Privacy Policy

Effective: July 19, 2026 Last updated: November 2, 2026

What's changed

November 2, 2026: Clarified what a report about a person includes, that report emails may be kept longer than reports on our servers, and when a block ends.

October 31, 2026: Added in-app reporting and blocking: what a report contains, who receives it, and how long reports and blocks are kept.

October 27, 2026: Direct messages are now stored on our servers until the chat expires. We added how to delete your account and what that removes, and clarified that the Android app requires an account, what notifications contain, your Alerts list, what’s stored on your device, and that messages are not end-to-end encrypted.

Void Chat (“Void”) is a disposable group chat built for messaging in the moment.

This policy covers avoid.chat, the Void web app at app.avoid.chat (formerly try.avoid.chat, which now redirects there; including when you install it to your home screen), and the Void Chat Android app.

This policy explains what information Void collects, why we collect it, who helps us process it, and what happens when a room expires.

Void is an early-stage service operated by Kat Lai. In this policy, “Void,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the operator of the Void website and chat service.

Questions and privacy requests can be sent to kat@avoid.chat.

In short

You don’t need an account to create or join a chat on the web. The Void Chat Android app requires an account.
Messages, including direct messages, are stored on our servers while a chat is active and deleted when it expires.
Void is not end-to-end encrypted. Messages are encrypted in transit, but our server can read them.
Some information may remain on your device, with analytics and error-reporting providers, or in technical logs.
You can delete your account at any time in the app or by email. See how.
Analytics only run if you allow them.
We do not sell your personal information.
Waitlist emails are used only for the Void communications described below.

1. What we collect

We collect only the information needed to operate Void, understand how it is used, communicate with interested users, and improve the product.

When you use a room

Depending on the features you use, we may process:

Your display name or alias
Room names, timers, and settings
Group messages, direct messages, reactions, replies, edits, and other room activity
An optional contact line you choose to share with the chat (kept in server memory, not in our database, and removed when you leave or the chat ends)
Room codes, invitation information, and session identifiers
Participant presence and connection status
Push-notification subscriptions, when enabled
Reports you make (the reason, an optional note, and a copy of the reported messages), and the people you block in a chat

On the web, you do not need to create an account or provide an email address to create or join a room.

Accounts

On the web, accounts are optional. The Void Chat Android app requires one. Accounts are provided by Clerk. Clerk stores your email address, name, sign-in details, an optional profile photo, and your preferred display name. You can sign in with Google, in which case Google shares your name, email address, and profile photo with Clerk.

Void’s own database stores, for your account:

A list of the chats you joined while signed in, so you can reopen them on another device. It links your account to your seat in each chat and contains no messages.
Your Alerts list: mentions, replies, and announcements, with the chat’s name and code, the sender’s display name, and the time. It contains no message text, keeps your 100 most recent alerts, and stays until you delete your account.
Your notification settings
Push notification registrations for your devices

Your identity inside a chat still comes from the display name you use there. Void does not support file or image uploads inside chats.

Information stored on your device

Void uses browser storage to keep rooms working. Your browser or the Void app may store:

A list of your active chats: room code, room name, display name, expiration, and when you last opened it. It contains no messages.
Per-room identity and session information used to reconnect you to a chat
A copy of group messages and of your direct messages, for chats you’re still in
For 48 hours after a chat expires, a read-only copy of its group messages (Recently Expired). Direct messages aren’t included; Void deletes its device copy of them once the app sees the chat has expired.
Contact lines participants chose to share
A room key left over from an earlier encryption feature. It is not used to encrypt messages.
Notification, install, theme, and similar preferences
Analytics identifiers and your analytics choice

Invite links contain the room code. If an invite link contains a key after “#”, that part stays on your device and isn’t sent to our server.

Void clears this data from a device when you delete your account. In the Android app, it’s also cleared when you sign out or a different account signs in. On the website, signing out keeps it, because people using Void without an account rely on it. You can clear it yourself by clearing site data for app.avoid.chat (and try.avoid.chat, if you used Void there before).

