Privacy Policy - Rapchat

Last Updated: July 28, 2026.

Notice At Collection

Depending on how you use the Services, Rapchat may collect identifiers and account details; profile, message, support, and user-content information; subscription and transaction information; device, browser, network, and usage information; approximate location; audio, visual, and similar content; and inferences such as content preferences. We collect this information from you, your device, your activity on the Services, other users, service providers, and connected services you choose to use.

We use these categories of information to provide and secure accounts and the Services; publish and distribute content at your direction; process subscriptions and transactions; personalize features and recommendations; provide support; prevent spam, fraud, abuse, and other violations; measure and improve performance; communicate with you; market Rapchat where permitted; and comply with legal obligations. We may disclose relevant categories to vendors and service providers, other users when you choose to publish or communicate, business and distribution partners as described below, advertising and measurement partners where permitted, and authorities or other parties when legally required.

On Rapchat.com, optional analytics and advertising tools remain off until you make a choice. You can change that choice at any time on the Privacy Choices page. The rest of this Policy describes these practices and your rights in more detail.

Rapchat respects your privacy and is committed to letting you know how we will collect and use your information. This Privacy Policy ("Policy") describes the privacy practices we follow in connection with the Rapchat websites and mobile applications that link to it (collectively the "Services"), as well as the related consumer services offered through the Services. It also describes the options you have regarding our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information when accessing the Services.

This Policy explains how Rapchat handles personal information. Where applicable law requires consent, we request that consent separately and provide a way to withdraw it. If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not use the Services. We may update this Policy as our Services or legal obligations change. We will post the updated Policy, revise the “Last Updated” date, and provide additional notice when required by law.

Information Collection And Use

Information You Provide Us Or From You Through Other Sources: We collect a variety of information from you when you provide it to us directly or when you tell us to get it from a third party source. The particular kinds of information we gather usually depend on how you interact with us. For example:

Registration Information: We collect account information such as your email address, username, password or authentication credential, age or date of birth, and a phone number if you choose to provide one. If you choose to register or sign in through Apple, Google, or another supported provider, that provider may share information with us according to your provider settings and authorization, such as an account identifier, name, email address, or profile image.
Profile Information And Use Information: In addition to your name and username, which are automatically displayed on your profile page, you may voluntarily provide Information on your profile page such as your profile picture (if not already available via your sign up using your social network information), date of birth, gender, location and other information about yourself and your interests. Any such information which you add to your profile page (except for date of birth and gender) on the Services becomes publicly available. We gather information from the actions you take to recommend, create, communicate and share content. This includes messages you send, information about the content you create yourself, the people you follow, the songs you mark as favorites or share, and the comments you post. In addition, we track social interactions in our Services (e.g. what you listened to, what you loved, and your comments and invites). Please exercise personal discretion in how much information you choose to share. Content which you upload to the Services, which allows others to identify you (e.g. photos of you, audio recordings or text containing your name, status updates, comments on content which refer to you). Communications between you and Rapchat (e.g. your reply to our service updates, emails to you, and support tickets). To be clear, we don’t ask you to provide us with any sensitive personal information, such as information relating to your race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health, genetic or biometric information, sexual life or sexual orientation. However, if you decide to share this kind of information on the Services, you explicitly consent to us displaying it or sharing it in accordance with your selection.

Information Other Users May Provide About You: Content which others upload to the Services which allows you to be identified (e.g. photos of you, audio recordings or text containing your name, status updates, content posts, comments on content which refer to you).

Information We Collect

Analytics Information: We collect information about visits to and use of the Services, such as IP address, device or app identifiers, device type, browser and operating-system information, language, approximate location derived from IP address, referring source, pages or features used, and dates and times of activity. We use this information to secure, operate, troubleshoot, measure, and improve the Services. On Rapchat.com, optional third-party analytics remain off until you allow analytics through Privacy Choices.
Information From Your Device and Browser: We collect information from your browser, computer, or mobile device, which provide us with technical information when you use the Services, including:

