Terms of Service

Chatters;
September 12, 2024: It was updated for users of your country in order to comply with territorial restrictions when displaying advertisements in countries with a large number of Russian-language channels.
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy defines how we, Chatters, a social business communication platform (hereinafter referred to as "chatters"), use and protect your personal data provided by you or otherwise obtained or generated by us in connection with your use of our cloud messaging services (hereinafter referred to as "Services"). As part of this Privacy Policy, the pronouns "we" and "our" refer to chatters, and "You" and "Your" refer to you as a consumer of Services.
1.1. Principles of confidentiality
Chatters adheres to two fundamental principles in the collection and processing of personal data:

• We do not use your correspondence data to serve ads.
• We store only the data that is necessary for the correct operation of chatters as a reliable and multifunctional messaging service.
1.2. User Agreement
This Privacy Policy is part of the chatters User Agreement, which defines the terms of use of our Services. Therefore, this Privacy Policy should be considered in conjunction with the User Agreement available at https:// chatters.app
1.3. Content
This Privacy Policy defines:
• on what legal grounds do we process personal data;
• which of your personal data may we collect;
• how do we ensure the security of personal data;
• for what purposes we may use personal data;
• to whom personal data may be transferred; and
• what rights do you have with respect to your personal data.
2. Legal grounds for processing personal data
The basis for processing your personal data is its necessity for the realization of our legitimate interests (including (1) the provision of effective and modern Services to users and (2) the identification, suppression and other measures to prevent fraud or security threats in connection with the provision of Services by us), except in cases where your interests prevail over our interests or fundamental rights and freedoms that require the protection of personal data.
3. Types of personal data that we use
3.1. Basic Account Information
chatters is a service for communication. When you create an account in chatters, you provide a phone number and basic account information (for example, name, profile picture, and brief information about the user).
Your chosen profile name, profile photos, and username (if you choose to set one) are always available to other chatters users to make it easier for your contacts and others to get to know you or contact you. We do not ask for your real name, gender, age, or preferences.
The display name does not have to match your real name. Please note that the user who added you to the contacts will see you not under the name you specified, but under the one that he saved for your number in his contact list. For example, your father can specify the name "Alexander S.", but for you he will be displayed as "Dad", and for subordinates — as "Boss" (or under any other name, depending on how the interlocutor writes him down in his contact list).
3.2. Email address
When you enable two-step authentication for your account or save documents in the chatters Passport service, you can specify an email address for password recovery. This address is used exclusively to send the code as part of the procedure for recovering a forgotten password. We don't do annoying mailings like "You haven't visited us for a long time" and we don't send promotional emails.
Starting in September 2022, we may request an email address from some users to send account login codes via email instead of SMS (with the option to "Log in with Google" / "Log in with Apple ID"). This email address is stored separately from the password recovery email and is only used to send codes when logging in to your account. The email address for logging into the account is stored until a new address is specified or the account is deleted.
3.3. Your messages
3.3.1. Cloud Chats
chatters is a cloud service. We store messages, photos, videos and documents from your cloud chats on our servers so that you can access your data from any device at any time without resorting to third-party backup services. All this data is securely encrypted, and the encryption keys are stored in several data centers located in different jurisdictions. Thus, technical personnel in any of the data centers or intruders (for example, in the case of penetration into the data center) will not be able to access user data.
3.3.2. Secret chats
Secret chats use end-to-end encryption. This means that all the data in them is encrypted using a key that only you and your interlocutor have. No one, including us, can find out the contents of the correspondence in such chats without direct access to your device. We do not store secret chats on our servers. We also do not keep records of sending messages in secret chats, and after a short period of time we do not have any information about who and when you sent messages in such chats. For the same reason, secret chats are not available in cloud storage — messages in them can only be viewed on the device from which they were sent or to which they were sent.
3.3.3. Media files in secret chats
When you send photos, videos, and other files in a secret chat, each of these files is encrypted with a separate key unknown to the server before uploading. This key and the file location are then encrypted again, this time with the secret chat key, and sent to the recipient. The recipient can download and decrypt the file. Thus, technically, the file is located on one of the chatters servers, but for everyone except you and your interlocutor, it looks like a meaningless set of characters that cannot be deciphered. We do not know what is hidden behind these random symbols, nor what kind of chat they belong to. From time to time, we clear the servers of this data to free up space.
