gooner

Privacy policy

Effective 2 October 2026 (updated 5 October 2026 for messages between accounts and photos in them; updated 6 October 2026 for deleted posts' files and report copies of profile pictures; updated 7 October 2026: the old squads are gone, hangouts replace them; a deleted hangout's public files, story replies in messages, posts you said "not interested" in, activity status, voice messages in chats, the copy of your last feed and chats list kept on your device so the app opens fast, the people you mute, your notifications, voice and video calls in chats between accounts, and your choices of who can message you, reply to your stories and comment on your posts, hiding like counts, and the lists of people you blocked or muted; updated 9 October 2026: a banned account's posts, comments, stories, likes and reactions are hidden and it leaves hangouts' member lists and member counts and followers and following lists and their numbers, and our moderators can read a banned account's posts while the ban lasts; deleted comments' and posts channels' files, files never posted, a picture of each video's first frame, and each photo's and video's size and tiny blurred preview, which is deleted with the file; updated 12 October 2026: contact details, and your IP address briefly counting random-chat searches and messages, and what a block and a mute do to follows and your home feed, and how long we keep a ban and what signing in during one does)

Who we are

gooner (chat.gooner.in, gooner.in) is run by an independent developer. In this policy, "we" means the person running gooner. You can reach us at [email protected].

Adults only

gooner is only for people aged 18 or over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we find out that a user is under 18, we remove their access and delete their data, except records we have to keep for safety or by law.

Before you first turn on your camera or share your screen in random chat, we ask for one selfie (hangout voice channels, which people join by invite, don't ask). Claude (see "AI checks" below) estimates whether it clearly shows one adult. We keep only the answer (yes or no), linked to your browser and, if you're signed in, your account. We never store the selfie. This is an estimate, not an ID check.

What we collect

When you use gooner without signing in:

• A random device id and your nickname. These are created in your browser and stored there and on our server. Your browser also remembers that you confirmed you're 18 or over.
• Messages you send in random 1:1 chats, with the time and your nickname.
• Matches: who you were matched with and when (including when you were dropped into a hangout's channel that was open to strangers), and when you started or stopped sharing your screen.
• Old squads (removed on 7 October 2026): squads made from random chats no longer exist in the app. What was recorded while they existed (members, messages, reactions, pins, polls, votes, icebreakers, shared files and stories) is kept for safety like other messages; nobody can see it in the app any more.
• Photos, short videos and voice notes you share in hangouts, or view-once in 1:1 chats. View-once files open once for each person but are kept like any other file (deleted after 30 days; 180 if reported). For short videos, we also keep three still frames that your browser takes from the video, and a picture we redraw from the first one to show before the video plays (stored with the video and deleted with it; when a video is kept for safety after a report or a delete, this picture is kept with it). For each photo and video that is not view-once we also keep its width and height and a tiny blurred preview (a few dozen bytes that hold only rough colours and shapes) in its record, so the app can draw its frame before it loads. The blurred preview is deleted when the file is (after 30 days, or when a deleted post's file moves to the safety copy); the width and height stay in the record.
• Stories you post show for 24 hours to the hangout you post them in (or, for a story on your profile, to the people allowed to see it). We keep them, who saw them, reactions and story replies for safety, like messages. When you reply or react to someone's profile story, that reply or reaction is also sent to them as a message in your chat with them (a new chat follows the usual message request rules).
• Reports and blocks. When you report someone during video, your browser sends us one still image of what you were seeing: their camera, or their shared screen if you were watching it.

If you sign in with Google, we also receive your Google account id, email address and name, and a link to your Google profile picture. We don't keep the picture link. We store the rest, plus a record of your sign-in sessions (only a scrambled version of the session key) and which browsers you've signed in on. We never see your Google password.

Hangouts. If you sign in, you can make or join hangouts. Other members of a hangout see your account name. It starts as your first name from Google and you can change it at any time. They don't see your email or Google profile picture. We keep who is in each hangout, their roles, invite links, hangout names and icons, and a log of changes (who joined, was kicked or banned, and who changed what).

