Privacy Policy

The short version

You sign in with an email; nobody in a room ever sees it. In rooms you are only an anonymous username. We don't sell your data, and we don't use what you write to target advertising.

What we collect

• Email address — used to send you sign-in links and digest emails (on by default; email us to turn them off). Never shown to other users.
• Your answers to "what have you needed to talk about?" — never shown to other members. They are stored and processed automatically (including by AI) to match you to rooms and to detect crisis situations.
• Room messages and journal entries — stored so the product works.
• Usage events (like completing onboarding or joining a room) and standard, privacy-respecting web analytics.
• Payment details if you subscribe — handled by Stripe. We never see your card number.

How we use it

To match you into rooms, run conversations, send you the emails you asked for, keep rooms safe (moderation), and improve the product. Your private answers and messages are processed by AI models — including third-party AI providers — to do the matching and power AI features. Some rooms may include AI participants in the conversation.

Ads

The free plan may show sponsored placements in rooms whose topics are rated appropriate for advertising. Placements are based on the room's topic — not on the content of your answers or messages — and we don't sell your personal information to advertisers.

Who we share it with

Only the service providers we need to run needed.chat: Supabase (database and authentication), Vercel (hosting and analytics), OpenAI (AI matching and features), Stripe (payments), and Resend (email delivery). Each receives only what it needs to do its job. We may also disclose information if the law requires it or to prevent serious harm.

Anonymity, honestly stated

Anonymity here means other members can't see who you are. It doesn't mean zero data exists: we (and the providers above) store your email and content as described so the service can function. Staff access to content is limited to what moderation and support require.

Retention and deletion

We keep your data while your account is active. To delete your account and its data, email terriskenlin@gmail.com from your sign-in address and we'll remove it from our active systems within 30 days. Copies may persist for a limited time in backups and with our service providers on their own deletion schedules, and we keep records we're legally required to keep (like payment records).

Cookies

We use cookies only to keep you signed in (Supabase authentication). Vercel Analytics collects aggregate page-view data; it does not use advertising cookies. We don't run third-party ad trackers.

Children

needed.chat is for adults 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18; if we learn we have, we delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we'll post the update here and change the date at the top.

Contact

Privacy questions: terriskenlin@gmail.com. See also our Terms of Service.