3.3.4. Public chats
In addition to private messages, chatters supports public channels and groups. All public chats belong to cloud chats (see point 3.3.1). The information that you publish in public communities is encrypted — like all data in chatters — both during storage and transmission, but your public messages are available to all users.
3.4. Phone number and contact list
In chatters, phone numbers play the role of unique identifiers. With the help of phone numbers, you can easily transfer communication to chatters instead of using SMS and other messengers, while maintaining the same social circle. We ask for permission before syncing your contacts.
We keep up-to-date information about your contacts in order to inform you when one of them registers in chatters, and correctly display names in notifications. To do this, we only need a number, first name and last name; we do not store any other data about your contacts.
Our automated algorithms can also analyze anonymized sets of phone numbers in order to approximately calculate the number of possible contacts in chatters from an unregistered potential user. When you select the "Invite friends" option in the settings, these statistics are displayed next to your contact list so that you can evaluate who might be most interested in registering with chatters.
You can disable contact synchronization or delete them from our servers at any time in Settings > Privacy > Data Management.
On Android devices, chatters requests permission to access the call log (READ_CALL_LOG). If you give this permission, chatters will be able to confirm your account login details with a phone call instead of asking you to enter a code. Access to the call log is used only so that chatters can record the receipt of a confirmation call to log in to the account.
3.5. Location data
If you share your location in a chat, your location data is processed similarly to other messages in cloud or secret chats, respectively.
If you enable geo—location broadcasting in any chat or the "Show me here" function in the "People nearby" section, chatters will use this data to show your location to those users with whom you have shared it, even when the application is closed - as long as these additional functions are enabled.
3.6. Cookies
We use only those cookies that are necessary for us to work and provide Services over the Internet. We do not use cookies to create a user profile or display ads based on your preferences. The cookies we use are small text files that allow us to provide and personalize Services, thereby improving your user experience. Internet browsers usually allow you to manage your cookie settings, including the ability to accept or reject their use, as well as delete them. You can block cookies in your browser, but in this case you will not be able to log in to chatters Web.
4. Security of personal data
4.1. Data storage
If you have registered with chatters from Europe, your data is stored in data centers in the Netherlands. These data centers are owned by third-party organizations, and chatters rents dedicated space in them. At the same time, servers and networks hosted in such data centers containing your personal data are the property of chatters. We do not share your personal data with data centers. All data is securely encrypted, and neither the local chatters technical staff nor intruders (for example, in case of penetration into the data center) can access them.
4.2. Data protected by end-to-end encryption
Your messages, multimedia and other files from secret chats (see paragraph 3.3.2 above), as well as the contents of your calls and the data that you store in chatters Passport, are processed only on your device and the device of the interlocutor. All this data gets to our servers already encrypted; at the same time, only you and your interlocutor have the key to decrypt it. Although chatters servers perform the necessary actions with end—to-end encrypted data to transfer to the recipient - or, in the case of chatters Passport, to store them — we do not have the technical ability to decrypt them. Thus, we do not store and process your personal data as such, but random sequences of characters that make no sense without encryption keys — which we do not have.
4.3. Data retention period
Unless otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy, the personal data you provide is stored only as long as it is necessary for us to fulfill our obligations to provide Services.
5. Processing of personal data
5.1. Our
chatters Services are a cloud service. We process your data to provide you with access to cloud chats, including message history, multimedia and files, on any device of your choice without having to resort to third-party backup services or cloud storage services.
5.2. Safety and Security
There are huge communities in chatters that we need to protect from abuse and violations of the User Agreement. In addition, chatters has an audience of over 700 million users, which makes it an attractive target for spammers. In order to better protect your account, as well as to prevent spam, abuse and other violations of the User Agreement, we may collect metadata: for example, your IP address, information about chatter devices and applications that you have used, the history of username changes and similar information. Such metadata, if collected, is stored for no more than 12 months.