Waitlist information

When you join the Void waitlist, we collect your email address.

We use it to send:

A welcome email
An invitation to the optional Void Telegram group
A launch announcement

We do not intend to use the waitlist for unrelated promotional email.

You can unsubscribe through an email’s unsubscribe link or by contacting kat@avoid.chat.

Feedback

You may voluntarily provide feedback through:

Optional PostHog in-app surveys, when shown
Optional emoji feedback inside Void
A Google Form linked from the product
An email sent directly to us

You may occasionally be shown an optional PostHog survey, and you may also voluntarily submit an emoji reaction inside Void. Emoji feedback records only a normalized sentiment category, such as positive, neutral, or negative. Other feedback forms may include ratings, written comments, and any information you choose to include. Please do not submit highly sensitive personal information through a feedback form.

Analytics and technical information

When you use Void, we and our service providers may process limited technical information such as:

Browser and operating-system information
Device and screen information
Pages or product areas visited
Selected actions taken inside the product
Analytics identifiers and consent choices
Approximate timestamps and referral information
IP-address information processed by hosting or infrastructure providers

Void uses consent-based PostHog analytics to understand usage patterns. This may include visits to pages and routes, interactions with landing-page features, successful email signups, opening the product, creating and joining rooms, intentional departures, being removed from rooms, rooms ending because a timer expired or a host ended them, and optional emoji feedback.

We do not use analytics or feedback tools to collect message contents, room names, room codes, display names, contact information shared within a room, optional written feedback, or other user-generated chat content.

Void uses selected PostHog events rather than general autocapture or session replay.

We don’t link analytics to your account.

You choose whether to allow analytics on the website and in the Android app. Until you choose Allow, Void sends no product analytics. You can change your choice under Help → Privacy & Analytics → Analytics Preferences.

Our server also counts when a chat ends (timer or host ended). That count isn’t linked to any person, device, or chat.

Error reports are sent to Sentry without asking first, because we need them to keep Void working. They’re stripped of message contents, room codes, display names, contact lines, and page addresses.

Notifications

On the web, Void offers notifications only after you install it to your home screen (the installed web app), not in a regular browser tab. Your browser’s push service (for example Google for Chrome, Apple for Safari, or Mozilla for Firefox) delivers them. In the Android app, Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging delivers them.

A notification can include the chat’s name, the sender’s display name, and a preview of the message (up to 500 characters). That content passes through the push service to reach your device, and your phone may show it on the lock screen depending on your settings.

Void stores your device’s push registration with your account, or for a guest with the chat and display name it belongs to. We remove it when you turn notifications off, sign out, the registration stops working, the chat ends, or you delete your account.

2. How we use information

We use information to:

Create and operate temporary rooms
Deliver messages and room activity
Manage participant access and host controls
Provide optional direct messaging and push notifications
Expire and delete rooms
Prevent spam, abuse, and security incidents
Diagnose errors and maintain the service
Understand which product features are useful
Review feedback and improve Void
Send the limited waitlist communications described above
Comply with applicable law and valid legal requests

We do not sell personal information.

We do not use chat messages for advertising.

3. Why we are allowed to process it

Where European data-protection law applies, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases.

Providing the service

We process room, participant, session, and message information because it is necessary to provide the service you request when you create, join, or participate in a room.

Consent

We rely on consent when you:

Accept optional analytics
Join the waitlist
Enable push notifications
Submit feedback
Voluntarily share contact information

You may withdraw your consent at any time.

Legitimate interests

We may process limited operational and technical information where reasonably necessary to:

Protect Void and its users
Prevent spam and misuse
Diagnose technical problems
Maintain and improve the product
Understand broad product usage

When relying on legitimate interests, we consider whether those interests are outweighed by users’ privacy rights.

