1. Overview

Evaporate ("we", "our", "us") is a web-based service at evaporate.chat that provides instant, temporary one-to-one text chat with automatic translation between two people who may not share a common language. Evaporate is completely free to use and is designed to be anonymous, ephemeral, and privacy-first. We do not require user accounts, we do not intentionally identify users, and we do not store conversations once a chat ends.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

We do not collect or store personal identifiers or user content. Specifically, we do not require registration or user accounts, collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, or profile information, store chat messages or translated text, record conversations, use analytics or tracking tools, build user profiles or behavioural histories, serve advertising, or sell or share personal data for any purpose. When a chat ends, conversation data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

3. Limited Technical Processing

To operate, secure, and protect the service, we may temporarily process limited technical information, including IP address (used for connection routing and abuse prevention, and to derive a country-level location hint; the IP address itself is not stored), device and browser type, and connection timestamps. Evaporate acts as the data controller for this limited technical data under applicable data protection laws. This data is processed on a legitimate interest basis, is not linked to an identified individual, and is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for operational or security purposes, typically measured in hours or days, not months.

4. Cookies and Device Identifiers

Evaporate does not use advertising or analytics cookies. We store only the following on your device: a device identifier (a random UUID kept in localStorage and a cookie, used solely for abuse prevention and rate limiting), a language preference cookie (NEXT_LOCALE), a theme preference, and a short-lived country hint cookie (geo-country, set from the country derived from your IP address to prioritise instruction languages; the IP address itself is not stored).

5. Ephemeral Chats and Data Retention

Chats exist only in short-lived, memory-style storage (Redis) with automatic expiries. A new chat waits up to 1 hour for the other person to join, active chats expire after around 10 minutes of inactivity, and messages are actively deleted when a chat ends, and in any case no later than the end of the room's lifetime. Nothing is written to a database, no chat history exists, and deleted conversations cannot be recovered.

6. Translation and Speech Processing

To provide translation, message text is sent to Google Cloud (the Translation API, and the Text-to-Speech API when the speak button is used). Google processes this text solely to return the translation or speech output, under its own terms and privacy obligations. Evaporate does not store this content, does not train models or build datasets from chat content, and does not reuse it once the chat ends. Translation accuracy is not guaranteed.

7. Children

Evaporate is not intended for children. You must be at least 13 years old, or the minimum legal age required in your jurisdiction, to use the service. We do not knowingly process personal data from minors.

8. Data Rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights under applicable data protection laws, including rights to access, correct, or delete personal data. Due to the anonymous and ephemeral nature of Evaporate, we generally do not retain personal data that can be linked to an individual and may be unable to fulfil certain requests.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to the service, legal requirements, or operational practices. The most current version will always be available within the app or on our website.

10. Contact

For privacy questions or legal requests, contact us at privacy@evaporate.chat. For general questions, contact hello@evaporate.chat. We aim to respond within a reasonable timeframe.