5.3. Spam and abuse
In order to combat fraud (phishing), spam and other types of abuse and violations of the chatters User Agreement, our moderators can check messages that receive complaints from recipients. If, after verification, the moderators confirm that your message is spam, your account may be restricted — temporarily or indefinitely. During the period of restrictions, you will not be able to contact users not from the contact list. You can challenge the moderators' decision via the @Spambot bot. In case of more serious violations, your account may be completely blocked. In order to combat spam and phishing, we can also use automated algorithms to analyze messages in cloud chats.
5.4. Working on multiple devices at the same time
We may also store some summary metadata to create chatters functions (see paragraph 5.5 below) that are available simultaneously on all your devices.
5.5. Advanced Features
We can create new useful features using some summary data about how you use chatters. For example, if you open the chat search, you will see contacts you often write to in the field at the top of the screen. For this function to work, we identify the users to whom you most often send messages. A similar rating is calculated for inline bots (embedded bots) so that the application can guess which bots you are most likely to use in the attachment menu (or when you start a new message with the "@" symbol). If you want to disable this feature and delete the relevant data, you can go to Settings > Privacy > Data Management and disable the "Prompt people when searching" option.
5.6. No ads based on correspondence data
Unlike other Internet services, we do not use your correspondence data to serve ads based on your preferences or for other commercial purposes. chatters stores only the data that it needs to work correctly as a reliable and functional cloud service.
chatters offers advertisers a platform for placing advertising messages in large channels (from 1000 subscribers or more), but the content of such messages depends only on the topic of the channels. No data of your correspondence is collected or analyzed to display advertisements or promotional messages.
The functionality of the advertising platform does not apply to users with a chatters Premium subscription.
5.6.1. Enhanced advertising opportunities in some countries
, the data on the basis of which certain ads are displayed is never transmitted to third parties (including advertisers).
The functionality of the advertising platform does not apply to users with a chatters Premium subscription, and the data specified in this paragraph is not processed for them.
Ads may be placed in large channels (from 1000 subscribers or more), which depend on the language of the messages — however, the same language is often used in several neighboring countries. To avoid displaying inappropriate ads, advertisers are provided with the ability to display ads depending on approximately certain countries and cities, which include the user's phone prefix or IP address (no other geolocation data is used for these purposes). This, in particular, allows advertisers to avoid displaying ads in a certain country or in certain territories (for example, if the advertiser creates an ad for Russian-speaking users, but would not like it to be displayed in Russia).
If you subscribe to a sufficient number of large public channels on a specific topic (for example, Finance, Politics and Incidents, or Humor), you can see ads for channels in this category in other major channels as well.
The advertiser can send us an impersonal list of encrypted identifiers based on phone numbers (but not containing the phone numbers themselves) in order to determine the range of users to whom certain ads will be shown in major channels. This prevents any third parties, including advertisers, from knowing your phone number or ID in chatters.
6. Взаимодействие с ботами
6.1. Ecosystem
chatters provides access to an API through which developers can create their own bots. Bots are programs that can be embedded directly into the chatters interface: You can correspond with them by selecting them from the chat list, add them to groups, or use a special built-in interface to access their functions directly from the input field in your chats ("inline bot"). To perform any of the listed actions, it is necessary to send part of your data to the third-party developers of the corresponding bot.
6.2. Methods of obtaining data by bots
Bot developers can get your data when you interact with bots, namely:

• send messages to the bot;
• using an inline bot;
• you are a member of the group to which the bot has been added;
• click on the buttons in the messages sent by the bot;
• you pay for goods and services using a bot (see point 7 below).
6.3. Data that bots can collect
In any of the cases listed in the previous paragraph, the developers of an automated user (bot) can obtain public information about your account (see paragraph 3.1 above): your chosen name, username, and profile photos.
Bots can also collect the following data when you interact with them:

• Bots, of course, receive the messages you send them.
• If you click on links or click on buttons in the bot's messages, it can find out your IP address (provided that the bot is directly linked to the site to which the link leads).
• If you are in the same group with the bot, it may know that you are a member of it.