Legal obligations

We may process or preserve information when required to comply with applicable law, valid legal process, or obligations relating to security and user safety.

4. What happens when a room expires

When your room expires:

The room reaches the end of its timer and becomes read-only for about 30 seconds.
Void then deletes the room, its group messages, its direct messages, its participant records, and the links from accounts to that room.
The room code and invitation link stop providing access to the room.

A host may also end a room early.

While a room is active, its details, group messages, direct messages, and participant records are stored in Void’s PostgreSQL database so the chat can work.

Room expiration removes that information from Void’s active application storage. However, it may not immediately remove every related copy from every system.

Limited information may remain:

In a participant’s browser storage
On your device for up to 48 hours, as a read-only copy of the group messages (Recently Expired)
In your Alerts list, which keeps the chat’s name and the sender’s display name, but no message text
In analytics records
In feedback submissions
In infrastructure, security, or diagnostic logs
With service providers under their own retention practices
Where preservation is legally required
In screenshots, copied text, or records saved by another participant

Void cannot delete information that another participant has independently copied or saved.

A note about message privacy

Group messages and direct messages are encrypted in transit (HTTPS), but they are stored in a form Void’s server can read. Void is not an end-to-end encrypted messaging service.

Direct messages can be retrieved only by their sender and recipient. Hosts can’t read other people’s direct messages. Void’s operator does not read messages, except when needed to investigate a report of abuse, keep the service secure, or comply with the law.

When you report a message or a person in the app, Void’s operator receives a copy of the reported message, or for a report about a person, their 3 most recent group messages and up to 5 direct messages they sent you. The report also includes the chat’s name and code, both display names, the reason you chose, and any note you add. The person you report isn’t told. Reports are deleted from our servers after 90 days; copies of the report email may be kept longer in Void’s email account and by Loops.

Don’t use Void to share passwords, financial credentials, government identification numbers, detailed medical records, or other information that needs a highly secure or end-to-end encrypted service.

5. How long we keep information

We aim to keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

Our general retention approach is:

Rooms, group messages, and participant records: Until the room expires or its host ends it, plus about 30 seconds of read-only time.
Direct messages: Stored on our servers until the room expires or its host ends it, then deleted. A participant who leaves as a guest can no longer retrieve them.
Optional room contact line: In server memory until you leave or the room ends.
Account information: Until you delete your account.
Account chat list: Until the chat ends, or you delete your account.
Alerts list: Your 100 most recent alerts, until you delete your account.
Notification settings: Until you delete your account.
Push registrations: Until you turn notifications off, sign out, the registration stops working, the chat ends, or you delete your account.
Waitlist email addresses: Until launch communications are complete, you unsubscribe, or you request deletion.
Feedback: For as long as reasonably useful for reviewing and improving the product.
Product analytics: For as long as reasonably necessary to understand and improve Void, subject to PostHog’s applicable retention practices.
Infrastructure and security logs: For a limited time under Railway’s log retention. They may include room names and display names.
Reports: On our servers, 90 days after the report is made, even if the chat has already expired, so it can still be reviewed. Copies of the report email may be kept longer in Void’s email account and by Loops.
Blocks: Until the chat ends, or until either of you leaves it as a guest or is removed.
Recently Expired copy on your device: 48 hours after the chat expires.
Other information on your device: Until cleared by Void, you, or your browser.

We may retain limited information longer where reasonably necessary to investigate misuse, resolve a dispute, protect the service, or comply with law.

6. Services we rely on

Void uses third-party providers to operate the service.

Railway

Railway hosts the Void app, its PostgreSQL database, and avoid.chat. Railway processes app traffic, stored chat and account data, IP addresses, and technical logs.

PostHog

PostHog provides product analytics, optional in-app surveys, and support for Void’s optional emoji feedback.

Void uses PostHog’s European Union cloud environment. PostHog may process selected analytics activity, analytics identifiers, technical properties, optional survey responses, and normalized emoji feedback categories. PostHog receives nothing unless you allow analytics, except the anonymous chat-ended count described above.