Profile picture (optional). You can add a picture to your profile. We check that it is a real image, redraw it as a small square, and drop the information a camera adds (such as the place it was taken). It is shown next to your name or @username to people who are allowed to see you: not to people you blocked or who blocked you. It is shown even if your account is private (a picture cannot be private; your posts and stories can). It is never shown in a chat with a random stranger. Its address changes whenever you change or remove it, and removing it deletes it from our database. If someone reports you (your profile, a message, a comment or a chat with you) we keep a copy of your picture with the report, for safety. While an account is banned, for good or for a time, its picture is not shown, nobody else sees its posts, comments and stories, its likes and reactions on posts, comments and in hangouts are not counted, and it is left out of hangouts' member lists and member counts, of followers and following lists and their numbers, and of the list of who saw your story (all of it comes back if the ban ends; an anonymous post stays up, so a ban never shows who wrote it, and we remove a bad one by hand). While the ban lasts, our moderators can still read the account's posts, to decide on lifting the ban and to remove a post that breaks our rules. We can remove a picture that breaks our rules. We keep a ban with the account, and for a ban for a time, the date it ends. While a ban lasts, signing in to the account does not work, and the browser it was tried from is banned too, for at least as long (if we lift the account's ban early, that browser's ban is lifted with it).

Public hangouts, posts, profiles and reels. If you sign in, you can pick a username (unique, letters, numbers and underscores) and a short bio. Your username and bio can be seen by everyone who is signed in, and people can find you by searching for your @username; discover also suggests accounts that posted publicly this week (never private ones) and people who share a hangout with you. Your Google name and email are never shown to other people: wherever gooner shows who wrote something publicly (a public post, a comment, a reel, a profile page, a story), it shows your @username, or "someone" if you haven't picked one. A hangout's owner can list it in the public directory. The posts and comments in a listed hangout's posts channels, and their photos and videos, can then be read by everyone who is signed in, and shared by link. Your profile page shows your posts, reels and how many people follow you. A person who follows you joins your profile space, so we keep who follows whom. Anyone who is signed in can like and comment on a public post or reel without following or joining first; those likes and comments (and any photo or GIF in them) are saved with the post and show your @username, and you can delete your own comment. A reel is a post with a short video; a long clip may be shrunk inside your own browser before it is uploaded (nothing else is sent anywhere for that).

Private accounts and follow requests. You can make your account private. People then have to ask to follow you, and only the people you approve can see your posts, reels, stories and comments on your page, or like and comment on them; your @username, your bio, your profile picture, your follower count and how many posts you have stay visible, with a lock. People who followed you before stay followers. We keep each waiting request (who asked whom, and when) until you accept or decline it, or the person takes it back; a declined request is deleted and the person is not told. If you make your account public again you can approve everyone who is waiting, or let those requests go. We may send you a notification when someone asks to follow you, if you turned notifications on. Requests show only the asker's @username, and a person you blocked can't send you one. A block, either way, also ends the follows between the two of you (each stops following the other) and drops a waiting request; unblocking brings no follow back. Hangout-mates who don't follow a private account no longer see its stories. Followers and following lists show @usernames to anyone for a public account, and only to its owner and approved followers for a private one; you can remove a follower from your own list. Like everything else on gooner, we keep logs of accounts, follows and reports for safety.

Messages between accounts. If you sign in and have a username, you can message other people by their @username, and send them a post or a reel. A message from someone you don't follow goes to your message requests first, and they aren't told you read it until you accept. We store each chat: who is in it, the messages, GIFs, photos, short videos, voice messages and shared posts sent in it, reactions, when each of you last read it, and whether you accepted, muted or deleted it. A voice message (up to a minute, recorded while you hold the mic) is kept in the chat like a photo, with its length. A photo or video is either kept in the chat, or sent as "view once" (the other person can open it once) or "allow replay" (twice); we count the opens and the sender sees them. View-once files can still be screenshotted or filmed by the other person: nothing stops that. In a message request, photos stay hidden until you choose to see them. "Unsend" removes a message for both of you and "delete chat" removes a chat from your own list, but we keep the stored copy for safety, like other messages. Nobody at gooner reads your chats, except a moderator looking at a chat someone reported (the reported message and the messages around it). If you turn notifications on we may notify you of a new message; a request never shows its text. Other people only ever see your @username in messages, never your Google name or email.