• When you start a message with a username that belongs to an inline bot (for example, @gif, the interface changes, and everything you type in the input line becomes a request to that bot. This request is sent to the bot so that it can perform its function. We will warn you about this when using the inline bot for the first time.
• Bots added to the group can work in two modes: with or without access to the messages in it. Bots with access to messages can see everything that happens in the group. The list of group members indicates whether the bot has access to messages in it.
6.4. Third-party bots are independent of chatters
With the exception of our own bots, no other bots and their developers are affiliated with chatters. They are completely independent of us. They must ask your permission before they can access your data or data from you.
7. Third-party payment services
7.1. Payment information
Starting with chatters 1.0, a platform for accepting payments via bots is available to users. chatters does not process payments made by users: this function is performed by various payment systems around the world. These payment systems process and store your bank card data themselves. Neither chatters nor sellers of goods and services (bot developers) have access to this data. Despite the fact that we use the services of payment systems, they are completely independent of chatters. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies of such payment systems before transferring your data to them.
7.2. Bank card details
When making a purchase, you enter your bank card details in the interface of the payment system that processes the payment. Then this information is sent directly to the server of the payment system. Your bank card data is never sent to chatters servers, we do not have access to them and we do not store them at home. If you save your bank card data, they will be stored on the servers of the corresponding payment system, and the system, in turn, will provide chatters with a token (electronic key), which you can later use for new payments. It is impossible to restore your bank card data using this token.
7.3 Delivery Information
When you place an order and enter the information required for delivery, we send it directly to the developer of the seller bot. You can save this information in chatters if you don't want to re-enter it when shopping in the future. An easy way to delete this information is available in the application interface.
7.4. Deletion of payment data
You can delete all payment data associated with your account at any time. To do this, in the chatters application, just go to Settings > Privacy > Data Management and select the option "Delete payment data". If you decide to clear your payment data, we will delete all information we hold necessary for the delivery of goods and tokens from all payment systems, as well as send requests to payment system operators to delete all your bank card data stored by them.
7.5. Contesting payments
chatters does not store bank card data and transaction information, so we cannot consider claims or claims for a refund of funds paid. All controversial issues about payments are the responsibility of the developers of bots, payment systems and banks involved in the operation.
8. Persons to whom your personal data may be transferred
8.1. Other chatters users
Other B chatters users are defined as users with whom you communicate and share information at will. Please note that by accepting the User Agreement and communicating with other chatters users, you instruct us to transfer your personal data to such users on your behalf in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We take all appropriate technical and organizational measures (including encryption of personal data) to ensure a level of data security that meets the possible risks.
8.2. Chatters Group companies
In order to provide, improve and support our Services, we may share your personal data with: (1) our parent company chatters Group Inc., registered in the British Virgin Islands, (2) chatters Inc., a chatters Group company also registered in the BVI, and (3) chatters FZ-LLC, a group company chatters registered in Dubai. We take appropriate measures to ensure the safety and security of this personal data, consisting in the application of Standard Contractual Clauses, approved by the European Commission, in agreements with other companies of the chatters group.
8.3. Translation of chats, channels and individual messages at the user's request
Users can translate individual text messages into another language by selecting the "Translate" option in the messages pop-up menu (to use this feature, you must first enable message translation in Settings > Language in the chatters app). Users with a chatters Premium subscription can also optionally enable automatic real-time translation in any chat, group, or channel.
To enable automatic translation of messages at the user's request, chatters may use the services of a third party, Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, so the text of the original messages can be transferred to Google for their translation. Google gets access to the data of the original messages only for the purpose of providing translation and cannot use this data in its other products and services or for advertising purposes.
8.4. Decryption of voice and video messages at the user's request
Some users can convert voice or video messages to text by clicking the voice recognition button ("-> A") next to such a message (to use this option, you must first subscribe to chatters Premium in Settings > chatters Premium).
To ensure that a voice message or video message can be converted to text at the user's request, chatters may use the services of a third party, Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, so the audio data of the original voice and video messages can be transferred to Google to obtain text versions. Only audio data can be transmitted for this purpose (no other data, including the user's IP address and any account information, is transmitted). In accordance with the agreement between chatters and Google, chatters, on behalf of its users, pays for message recognition, and Google gets access to the audio data of the original messages solely to provide text versions — Google cannot create registries of audio data or their text versions and cannot use the data in its other products and services or for advertising purposes.
