The short version
Who is responsible
Sonion Chat is run by S&K, the team behind Sonion Chat, in the Netherlands. We are the controller of your data under the GDPR (in Dutch: AVG).
Questions about your data, or want to use one of your rights? Email [email protected] with "Privacy" in the subject, or use the bug button in the app. We answer within one month, usually much faster.
What we store
| What | Examples |
|---|---|
| Your account | Email address, username, display name, year of birth, your password (as an unreadable hash), two-factor secret (encrypted), whether you signed up with Google. |
| Your profile | Picture, banner, bio, pronouns, status, custom status, decorations, badges, onions, connected accounts you add (like Spotify or Twitch). |
| What you post | Messages, edits, files, pictures, videos, voice messages, clips, reactions, polls, GIFs you send, emoji and stickers you upload. |
| Your connections | Servers you're in and your roles there, friends, friend requests, people you block, group chats. |
| Devices and sign-ins | For each device you're signed in on: the kind of device or browser, its IP address, and when it was last used. The network (IP address) you signed up from. |
| Activity | Online, away or do-not-disturb; that you're typing (you can turn this off); what you're listening to, only if you switch that on. |
| Safety | Reports you send or that are about you, moderation actions (warnings, timeouts, bans), automatic image checks, and bug reports you send us (with a screenshot, only if you add one). |
| Payments | Only if you buy Sonion Chat Lantern: what you bought and when. Your card or bank details go to our payment provider, never to us. |
What we don't store: voice and video calls (they pass through our server live and are never recorded, unless someone saves a clip, and you can turn off being in other people's clips), your contacts, your location, or what you do on other websites.
Why we use it
- To run Sonion Chat for you: show your messages, deliver notifications, keep you signed in. This is needed for the service you signed up for (contract, GDPR art. 6(1)(b)).
- To keep Sonion Chat safe: stop spam, mass sign-ups and raids, handle reports, and protect people from harmful content (legitimate interest, art. 6(1)(f), and legal duties such as the EU Digital Services Act).
- To send account emails: confirming your email address, resetting your password. No newsletters or marketing.
- Things you choose to switch on, like "Listening to" or connected accounts (consent, which you can withdraw any time by switching them off).
We never use your data for advertising, never sell it, and never use your messages to train AI.
Where it lives
On our own server, rented from Contabo GmbH in Germany. The database, your files and the voice server all run there. Nobody else has a copy, apart from our own backups (kept for 7 days), so a broken server doesn't mean lost data.
Who helps us
A few companies help us run Sonion Chat. They only get what they need for their job, and only for us.
| Who | What they do | What they see |
|---|---|---|
| Contabo Germany | Rents us the server Sonion Chat runs on. | Stores everything, encrypted connections only. Bound by a data processing agreement. |
| Cloudflare USA, servers worldwide | Protects Sonion Chat from attacks and delivers pages quickly. | Your IP address and the traffic between you and Sonion Chat. Covered by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contract clauses. |
| Brevo France | Sends our account emails. | Your email address and the email we send you. |
| Google only if you use it | "Continue with Google" sign-in. | That you sign in to Sonion Chat. Google tells us your name and email address. |
| KLIPY or GIPHY GIF search | The GIFs in the GIF picker. | Only what you search for. Our server asks for you, so they don't see your IP address or who you are (KLIPY gets an anonymous number instead of your account). |
| Mollie Netherlands, only if you pay | Payments for Sonion Chat Lantern. | Your payment details and email address. We never see your card or bank details. |
| Spotify, Last.fm, Twitch… only if you connect them | "Listening to" and connected accounts on your profile. | That you connected Sonion Chat. You can disconnect any time in Settings → Connections. |
Links and players from other websites
When someone posts a link, our server fetches the preview, so the linked site sees our server, not you. GIFs and preview pictures also come through our server. Video and music players (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud and others) only load when you press play: from that moment, that website's own privacy rules apply to what you watch or hear there.
Images are checked on our own server
Uploaded pictures are checked automatically for illegal and explicit content, using open-source software that runs on our server. Nothing is sent to another company for this.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account, profile and what you post | As long as you have an account, or until you delete it yourself. |
| A device you're signed in on (with its IP address) | Until you sign out, or automatically after 90 days without using it. |
| The network you signed up from | 180 days, then it's removed automatically. |
| Email links (password reset, confirm email) | Removed once used, or one day after they expire. |
| Backups | 7 days on the server, then deleted. |
| Moderation records (bans, reports) | As long as needed to keep people safe, for example so a banned network stays banned. |
When you delete your account, your profile, email address, year of birth, friends, server memberships, linked accounts and sign-ins are wiped right away. Messages you posted in servers and group chats stay in those conversations as "Deleted user", so the conversations still make sense for everyone else. Want them gone too? Delete them before you delete your account, or ask us.
How we protect it
- Encrypted connections (HTTPS) everywhere: on the website, in the apps and for calls.
- Passwords are stored as a salted scrypt hash. Nobody can turn that back into your password, not even us.
- Sign-ins: we only store a fingerprint of your sign-in code, so a copy of our database can't be used to sign in as you.
- Two-factor secrets are encrypted in the database with a separate key.
- Staff see as little as possible: only the first 4 characters of an email address, and only part of an IP address.
- The server is locked down: sign-in only with a security key, a firewall, automatic blocking of password guessers, automatic security updates, and the database is only reachable from the server itself.
- Rate limits on signing in, signing up and sending, against guessing and spam.
Honest note: messages are not end-to-end encrypted, just like on Discord, Slack or Teams. They're stored readable on our server so that search, AutoMod and reports can work. Sonion Chat staff only look at messages when they're reported or needed to handle abuse. For truly secret conversations, use an end-to-end encrypted app like Signal.
If something ever goes wrong with your data, we tell you and the Dutch Data Protection Authority as the law requires.
Your rights
- See and download your data: Settings → My account → Download my data gives you everything in one file.
- Correct it: change your profile, username and email address in Settings at any time.
- Delete it: Settings → My account → Delete account. Or delete single messages and files whenever you like.
- Object or limit: switch off "Listening to", typing, being in clips, or who can message you, in Settings → Privacy & safety.
- Take it with you: the download is a normal JSON file you can open anywhere.
- Complain: if you think we handle your data wrongly, tell us first. You can always complain to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch Data Protection Authority).
Cookies and storage
Sonion Chat doesn't use advertising or tracking cookies, and no analytics. The app keeps a few things in your browser's own storage so it works: your sign-in, your settings and appearance, and drafts of unsent messages. Cloudflare may set a small security cookie to tell people from bots. None of this follows you to other websites.
Fonts, GIFs and pictures load from our own server, not from Google or the GIF sites, so loading Sonion Chat doesn't tell those companies you're here.
Children
You need to be at least 13 to use Sonion Chat. If you're under 16, ask a parent or guardian before you sign up. If we find out an account belongs to someone under 13, we close it. Parents who think their child signed up can email us.
Changes
When Sonion Chat changes how it handles data, we update this page and the date at the top. For big changes we also tell you in the app before they start.