Privacy policy
Last updated 30 September 2026
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The short version
- We only collect what we need to run Chatterbell, and we never sell personal data.
- Your data is stored on servers in the UK, with encrypted backups in the EU.
- Chats on our customers’ websites belong to those businesses. We process them only on their instructions (see our data processing agreement).
- The chat sets nothing in a visitor’s browser until they send a message.
- You can ask for a copy of your data, or for it to be deleted, at any time.
Who we are
Chatterbell is a live chat service for businesses, operated by Matthew Cooke, a sole trader trading as Chatterbell, United Kingdom (“we”, “us”).
For privacy questions, or to use any of your rights, email hello@chatterbell.com. We reply within one month, and usually much sooner.
Our two roles
Under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) we act in two ways:
- As a controller for people who use chatterbell.com, sign up for an account, or contact us. This policy explains what we do with that data.
- As a processor for the businesses that use Chatterbell on their own websites (“our customers”). When you chat with a business through its Chatterbell chat, that business decides what happens to your messages. Please read that business’s privacy policy, and contact them about your data first. We handle this data only to provide the service to them, under our data processing agreement.
What we collect
If you have a Chatterbell account
- Your name, the name customers see in chats, your job title and photo if you add them, and your email address.
- Your password, stored only as a one-way scrypt hash that we can’t read.
- Your business name, website address and chat settings.
- Your alert preferences, and a record of important actions for security (for example, exports and deletions).
- Billing details once paid plans launch. Card payments will be handled by our payment provider, and we won’t see or store full card numbers.
If you chat with a business that uses Chatterbell (on the business’s behalf)
- The messages, photos and files you send, and any name, email address or phone number you give.
- Technical details that help the business answer: the page you’re on and pages you visited during the chat, your browser, device type, language, time zone and approximate country.
- A random ID stored in your browser (in local storage) after you send your first message, so the conversation carries on as you move between pages. We don’t use it to track you across other websites.
If you visit chatterbell.com
- Standard server logs (IP address, time, page requested and browser) kept for up to 14 days to keep the service secure and working.
- If you use the chat on our own site, we’re the business in the section above.
How we use it, and why we’re allowed to
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Provide your account and the Chatterbell service, send alerts and service emails | Contract |
| Keep the service secure, prevent abuse and fix problems | Legitimate interests |
| Answer your questions and support requests | Legitimate interests |
| Send the optional Monday summary email (you can turn it off in Your profile) | Legitimate interests |
| Keep financial records once paid plans launch | Legal obligation |
| Process chats on our customers’ websites | On our customers’ instructions (they choose their lawful basis) |
We don’t send marketing emails without your permission, we don’t use your data for advertising, and we don’t make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
AI answers
If a business turns on AI answers, the AI reads the business’s own website pages and notes to answer questions. When a visitor asks something, we send the recent messages in that chat, and the most relevant passages from the business’s website, to our AI provider, Anthropic, to write the reply. Anthropic processes this on our behalf in the United States under data protection safeguards, and does not use it to train its models. AI replies are clearly labelled, and visitors can ask for a person at any time.
Cookies and browser storage
- The chat on any website: nothing is stored until the visitor sends a message. Then a random conversation ID is kept in local storage so the chat continues. This is strictly necessary for a service the visitor asked for.
- Chatterbell app: one cookie,
cb_s, keeps you logged in. The app also remembers small display choices in your browser, such as notices you’ve dismissed. - chatterbell.com: no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.
Who we share it with
We use a small number of trusted providers (“sub-processors”) to run Chatterbell. Each one only gets what it needs, under a written contract. The current list, with what each does and where, is in our data processing agreement. We’ll share data with authorities only when the law requires it.
International transfers
Chatterbell’s servers are in the UK and our backups are in the EU, both of which the UK treats as having adequate protection. A few providers, such as our AI and email providers, are in the United States. For those we rely on the UK’s adequacy regulations for the UK-US data bridge where the provider is certified, or on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
- Chats: depending on the business’s plan, 90 days (Free), a year (Starter) or until the business deletes them (Team and Business). Businesses can delete a chat, or everything about one visitor, at any time.
- Visitors who never started a chat: nothing is stored. Visitor records with no chats left are removed after 30 days.
- Accounts: while your account is open. If you ask us to close it, we delete it within 30 days (billing records are kept for 6 years, as the law requires).
- Backups: deleted data can remain in our encrypted backups for up to 12 months before it’s overwritten.
- Server logs: up to 14 days.
How we protect it
Everything is encrypted in transit (HTTPS), passwords are hashed, uploaded files are checked and served safely, off-site backups are encrypted, and access to our servers is restricted to the people who run Chatterbell. Read more on our security page.
Your rights
You can ask us to: give you a copy of your data; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to how we use it; or send it to you or someone else in a portable format. For chats on a business’s website, contact that business first, because it controls that data. We’ll help them respond. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, please tell us, and you can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Children
Chatterbell accounts are for businesses and people aged 18 or over. The chat isn’t designed for children, and businesses shouldn’t use it to collect children’s data without the proper safeguards.
Changes to this policy
If we make important changes, we’ll email account holders and show a notice in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.