you tick the box to agree; the date you agreed is kept with it. Role and limits are stored encrypted (like direct messages). It stays stored but hidden while your switch is off; "Remove everything" deletes it and takes back your consent. It is part of "Download my data" and is deleted with your account.
• GIFs (members, Rooms and direct messages): GIF search is provided by KLIPY, run by Kikliko, Inc. (San Francisco, USA). When you search, this server sends your search words to KLIPY, together with the site's API key, one random id that stands for this whole site and the content filter for the room; not your name, your account, your IP address or anything else about you. A GIF you send is stored like any other message (its address on KLIPY's servers, its size and its title) and deleted with it. GIF files are loaded through this server and kept in a cache here for a while; your browser does not contact KLIPY at all. What KLIPY does with requests is covered by KLIPY's privacy policy; KLIPY's representative in the EU is Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, Bonn. No ads are shown here.
• Reactions to messages (Rooms and direct messages): which reaction you put on which message, and when. Everyone who can see the message sees who reacted. They are deleted with the message, when you take them back, or when the room staff remove them.
• Quotes: when you answer a message by quoting it, your message keeps a short copy of the quoted one (up to 160 characters) and who wrote it, so the quote still reads right later. The copy is deleted together with your message.
• Friends and blocks. A person you block is not told.
• Direct messages between members are stored so you can read them later: the last 1000 messages per chat. They are encrypted on the server (AES-256), so a copy of the database alone shows no message text. The server itself can read them, for example to show them to you on a new device, or when a message is reported. While both of you have a chat open, the other person sees you type live; you can turn this off in Settings.
• Bug reports, only if you send one: what you wrote, your name (and account, if you are signed in), the screenshot if you added one, and, unless you untick it, technical details (the page, the app version, your browser or terminal, screen size, design and language). The site team reads them, and a copy is mailed to the address the operator set for this.
• Rooms (group chats under Rooms): what members write in a room is stored for one day, encrypted like direct messages; only the newest 50 messages of a room are kept longer, until newer ones replace them. Everyone in the room can read them, and so can the site team. While you type, the people who have the room open see it live. A room keeps who is in it and with which room role, its picture and rules, who was warned, banned or muted there and why (room staff see how often and why someone was warned in their room, for 90 days), reports members send to the room staff (with the reported message), and a log of what the room staff did. If a room lets people in on request, it keeps your request and the note you add until the room staff answer it or you withdraw it; its mods, head mods and admins see both.

05Moderation and safety

• Reports. When someone reports a person or a message, the team sees the reason and a short piece of the text (and, if the reporter chose so, a few messages before it).
• Word list. Words on the list are hidden from others automatically; repeated hits lead to a warning, a mute or a ban. Hits are logged with the room's name.
• Warnings, mutes, kicks and bans are kept with their reason, so they can be enforced and looked up later.
• Appeals. If you are banned or muted you can send an appeal from your screen. The team sees your text, the name you used and the sanction; it is kept as long as the sanction itself (see below).
• Profile pictures can be looked at by the team before others see them. A picture waiting for this is stored like your profile picture and deleted when it is declined or replaced.
• Automatic decisions: the word list can warn, mute or ban someone without a person looking first. You see each decision with its reason, and can ask the team to look at it (see "Your rights"); a person then decides.
• The team can look into rooms live (including link-only rooms) to moderate, the same way people in the room see them. Nothing is recorded by that.
• The team's actions are written to an audit log.
• Notifications (members, only if you turn them on in Settings > Messages): your browser gives us an address of its push service (Google for Chrome and Edge, Mozilla for Firefox, Apple for Safari), which we keep until you turn them off or delete your account, together with what you want to hear about. A notification carries the sender's name and the start of the message; it is encrypted on its way, so the push service cannot read it. We only send one while you do not have the chat open.
• Moderators and admins sign in with a second factor. They can get notifications about reports in their browser (delivered encrypted through the browser maker's push service: Google, Mozilla or Apple) or through their own Gotify server; these contain the reported name and the reason.

06Discord

This site posts the names of open public rooms, how many people are in them, and moderation actions (with the name of the person and the reason) to a Discord server run by the operator. Discord is a service of Discord Inc. (USA).