9. Your rights in relation to the personal data provided
9.1. Your rights
According to the current data protection legislation, in certain circumstances you have rights with respect to your personal data. You have the right to: (1) request a copy of all your personal data stored in chatters and transfer this copy to another service; (2) delete (see paragraph 10 below) or change your personal data; (3) restrict or object to the processing of your personal data; (4) correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data stored in chatters; and (5) to file a complaint with the national data protection authorities regarding our processing of your personal data.
9.2. Exercising Your rights
If you want to exercise any of these rights, you can find the necessary information in paragraph 12 below.
9.3. Data Management
You can manage the use of your data (for example, delete synchronized contacts) in Settings > Privacy (using one of our mobile apps).
If you are not ready to provide chatters with the minimum necessary data for the application to work, unfortunately, we will not be able to provide you with Services. In this case, you can delete your account on the deactivation page.
10. Data Deletion
10.1. Accounts
You can delete your chatters account on the deactivation page. When you delete your account, all your messages, media files, contacts and any other data in the chatters cloud storage will also be deleted. Account deletion must be confirmed through the application. After that, it will be impossible to restore the account.
10.2. Messages
• If you delete a message in a secret chat, this message will also be deleted on your interlocutor's device.
• You can delete a cloud chat message for all participants for at least 48 hours after sending. If more than 48 hours have passed, the message will be deleted only from your message history, and a copy of it will remain on the server as part of the recipient's message history. If the recipient also deletes this message, it will disappear forever.
• Starting with chatters 5.0, any participant in a personal chat can delete any messages — sent or received — both from themselves and from the interlocutor, without any time limits. Any participant in a private chat can also completely clear the chat history of both participants, which will delete all messages in this chat, regardless of how many messages each participant has stored.
• If you delete a message in a supergroup or channel, it will be deleted from all members of the group (subscribers of the channel). Please note that in supergroups, deleted messages and the original versions of edited messages are stored for 48 hours after deletion, as they are displayed in the admin activity log.
10.3. Deleting messages by timer
In secret chats, you can set up the deletion of messages by timer. The countdown to deletion will begin as soon as such a message is read (two checkboxes will appear next to it). After the set time has elapsed, the message (photo, video file, etc.) will be deleted on the devices of both participants of the secret chat. Media files that are automatically deleted shortly (less than a minute) after viewing are hidden under a translucent cover when received. The countdown starts at the moment when the recipient clicks on such a file to view it. In cloud chats, you can also set up automatic deletion of a message by timer.
10.4. Automatic account deletion
By default, if you do not log in to your account and do not use chatters for at least 6 months, your profile is deleted along with all messages, media files, contacts and other data that you store in the chatters cloud storage. The period after which an inactive account is automatically deleted can be changed in the Settings menu.
11. Changes to the Terms of Service
We reserve the right to review this Terms of Service and make changes to it as necessary. Any changes to this Terms of Service will take effect from the moment the new version is published on this page at https:// chatters.app/privacy. Check the page from time to time to stay informed of changes in the text of the Terms of Service.
July 8, 2023
The Terms of Service for users of your country has been updated in order to comply with territorial restrictions when displaying advertisements in countries with a large number of Russian-language channels.
We inform you about important changes to the Terms of Service in the chatters app.
12. Additional information
You can find answers to frequently asked questions in the Questions about chatters section. In addition, you can contact chatters support in Settings > Ask a question in the app (please note that chatters support is answered by volunteers).
To get a copy of your data stored in chatters, install the Chatters Desktop application on your computer and go to Settings > Advanced Settings > Export data from chatters.
chatters is an open source project. You can explore additional information at the links below:
•         API: https://core. Chatters.app/api;
• A platform for creating bots: https://core. Chatters.app /bots;
• Encryption protocol: https://Chatters.app/mtproto;
• Source code: https:// Chatters.app /apps#source-code;
You can also make sure that the chatters clients available in the app stores use exactly the source code that we publish: https://core . Chatters.app /reproducible-builds.