Contacts: If you choose to find your friends on Rapchat, we will access your contacts on your device (including contact information your service provider(s) or app automatically added to your address book when you communicated with addresses or numbers not already in your list) and send your contacts to our servers to check if any of them are on the Services. If they are, we’ll suggest you follow them.
Log Data Information: When you use the Services, we automatically collect certain log data, including your IP address, browser type, hardware type, unique device ID, the version of your operating system and your activity within the Services. We use log data for security purposes (such as preventing content from being improperly accessed) and to improve our Services (such as enhancing site performance in certain regions).
Device Identifiers: Depending on your device, settings, permissions, and applicable law, we may receive app-instance, vendor, or advertising identifiers such as Apple’s IDFV or IDFA and Google’s advertising ID. We use these identifiers for security, attribution, analytics, and advertising only where permitted.
Location Information: We may infer approximate location from an IP address. If a feature requests more precise device location, the operating system will ask for permission and you can decline or later withdraw that permission in device settings.
Cookies and Other Similar Technologies: We use cookies, local storage, SDKs, pixels, and similar technologies for sign-in, security, saved preferences, service operation, analytics, and advertising. Necessary technologies operate because the site cannot function properly without them. On Rapchat.com, optional analytics and advertising technologies remain off until you choose to allow them. You can change your selection on Privacy Choices, use browser or device settings, or enable a supported Global Privacy Control signal. Industry opt-out tools are also available through the Digital Advertising Alliance.

How We Use Your Information

We use information to provide, operate, secure, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services. Depending on the context and applicable law, our legal basis may be performance of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation, our legitimate interests or those of others, protection of vital interests, or your consent. We use information in the following ways:

In order to register for a Rapchat account, we need certain information. We may use your email address and/or phone number to send you information about the Services, provide customer support or to notify you of additional products and services, where permitted by applicable law. You may use your account settings to unsubscribe from notifications from us.
We collect information to learn about your use of the Service and to enhance your social experience when using the Services, such as friend-to-friend interaction and notifications, chat, or messaging functionality, public leaderboards, and other similar features. We try to show you content that we think will be of most interest to you.
To optimize your experience, we use information: To allow you, and those whom you have given permissions to, to access content and information which you have uploaded. To identify you with content which you have uploaded. To test, improve and monitor the Services, including diagnosing and fixing technology problems, and including use as part of our API.
We try to continuously improve our Services and your experience. As part of this, we use the data we have to identify ways to make our Services better and more engaging for our users. We use your interactions on the Services, along with the other data described in this policy, to infer your interests. We do this to identify and suggest content that you may like and to tailor advertising, including off-site advertising.
We use data to identify and respond to potential risks to our users and Services (e.g., spammers, phishing attempts, screen scraping, bullying and other violations of our Terms of Service).
If you provide us with your list of friends on a third party social network or a mobile device, your friends on such network can automatically follow you when you use the Services and your account can be automatically configured to follow your friends. You can, however, unfollow any other user at any time.
We promote our Services via customised advertising on third party sites. We may use your information to target advertising; including to design advertising campaigns designed to reach individuals with similar profiles to existing users.
We use your information for customer relationship management purposes, including for targeting email and other engagement campaigns such as push notifications.
We sometimes conduct or sponsor challenges and contests. Participation in challenges and contests is completely voluntary. If you decide to participate, we may ask you for additional contact, demographic, and other information and may ask you to agree to additional terms and conditions.

Information We Share

You share your information as you use and communicate through our Services, and we share your information to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services. We may share your information with third parties as described below:

Affiliates: We may share your information with any related entities of Rapchat ("Affiliates") that use and disclose your information for their purposes in ways consistent with this Policy.
Third Party Service Providers: We work with third-party service providers to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services. When we share your information with third party service providers, we require them to use your information on our behalf in accordance with our instructions and terms.
Business Partners: We may engage in activities that include sharing your information with business partners who provide products and services that we think may be of interest to you. In such instances, we will restrict our business partners' use of any information that personally identifies you to our joint marketing and business activities.
Challenges and Contests: In the event that you participate in a challenge, contest, or other promotion that is sponsored by Rapchat and a third party, such participation serves as your consent for Rapchat to share your information collected in conjunction with the challenge, contest, or promotion, with that co-sponsoring third party. After the information is provided to such third parties, the subsequent use or disclosure of such information is subject to those third parties' privacy policies and practices.
Our Advertisers and Third Party Advertising Partners: Where permitted by law and your choices, we may disclose device, browser, usage, attribution, and similar information to advertising and measurement partners so they can measure campaigns, limit repeated ads, or provide relevant advertising. We do not intentionally send message contents, uploaded content, account passwords, or direct contact information to these partners for web campaign measurement.
Google Analytics: If you allow analytics on Rapchat.com, Google Analytics may receive limited device, browser, referring-source, and site-usage information. Rapchat configures its web analytics events not to send email addresses, usernames, message contents, uploaded content, or full URLs containing query parameters. You may turn this off through Privacy Choices.
Statistics: We may publicly disclose aggregated statistics (like what types of content or users are popular in a certain city).
Content: We may use any recording, video and/or other content you create and post in the Services in order to promote Rapchat, our Business Partners, or our Services.
Legal Disclosures: We may disclose information, including information that personally identifies you, to: (i) protect or defend the legal rights, interests or property of Rapchat and our Affiliates; (ii) protect the safety and security of our customers or members of the public; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; or (iv) comply with applicable law or legal process.
Business Transaction: We may share some or all of your information in connection with, or during negotiation of, any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution, transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets. In the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership, information may also be transferred as a business asset.
Additional Measurement Partners: Where permitted by law and your choices, measurement and attribution partners may use cookies, SDKs, pixels, or device identifiers to help us understand whether a Rapchat campaign resulted in an app install, signup, or other interaction. You can limit this activity through Privacy Choices, browser controls, device privacy settings, or a supported Global Privacy Control signal.

