TLChat utilizes
state-of-the-art security and end-to-end encryption to provide private
messaging and Internet calling services to users worldwide (“Services”). Your
calls and messages are always encrypted, so they can never be shared or viewed
by anyone but yourself and the intended recipients.
TLChat 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
of your devices anytime without having to rely on third-party backups. All data
is stored heavily encrypted and the encryption keys in each case are stored in
several other data centers in different jurisdictions. This way local engineers
or physical intruders cannot get access to user data.
Secret chats use end-to-end encryption. This means that all data is
encrypted with a key that only you and the recipient know. There is no way for
us or anybody else without direct access to your device to learn what content
is being sent in those messages. We do not store your secret chats on our
servers. We also do not keep any logs for messages in secret chats, so after a
short period of time we no longer know who or when you messaged via secret
chats. For the same reasons secret chats are not available in the cloud — you
can only access those messages from the device they were sent to or from.
When you send photos, videos or files via secret chats, before
being uploaded, each item is encrypted with a separate key, not known to the
server. This key and the file’s location are then encrypted again, this time
with the secret chat’s key — and sent to your recipient. They can then download
and decipher the file. This means that the file is technically on one of TLChat’s servers, but it looks like a piece of random
indecipherable garbage to everyone except for you and the recipient. We don’t
know what this random data stands for and we have no idea which particular chat
it belongs to. We periodically purge this random data from our servers to save
disk space.
In addition to private messages, TLChat
also supports public channels and public groups. All public chats are cloud
chats. Like everything on TLChat, the data you post
in public communities is encrypted, both in storage and in transit — but
everything you post in public will be accessible to everyone.\
Your data is stored in data centers. These are third-party provided data centers in which TLChat
rents a designated space. However, the servers and networks that sit inside
these data centers and on which your personal data is stored are owned by TLChat. As such, we do not share your personal data with such
data centers. All data is stored heavily encrypted so that local TLChat engineers or physical intruders cannot get access.
Your messages, media and files from secret chats, as well as the
contents of your calls and the data you store are processed only on your
device and on the device of your recipient. Before this data reaches our
servers, it is encrypted with a key known only to you and the recipient. While TLChat servers will handle this end-to-end encrypted data
to deliver it to the recipient, we have no ways of deciphering the actual
information. In this case, we neither store nor process your personal data,
rather we store and process random sequences of symbols that have no meaning
without the keys which we don’t have.
Unless stated otherwise in this Privacy Policy, the personal
data that you provide us will only be stored for as long as it is necessary for
us to fulfill our obligations in respect of the provision of the Services.
TLChat is a cloud service. We will process your data to deliver your
cloud chat history, including messages, media and files, to any devices of your
choosing without a need for you to use third-party backups or cloud storage.
To improve the security of your account, as well as to
prevent spam, abuse, and other violations of our Terms of Service, we may
collect metadata such as your IP address, devices and TLChat
apps you've used, history of username changes, etc. If collected, this metadata
can be kept for 12 months maximum.
To prevent phishing, spam and other kinds of abuse and
violations of TLChat’s Terms of Service, our
moderators may check messages that were reported to them by their recipients.
If a spam report on a message you sent is confirmed by our moderators, your
account may be limited from contacting strangers – temporarily or permanently.
In case of more serious violations, your account may be banned. We may also use
automated algorithms to analyze messages in cloud chats to stop spam and
phishing.
The only cookies we use are those to operate and provide our
Services on the web. We do not use cookies for profiling or advertising. The
cookies we use are small text files that allow us to provide and customize our
Services, and in doing so provide you with an enhanced user experience. Your
browser should allow you to control these cookies, including whether or not to
accept them and how to remove them.