Activity status. While gooner is open, we note when you were last active, so the people you have a chat with (both of you accepted it) see "active now" or "active 12m ago" under your @username. It is never shown in a message request, to strangers, or between people who blocked each other. We keep only the latest time, in short-term memory, for 24 hours; it is not stored in our database, kept as a history or logged. You can turn it off in settings ("show activity status"): we then delete the time at once and stop noting it, and you don't see anyone else's either.

Calls between accounts. In a chat you both accepted (never a message request) either of you can start a voice or video call. The call itself passes live through our call provider (LiveKit) and is not recorded or stored, like every call on gooner. While it rings and while it lasts we keep, in short-term memory only, who is calling whom and whether it was answered; that is deleted when the call ends (at the latest five minutes after both apps stop answering). Our server's technical logs note that a call started, was answered and ended, with account numbers (not names), kept for a short time like our other logs. If notifications are on, the person called gets one ("@name is calling you", unless they muted the chat). When it ends, the call always leaves one line in your chat, kept like a message for safety (also when it ended because one of you blocked the other): a voice or video call, who called, when, and how long it lasted, or that it was missed (a declined call shows as missed). That line can't be unsent. In a call you can report or block the other person; either ends the call. Other people only ever see your @username in a call, never your Google name or email.

Personal stories, events and stages. A personal story is shown for 24 hours to everyone who shares a hangout with you and to your followers, as your @username. We keep stories, who saw them, reactions and private replies for safety, like other stories. You can mute someone's stories, and hide your stories from a viewer; we keep those two choices (whose stories you muted, who you hide yours from) to apply them, and the other person is not told. When you tap "not interested" on a post, we keep which post it was (linked to your account) so it stays out of your feed, explore and reels on every device; nobody else sees it. When you mute someone ("mute this user" in a post's menu), we keep that choice (who muted whom) until you unmute them, so their posts, reels and stories stay out of your home feed, discover feed, reels, post search and stories row (you keep following them); their profile still opens with all their posts, posts in hangouts you share with them still show, and they are not told. Your settings (settings, "who can interact with you"): we keep your choice of who can send you a message request, reply to or react to your personal stories, and comment on the posts on your profile (everyone, your followers or no one), and whether you hide like counts on other people's posts, on your account, to apply them; someone your choice keeps out sees that they can't message you, reply or comment, nothing more. Your blocked and muted accounts are listed in settings, only for you; for each block we also keep where you made it (in a hangout or elsewhere), so the list shows the person by the name you knew them by (their hangout name, or their @username) and never links the two. Your notifications (the bell): when someone follows you, asks to follow you or accepts your request, likes or comments on a post on your profile, or replies or reacts to your personal story, we keep a line saying who did it, what it was about and when, and whether you have opened it, so you can see it in one place. Only you see your notifications. They are kept for 90 days, then deleted. A line is deleted at once when the thing behind it is undone (an unlike, an unfollow, a request taken back or deleted, a reaction taken back); a line about a comment or post that was deleted stops showing at once and is deleted with the rest after 90 days. Likes and comments in hangouts are not part of it. Events you schedule or answer "going" or "interested" to are saved (title, time, and who is going). A stage is a live voice channel: like calls, what is said is not recorded or stored. We log that a stage started and ended, and who started it.

Anonymous posts. A hangout owner can switch a posts channel to anonymous. Other members then see "anonymous" instead of the author's name, even in feeds and notifications. We still store who wrote it and use that for safety: reports, bans and valid legal requests. Hangout owners and moderators can delete an anonymous post and report it, but can't see who wrote it. Replies to an anonymous post are not anonymous. What you write can still give you away, so don't count on it.

Notifications. If you turn on browser notifications, we store your browser's push address (a long web address your browser gives us) so we can send what you asked for: mentions, a call or stage starting in a hangout you are in, and reminders for events you said you'd go to. They pass through your browser maker's push service (for example Google, Mozilla or Apple). You can turn them off in settings or in your browser at any time.