Our Legitimate Interest For Collecting, Sharing, Processing, And Using Your Information

We use and process your information in furtherance of the following legitimate interests:

Keeping The Services Safe And Secure: We use your information to try and keep our Services safe and secure. We do so as it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests, the interests of our community and yours, in ensuring Rapchat is secure, and to protect against fraud, spam, misuse and abuse. For example, we process your information to protect you and Rapchat from malicious scraping of our website by those seeking to download music and recordings. We also want to protect against hackers who try to access content.
Providing Our Services: We use your information to provide the Services, including any personalized services. We do so as it is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests in providing an innovative and tailored offering to our users on a sustained basis and to provide stable connectivity. For example, where there is poor connectivity in an area or neighbourhood, users can experience difficulty in downloading/uploading content. In that case, we need to process log data, including your IP address, to troubleshoot the issue. Without your IP address and location info, it can be hard to fix connectivity issues.
Improving Your Experience On Our Services: We work hard to develop, enhance and improve our Services, such as by providing better content feeds. We also may share data with researchers to contribute to academic research. Where we contribute to academic research, we take into account your rights and ensure that protections are in place with respect to your information.

Storing and Managing Your Information

You can correct or update certain registration information through account settings or by contacting support, and we rely on you to keep information such as your age accurate. You may request deletion of your account by following the instructions in the Help Center, emailing [email protected], or contacting our privacy team at [email protected].

We retain your information in our server logs, our databases and our records only for as long as necessary in light of the purposes set out in this Policy, subject to any legal obligations to further retain such information. We may use third party service providers to store and maintain such data. We retain your verification-related information for a reasonable period of time, even if you do not complete all verification steps, to assist with future verifications and to prevent abuse of our verification processes.

If you create content with other users, such as collaboration songs, copies or shared versions of that content may remain after you delete your account where another user's rights, service integrity, legal obligations, or the nature of the collaboration require it.

Your Rights and Choices

You may contact us in writing via email to [email protected] if you wish to do any of the following:

update or correct your Information;
request information about the personal information we hold and how we have used and disclosed it during the period required by applicable law;
restrict or withdraw your consent to our processing of your Information;
delete your Information; or
have any questions, concerns or feedback on this Privacy Policy.

If you are in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction that provides similar rights, you may have the following rights, subject to applicable exceptions:

Access And Porting: You can access much of your information by logging into your account. Where legally required, we can provide your information upon your request. However, in accordance with applicable law, information will not be provided where doing so would adversely affect the rights (including the intellectual property rights) of others.
Change, Limit, Restrict, Or Delete: You can also change, limit, restrict, or delete much of your information by logging into your account. If you cannot do this, or you do not have a Rapchat account, contact privacy support via email at [email protected]. We may retain certain information as required by applicable law.
Object: If we process your information based on our legitimate interests explained above, or in the public interest, you can object to this processing in certain circumstances. In such cases, we will cease processing your information unless we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing or where it is needed for legal reasons. If you are a resident of the European Union, you also have a general right to object to the use of your information for direct marketing purposes.
Revoke Consent: Where you have previously provided your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your information at any time. For example, you can withdraw your consent to email marketing by following the link provided in a marketing email. You can also revoke any consent you have provided to our use of your geo-location information by changing the setting on your mobile device. If you withdraw your consent to the use of your information for purposes set out in this Policy, you may not have access to all (or any) of our Services and we might not be able to provide you all (or any) of the Services. In certain cases, we may continue to process your information after you have withdrawn consent if we have a legal basis to do so or if your withdrawal of consent was limited to certain processing activities.
Complain: If you are a resident of the European Union, should you wish to raise a concern about our use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local data protection authority.