07Service providers and hosting

Cloudflare. Every connection to this site, including the live chat, passes through the network of Cloudflare, Inc. (San Francisco, USA). Cloudflare protects the site against attacks and overload and delivers it faster. To do that it processes your IP address, the addresses you open, technical details of your browser and device, and the content on its way between you and us (it decrypts the encrypted connection in its network for this). Cloudflare works for us under a data processing agreement and keeps such logs only briefly. It can set short-lived security cookies (for example __cf_bm, usually for 30 minutes, and cf_clearance after a security check) that tell people from bots; they are needed to protect the site and are not used for tracking. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in a secure and reachable site. Cloudflare takes part in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. More: Cloudflare's privacy policy.

Where a service sits outside the EU (for example in the USA), data goes there only on the basis of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the EU standard contractual clauses.

08Server logs and backups

The server and the web server in front of it write technical logs (time, the address requested, errors). They are kept for a short time to find faults and attacks, then deleted.

The database is backed up to protect against data loss. Backups are kept for a limited time; something you delete disappears from the backups when the oldest one is replaced. Backups are only used to restore the service.

09How long things are kept

• Guest identities not seen for 180 days are deleted with their names and IP hashes, unless a sanction still applies.
• IP hashes: 180 days after they were last seen.
• Reports: 180 days after the team closed them.
• Audit log and word list hits: 365 days.
• Direct messages: the last 1000 per chat, until one of you deletes the account.
• Verification videos: until the team decides, at most 30 days; the result (with the automatic check and the age estimate) 180 days.
• Bug reports: until 180 days after the team marks them fixed or closed, or until you delete your account.
• Room messages: one day (a room keeps at least its newest 50); memberships until you leave the room or delete your account; the room staff log 90 days; closed reports to room staff 30 days; bans until they end.
• Your account and profile: until you delete the account.
• Warnings: 365 days. Appeals are deleted together with their sanction. Mutes, kicks and bans: while they apply, then 365 days more. Bans without an end date stay until the team lifts them.
• Server logs and backups: see above.

10Cookies and local storage

Only what the site needs to work, so no consent is needed for it (§ 25(2) TDDDG). Your browser keeps your identity and your settings in local storage (also whether you closed the note about cookies). Team members get a session cookie for the moderation panel. Cloudflare can set short-lived security cookies (see "Service providers and hosting"). There are no tracking or advertising cookies, and no analytics.

11Why (legal basis)

• To run the chat for you, with rooms, your account and direct messages: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. That is the service you use here.
• To keep the chat safe for everyone, with the word list, reports, sanctions, appeals, IP hashes and the audit log: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. The legitimate interest is a chat where nobody gets harassed or spammed.
• Age and birthday, the 18+ / NSFW switch, location, pronouns, picture, bio, a music account, the email check and the verification video (with its automatic checks) are up to you: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent). Remove them in Settings whenever you like. What was shown before that stays lawful.
• The 18+ part of your profile can tell something about your sex life. It is only stored with your explicit consent, which you give with a separate box in that section: Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR, together with Art. 6(1)(a). You can take it back at any time with "Remove everything" in Settings > Profile; what was shown before stays lawful.
• Server logs and backups: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, to keep the server secure and running.

A name is all you need to chat. Without an account there are no direct messages or friends, and if you leave out the optional details, others just see less about you.

12Your rights

You can ask what is stored about you, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to its use, and take it with you. Members can do two of these themselves in Settings:

• Download my data: everything stored about your account as a file.
• Delete my account: removes your account, profile, picture, friends, direct messages and room messages for good. Rooms you own go to their room admins or mods, or are closed.

For everything else, and for guests, write to the contact above (guests: tell us the name and the time you used, so we can find the right identity). You get an answer within one month. Where processing is based on legitimate interest, you can object to it. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, for example the one where you live.

13Age

You need to be at least 16 to use this site (see the terms of use). Rooms marked 18+ are for adults only. Members see them only after turning on 18+ / NSFW, which needs a birthday that makes you 18 or older (or a team verification as an adult); guests never see them.