Technical data. Your IP address reaches our servers with every request. We use it for a few minutes to limit repeated sign-in attempts and to stop floods of random-chat searches and messages (we count them per address for a minute at most, then the count is gone). Our hosting providers may also keep it in their own logs.

Error reports. When something in gooner breaks, our server or your browser sends a technical error report to Sentry (see the table below). It says what failed (the error's name and the part of our code that failed) and your browser and device type. It doesn't include your messages, files, anything you typed or your email address, and we've told Sentry not to store your IP address.

What we don't collect

• We don't record video calls, voice calls or screen shares. They pass through our video provider live and aren't stored. The exception is the single still image sent with a report, described above.
• We don't use cookies, analytics, ad trackers or tracking pixels.
• We don't sell or rent your data, and we don't use it for advertising.

Why we use it

• To run gooner: matching you, delivering messages, running hangouts, calls and shared media.
• For safety: reviewing reports, blocking and banning people who break the rules, preventing spam and abuse, and answering valid legal requests.
• For the AI features described below.

We process your data to provide the service you choose to use, and for the safety and legal purposes the law allows.

AI checks and features

We use Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, for these features:

• Age check: the one selfie you take before your camera goes to other people is sent to Claude to estimate whether you're clearly an adult. Only the yes/no is kept; the photo isn't stored by us.
• AutoMod (only if a hangout turns it on): when a message matches a word the hangout blocks, the message is sent to Claude to decide if it's really abusive.
• Catch me up: when you ask, the hangout messages you haven't read are sent to Claude to summarise.
• @goon: when someone mentions @goon in a hangout, recent messages of that channel are sent to Claude so it can reply. @goon may search the web through Anthropic for recent questions.
• Voice goon (only where a hangout calls it into a voice channel): whoever adds goon to a call confirms that goon will listen to everyone in that call, and everyone in the call sees a "listening" mark on goon for as long as it is there. While it listens, goon's own program (running at our call provider, LiveKit) notices when someone is speaking and sends only those spoken parts to a speech-to-text service (Deepgram, through LiveKit) to find out whether they were said to goon. If they were not, the words are thrown away on the spot and never stored. If they were (the person said "goon", or answered goon right after it spoke), the text is sent to Claude (Anthropic) to write a reply, and the reply is turned into speech (LiveKit, with Cartesia). The person who adds goon can instead choose "tap to talk only": then goon hears only the person who taps the talk button, for as long as they talk. We keep the text of each question to goon and its answer, with who asked, for safety, like chat messages (see "How long we keep it"). We do not keep any audio, and we do not keep the words of anything that was not said to goon.

Photos, videos, voice notes, hangout icons and video calls are not checked by AI. We rely on your reports.

Anthropic processes this data to give us the result. Its terms for business customers say it doesn't use this data to train its models.

Who else handles your data

We use these companies to run gooner. They handle data on our behalf and only for that purpose.

Watch together plays YouTube videos inside gooner using YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. When you press play, your browser connects to YouTube (Google), which receives your IP address under Google's privacy policy.

GIFs and stickers come from GIPHY. What you type in the GIF search goes to GIPHY through our server (GIPHY doesn't get your IP address or who you are from the search). Our server keeps each search's words and results, without who searched, for up to a day, so the same search is answered without asking GIPHY again. The GIFs themselves load from GIPHY's servers, so when you open the GIF picker or a chat with a GIF in it, your browser connects to GIPHY, which receives your IP address under GIPHY's privacy policy. Our own gooner stickers load from our server. A GIF or sticker you send is kept in our message log like any other message.

This means your data may be processed in other countries. We may also share data with police or government authorities when the law requires it.