Children

Our Services are intended for general audiences, and are not intended for anyone under 13, or anyone under the minimum age to use the Services in the jurisdiction where they reside ("Minimum Age"). Users under the Minimum Age are prohibited from using our Services and we do not knowingly collect information from such individuals. If we become aware that a child under the Minimum Age has provided us with their information, we take steps to remove such information and terminate the child's account. A parent or guardian who believes a child under the Minimum Age provided information to Rapchat may contact [email protected].

International Data Transfers

Rapchat is a United States company, and personal information may be transferred to, stored in, or processed in the United States and other countries where Rapchat, its service providers, or its users operate. Privacy laws in those countries may differ from the laws where you live.

Where applicable law requires a transfer mechanism or additional safeguards, we use legally recognized measures appropriate to the transfer. Content you choose to publish or share may also be available to users in other countries as part of the Services.

Data Security

We employ certain administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help reduce the risks of loss, theft and unauthorized access associated with the information that is in our possession. We cannot, however, guarantee the security of the networks, systems, servers, devices, and databases we operate or that are operated on our behalf.

Changes To Privacy Policy

We may update this Policy as our Services, vendors, or legal obligations change. We will post the current version, update the date at the top, and provide additional notice or request consent when required by law. We recommend reviewing this Policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have questions, comments, or a privacy-rights request, email [email protected]. If you do not receive a response, contact [email protected]. You may also write to Rapchat, Inc., 426 Arden Rd., Columbus, Ohio 43214.

U.S. State Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live and subject to legal exceptions, you may have rights to confirm whether we process your personal information; access, correct, delete, or obtain a portable copy of it; opt out of targeted advertising, sale, or certain profiling; limit certain uses of sensitive personal information; and appeal our response to a request. You may exercise applicable rights by using Privacy Choices or emailing [email protected]. We may take reasonable steps to verify your request. Authorized agents may submit requests where permitted by law, and we will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

Rapchat Privacy Notice For California Residents

Effective Date: July 28, 2026.

Last reviewed on: July 28, 2026.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CCPA"), provides rights to California residents ("consumers"). This section ("CCPA Notice") explains how Rapchat collects, uses, and discloses personal information and how California consumers can exercise their rights. We review this notice at least once every 12 months and update it as needed.

This CCPA Notice supplements our other privacy notices and policies and shall govern in the event of a conflict.

Collected Personal Information

Categories Of Personal Information: Rapchat may collect identifiers such as name, username, contact information, IP address, and device or account identifiers; characteristics of protected classifications that you choose to provide or that appear in user content; commercial information such as subscription, purchase, payout, or transaction records; internet or other electronic network activity; approximate or device-permission-based geolocation; audio, electronic, visual, or similar user content; professional information you choose to provide; inferences such as content interests and preferences; and other records associated with a consumer or household.
Non-Personal Information. Rapchat may also collect, generate or share deidentified or aggregate information. This is not personal information under CCPA and we reserve the right to convert, or permit others to convert, personal information into deidentified data or aggregate consumer information.

Sources Of Personal Information

Rapchat collects personal information from different sources.

Personal Information We Collect From You: Rapchat collects some personal information that you provide directly to us. This can include contact information, communication information, feedback information, preferences information, pictures and videos that you send to us, content you upload and other information you provide to us. In addition, you may provide us with the personal information of other people if you invite others to become Rapchat users.
Personal Information We Collect From Cookies And Other Similar Technologies: Rapchat or its vendors collect some personal information automatically from cookies, pixels and similar technologies when you use our services. This can include your browsing activities when you are on our Services; information about devices that you use to access Rapchat’s services; and other information collected through cookies, pixels, and similar technologies.
Personal Information We Create: Rapchat creates some personal information when you use our services. This can include analytics and inferences about your interests, demographics and content preferences.
Personal Information We Collect From Third Parties: Rapchat collects personal information from other companies. This can include information from authentication providers, app stores, payment and subscription providers, social platforms you choose to connect, advertising and measurement providers, and other services that support Rapchat.

