Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 26, 2025

Your privacy is fundamentally important to us. Sidechat is designed from the ground up to be "privacy-first." This policy outlines exactly what data we collect, and more importantly, what we don't.

The Data We Collect

To provide our service, we collect the absolute minimum information necessary:

  • Detected Topic Category: We analyze your prompt locally in your browser to determine a general topic (e.g., "coding," "writing"). Only this resulting topic string is sent to our servers to place you in the correct chat room.
  • Anonymous User ID: When you first use Sidechat, the extension generates a random, anonymous identifier (e.g., "user_1729012345_abc123"). This is not linked to your Google account, email, or any personal information. It is used solely to identify you within the chat room.
  • Generated Nickname: A random nickname (e.g., "SwiftEagle42") is created for you to use in the chat. You can change this, but it is not linked to any real-world identity.

The Data We Explicitly DO NOT Collect

We believe in data minimization, which is why we will never collect, store, or have access to the following:

  • Your ChatGPT Prompts: The content of your prompts is never sent to our servers. Topic detection happens entirely within your browser.
  • Your ChatGPT Conversation History: We do not read, record, or store any of your interactions with ChatGPT.
  • Personal Information: We do not require you to create an account. We do not collect your name, email address, IP address, or any other personally identifiable information.

How We Use Your Data

The limited data we collect is used exclusively for the following purposes:

  • To place you into a relevant, topic-based chat room.
  • To display your messages in that chat room with your anonymous user ID and nickname.
  • To understand which topics are most popular so we can improve our service (e.g., "25 users are in the 'coding' room").

Data Retention and Deletion

All chat messages sent within Sidechat rooms are ephemeral. All messages are automatically and permanently deleted from our servers after 24 hours. Your anonymous user ID is stored locally in your browser's storage and can be cleared at any time by uninstalling the extension or clearing your browser data.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any significant changes. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@sidechat.dev.