How long we keep it

• Photos, short videos and voice notes (including view-once files): deleted automatically after 30 days, except photos, videos and voice messages kept in a chat between accounts (below). Unopened view-once files stop opening when a 1:1 chat ends, or after 24 hours in a hangout.
• Stories: hidden after 24 hours; we keep the record (with who saw them, reactions and replies) for safety.
• Public posts, reels and their files in a listed hangout (its members-only posts channels too) are not deleted after 30 days like chat: they stay until the author or a moderator deletes them, the hangout or the posts channel is deleted, or we remove them. A deleted post or comment stops being shown at once; the stored copy of its photos and videos is kept for 180 days for safety and then deleted, and its text is kept like other messages. A photo or video picked for a post or comment that never got posted is deleted after a day. Chat in the same hangout still expires on its normal schedule.
• Follows, events and RSVPs: kept until you unfollow, leave the hangout or cancel. A cancelled event is kept for safety. Personal stories: hidden after 24 hours, record kept as above.
• Anonymous posts: the record of who wrote one is kept with the post, like any message.
• Notification push addresses: kept until you turn notifications off or your browser says the address is no longer valid.
• Flagged or reported media: kept as evidence for 180 days.
• Profile picture: kept until you change or remove it (then deleted from our database; it can stay in a weekly backup for up to about two months). A copy attached to a report (about your profile, a message, a comment or a chat) is kept with the report. We keep a record of when you set or removed a picture, never the picture itself.
• Messages between accounts: shown to you until you delete the chat (or a message is unsent); the stored copy is kept for safety like other messages, with no time limit set yet. Photos, videos and voice messages kept in a chat are stored the same way, with no time limit set yet; an unsent one stops opening at once. View-once and allow-replay files can be opened for 30 days and are then deleted. A reported photo, video or voice message is copied as evidence and kept for 180 days.
• Messages, match logs, reports, report images and blocks: kept for safety. We don't delete these automatically yet. We plan to set time limits and will update this page when we do.
• Voice goon questions and answers: kept like chat messages (no time limit set yet). No audio is kept.
• Age check result: the yes/no is kept so we don't ask again. The selfie is never stored.
• Account and sign-in records: kept until you ask us to delete your account.
• Hangouts: your membership and roles are removed when you leave. When an owner deletes a hangout, its members, invites and icon are removed; its name, roles and change log are kept for safety. The photos and videos of its listed (public) posts stop showing at once; a copy is kept for 180 days for safety and then deleted, like a deleted post's.
• Old squads: their records (see "What we collect") are kept for safety like other messages and match logs.
• Database backups: once a week we save a copy of our database to a private Cloudflare R2 bucket, in case something goes wrong with the main database. We keep the latest 8 copies (about two months) and delete older ones. The copies hold the same data as the database, so anything we delete can still be in a backup until it is removed after those two months.
• Error reports: kept by Sentry for a limited time under its retention rules, then deleted.
• Activity status (when you were last active): 24 hours, in short-term memory only; deleted at once if you turn it off.
• Short-lived data (queues, who's online, typing): expires within minutes to days.

Storage in your browser

gooner stores your device id, nickname, 18+ confirmation, chosen look and sign-in key in your browser's local storage. This is needed for the app to work. Clearing your browser's site data removes it, and you'll then appear to gooner as a new person.

To open fast, the app also keeps on your device, in your browser's storage for this site, a copy of the last posts of your feeds (without their pictures) and your chats list with the last message of each chat, plus the app's own files (its scripts, fonts and logo) so it starts without downloading them again. The copy is replaced by fresh posts and chats as soon as the app is online, is only shown to the same signed-in session that saved it, is not used after 7 days, and is deleted when you sign out. Nothing of it is sent to us.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you and how we use it
• correct or update it
• delete it
• name someone to use these rights for you if you die or can't act yourself

Email [email protected]. Because people on gooner are anonymous, we'll need to confirm which data is yours, usually through your signed-in Google account or your device. We may keep records we need for safety, such as reports about you, or that we must keep by law.

Security

Connections to gooner are encrypted (HTTPS). Shared files are stored privately and can only be opened through short-lived links given to the people allowed to see them. Sign-in keys are stored only in scrambled form. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your data, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Grievance officer

If you have a complaint about your data or about content on gooner, contact our grievance officer:

Email: [email protected]

We'll acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours and aim to resolve it within 15 days. If you aren't satisfied, you can complain to your data protection authority.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page when we change how we handle data, and change the effective date at the top. For important changes, we'll also show a notice in the app.