Uses Of Personal Information

Rapchat uses personal information for the following business or commercial purposes:

Account provision and maintenance, including creating and managing your account with Rapchat; providing customer service; verifying member information; and providing other services in the course of Rapchat’s business operations
Customer service and communications, including responding to requests, comments, or questions; sending email, push, in-app, and other service communications; providing advertising, marketing, and promotional content where permitted; and responding to privacy requests.
Improving services and user experience, including creating and updating applications, websites, and other features or functionality used by Rapchat; debugging to identify and repair errors that may affect how the services function; engaging in analytics related to improving services or user experience
Personalizing user experience and marketing, including content recommendations; marketing through email, text, push, in-app, and other permitted communications; advertising across websites, devices, and platforms where permitted; measuring Rapchat’s advertising and marketing efforts; and analytics used to personalize user experience.
Fraud prevention and information security, including when the account is otherwise accessed; detecting and responding to fraud or security incidents; protecting against other malicious, deceptive, or illegal activity.
Legal obligations, including responding to fraudulent, malicious, deceptive, or illegal activities; defending claims; and enforcing Rapchat’s terms, policies, and legal rights.
Payment-related activities, including processing subscriptions, purchases, payouts, refunds, and related records through payment, app-store, subscription, and distribution providers.
Conducting research, analytics, surveys, and focus groups to improve member experiences, develop services and products, provide better marketing and advertising.
Any other legal purpose consistent with our applicable notice of privacy practices.

Disclosures Of Personal Information

Sales Or Sharing Of Personal Information: Rapchat does not sell personal information for money. When a user permits optional advertising or campaign measurement, disclosure of limited identifiers and internet or electronic network activity to advertising partners may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" under CCPA even when no money is exchanged. California consumers may opt out through Privacy Choices, a supported Global Privacy Control signal, or the request methods below.
Disclosures For Business Purposes. Rapchat may share personal information with vendors that provide hosting, storage, authentication, payments, subscriptions, distribution, communications, support, fraud prevention, security, analytics, and other services on our behalf. We do not treat disclosures to service providers acting under our instructions as sales. Depending on the service, Rapchat may disclose identifiers; commercial information; internet or other electronic network activity information; geolocation data; audio, electronic, visual, or similar information; professional information; inferences; and other records related to a consumer.

CCPA Rights

Right To Delete Personal Information: If you are a California consumer, you have the right to request that Rapchat delete any personal information about you that Rapchat has collected from you. Note that Rapchat may retain some personal information, as permitted under CCPA.

How to exercise right of deletion: Follow the instructions in the Help Center or email [email protected]. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify that the request relates to you or your account.

Right To Opt-Out Of Sale Or Sharing: California consumers may direct Rapchat not to sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, subject to applicable exceptions.

For optional advertising tracking on Rapchat.com, use Privacy Choices. Rapchat.com also treats a supported Global Privacy Control signal as a request to keep advertising tracking off in that browser. For an account-level request or an authorized-agent request, email [email protected].

Right To Receive A Copy Of Your Personal Information And Other Information: If you are a California consumer, you have the right to request that Rapchat disclose to you the following information:

The categories of personal information Rapchat has collected about you.
The categories of sources from which the personal information about you is collected.
The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information about you.
The categories of third parties with whom Rapchat shares personal information about you.
The categories of personal information Rapchat sold about you and the categories of third parties to whom the personal information about you was sold.
The categories of personal information Rapchat disclosed about you for a business purpose.
The specific pieces of personal information Rapchat has collected about you.

How to exercise the right to access or receive a copy: Email [email protected] or [email protected]. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to verify that the request relates to you or your account. Do not send your password.
Right To Correct: California consumers may request correction of inaccurate personal information by updating available account fields or emailing [email protected].
Right To Limit Use Of Sensitive Personal Information: Where this right applies to Rapchat’s use or disclosure of sensitive personal information, a California consumer may submit a request to [email protected].
Right To Non-Discrimination: Rapchat will not unlawfully discriminate against a California consumer for exercising a CCPA right.

Limitation Of Rights; Compliance With Applicable Law

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this CCPA Notice, we may collect, use and disclose personal information as required or permitted by applicable law and this may override CCPA rights. In addition, we need not honor any requests to the extent that doing so would infringe upon our or any other person or party’s rights or conflict with applicable law.