Clerk

Clerk provides sign-in and accounts. Clerk receives your email address, name, profile photo (if you add one), preferred display name, sign-in details, and the IP address and device information it uses to keep sign-in secure.

Google sign-in

If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address, and profile photo with Clerk.

Sentry

Sentry receives error reports: technical details such as browser, device, the general area of the app (for example “chat”), and the error itself, with chat content, room codes, and display names removed. Void doesn’t use Sentry session replay.

Loops

Loops stores waitlist email addresses and sends Void’s welcome, Telegram invitation, and launch communications. When someone reports content in the app, Loops also delivers the report email to Void’s operator, including a copy of the reported messages.

Google Forms

Google processes information you voluntarily enter into Void’s extended feedback form according to Google’s applicable privacy practices.

Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google)

Delivers Android app notifications. It receives your device’s notification token and the notification content described under Notifications.

Web push services

Your browser’s push service receives your subscription details and the notification content described under Notifications.

These providers process information for the services they provide to Void. We do not sell personal information to them.

7. Cookies and browser storage

Void uses cookies and similar browser technologies to:

Maintain room access and sessions
Remember participant and interface information
Support optional accounts and app-like PWA behavior
Store limited local room history
Support direct-message history
Remember analytics choices
Provide consent-based product analytics

Void can be installed or added to a device’s home screen and may store local information needed for that app-like experience.

Optional analytics should operate only after the applicable consent choice has been made.

You can also clear cookies and browser storage through your browser. Doing so may remove local room history, sign you out of rooms, or prevent some features from working correctly.

8. International processing

Void and its providers may process information in more than one country.

Where European personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area, the relevant provider may use approved safeguards such as an adequacy decision or the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

Where reasonably available, Void selects European processing regions, including PostHog’s EU cloud environment.

9. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

Ask whether we hold information about you
Request access to that information
Correct inaccurate information
Request deletion
Restrict or object to certain processing
Withdraw consent
Object to direct marketing
Request a portable copy of certain information
Complain to a relevant data-protection authority

These rights are subject to applicable legal limitations.

Because Void does not require accounts for every room, we may sometimes have limited ability to determine which information belongs to a particular person. We may ask for enough information to locate and verify a request, but we will not ask for more than reasonably necessary.

To make a request, email kat@avoid.chat.

To delete your account, see Deleting your account below.

10. Deleting your account

You can delete your Void Chat account at any time:

In the Android app: Home → ? (Help) → Privacy & Analytics → Delete account.
On the web at app.avoid.chat: your profile photo → Help → Privacy & Analytics → Delete account.
By email: write to kat@avoid.chat from your account’s email address. We’ll delete it within 30 days.

Deleting your account removes your sign-in and profile (including your profile photo), your account’s chat list, Alerts, notification settings, and push registrations, and clears Void’s chats from the device you delete from. Messages you already sent stay in their chats until those chats expire, then are deleted with them. Analytics and error reports aren’t linked to your account and are kept under PostHog’s and Sentry’s retention periods.

Full details and steps: avoid.chat/delete-account.

11. Children’s privacy

Void is not intended for anyone under 16, or under the minimum age required to use online services where they live.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe someone under that age has provided personal information through Void, contact kat@avoid.chat so we can review and delete it.

12. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures intended to protect information against unauthorized access, loss, alteration, and misuse.

However, no online service is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed, disclosed, altered, or lost.

You are responsible for deciding what information is appropriate to share with other room participants.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Void changes.

When we update it, we will:

Revise the Last updated date
Update the What’s changed notice at the top
Summarize material changes in plain language

For significant changes, we may also provide a notice on the website, inside the product, or by email where appropriate.

Questions?

For questions, concerns, or privacy requests, contact:

kat@avoid.chat

We are happy to explain how Void works and hear where we can do better.