This policy explains what information we collect when you use the TenChat app and the tenchat.mn website (“TenChat”), what we use it for, whom we share it with, how long we keep it, and your rights.
1. Who is responsible
Your personal data is controlled by Ten Plus LLC (registration number 6552072; address: Room 903, LS Plaza, Javzandamba Street, 18th khoroo, Khan-Uul District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; email: support@tenchat.mn), “we” below.
2. What we collect and why
Account data: your email address, your phone number (if you sign in with it), and, if you sign in with Google or Apple, the email and identifier they give us. Purpose: to sign you in, protect your account, and let people find you by your exact email address when they search for it.
Profile: your name, bio and profile photo. The people you chat with (in groups too), your friends and people who search for your email see them.
Messages: the messages you send and receive in one-to-one and group chats: their text, the photos, videos, voice messages and files attached to them, the message they reply to and the people they mention, when they were sent, and who read them and when. Message text, file names and group names are stored encrypted on our server. This is not end-to-end encryption: the server can decrypt them to build notifications and to review a report. Photos, videos, voice messages and files are stored on our server as they were sent, not encrypted like the text; only the members of the chat can open them, through links that expire after 15 minutes. When a message is deleted with “Delete for everyone” (by its sender within 24 hours of sending, or by a group's admin at any time), its text is erased from the server at once and its photos, videos, voice messages and files are deleted within 7 days.
Group chats: a group's name and photo, its members (up to 200), who added whom, who is its owner or an admin, who left or was removed, and whether you muted it. A friend, or someone you have chatted with, can add you to a group; you can leave it at any time. The members of a group see each other's names and profile photos.
Posts and connections: your posts and their photos and videos, likes and comments; your friend list and friend requests. Each post is visible to your friends or only to you, as you choose.
Photos and videos: profile, group, post and chat photos and videos. The app shrinks them on your phone (videos to 720p) and removes metadata such as the location (EXIF/GPS) before sending. Files you attach in a chat are sent as they are, with whatever they contain: a photo or video sent as a file keeps its metadata, including the location where it was taken.
Voice messages: the recording (up to 5 minutes) and its waveform. The app uses the microphone only while you record a voice message or film a video.
Safety: the people you block, and reports made by you or about you (the reason, the note, and the reported message, post, comment or group). Purpose: to protect users from objectionable content and abuse.
Notification tokens: your phone's push token and its platform (Android or iOS), to send you notifications.
IP address and technical logs: your IP address is used to limit the number of sign-in attempts, in the server's memory only (for about a minute). Our servers' access logs keep the IP address, the requested address, the time and the app or browser version. The app server's log keeps account and item ids, error codes and, when an app verification fails, the IP address. Message, post and comment texts, email addresses, passwords and tokens are never written to any log. Logs are limited in size and are overwritten by newer entries.
Crash reports (Crashlytics): when the app crashes or hits an error: the phone model, the system and app versions and technical details of the error. They never include your name, email or message text. Purpose: to find and fix bugs.
App verification (App Check): a token from Google Play Integrity or Apple App Attest that shows a sign-in request comes from the official TenChat app.
Data on your phone: your chat history, messages waiting to be sent with their attachments, and the chat files and voice messages you opened are stored on your phone; they are removed when you sign out or delete your account. Photos you have seen are cached on your phone for up to 30 days and removed when you delete your account. Your language and theme settings stay on the phone until you remove the app.
We never use your data for advertising and never sell it. TenChat has no ads and no usage analytics or tracking. The website uses no cookies.
3. Third parties
These providers process data on our behalf, only for the purposes above:
Google Firebase (Google LLC): sign-in (Firebase Authentication: email, password hash, Google sign-in), push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging), crash reports (Crashlytics) and App Check. A push notification carries the sender's name, in a group chat also the group's name, and the first 100 characters of the message or comment; for a message without text, what it carries (such as “Photo”, “Voice message” or a file's name).
Apple (Apple Inc.): Sign in with Apple, iPhone push notifications (APNs) and App Attest.
Their servers are outside Mongolia, so this data is transferred abroad. We give your data to nobody else, except a public authority when the law requires it.
4. Where and how we store it
TenChat's server, database and media (photos, videos, voice messages and files) are stored on servers in Mongolia. All connections between the app and the server are encrypted with HTTPS. Message text, file names and group names are encrypted on the server. Backups of the database and media are encrypted and kept on another server of ours. Only a few authorised staff can access the servers.
5. How long we keep it
Account data is kept until you delete your account.
When you delete your account, your name, bio, email address, phone number, sign-in account (Firebase), notification tokens, friendships and friend requests are deleted at once, and you are signed out on every device. The comments and likes you left on any post, your own included, are deleted for good at once. Your posts are hidden from everyone at once and their text is deleted; the comments and likes other people left on them stay stored but nobody sees them any more. Your profile photo and your posts' photos and videos are deleted within 7 days. You leave every group you were in (its members see that you left; a group you owned passes to an admin or another member). Messages you sent, with their photos, videos, voice messages and files, stay in the chats of the people you talked to, groups included, shown as “Deleted user”; so do the group names and photos you set. Reports and blocks are kept for the safety of other users; a report of a comment you wrote stays a report of your account, without the comment. An internal record of the account (its sign-in identifier, when it was created and whether it was banned) is kept so that a deleted or banned account cannot be used again.
When you delete a post, it is hidden from everyone at once; its text stays stored in our database, and its photos and videos are deleted within 7 days. When you delete a comment, it is hidden from everyone at once; its text stays stored in our database.
Messages, with their photos, videos, voice messages and files, are kept until they are deleted for everyone (see section 2).
Photos and videos of deleted posts and messages, profile and group photos that were replaced or removed, and uploads that were never used are deleted within 7 days.
Notification tokens not renewed for 60 days are deleted.
Deleted data may remain in backups for up to 30 days, after which it is deleted automatically.
Google keeps Crashlytics crash reports for 90 days.
6. Your rights
See and correct your data: the app's “Me” tab and “Edit profile”.
Delete it: “Me” → “Delete account”, or without the app as described here.
Choose whom you deal with: block anyone, unfriend, leave a group, delete your posts and comments (they are hidden from everyone, see section 5), and delete a message for everyone within 24 hours of sending it.
Turn notifications off in your phone's settings.
Ask about your data, get a copy of it, or complain: support@tenchat.mn. We answer within 30 days. You may also complain to the competent public authority.
7. Children
TenChat must not be used by children under 13. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we delete it. Please tell us at support@tenchat.mn if you know of one.
8. Law
We process your data under the Law of Mongolia on Personal Data Protection and other applicable laws, based on the consent you give when you sign up and use TenChat and on what is needed to provide the service.
9. Changes
We may update this policy. We announce important changes in advance in the app or on the website. The date of the last update is at the top of this page.
10. Contact
Ten Plus LLC, Room 903, LS Plaza, Javzandamba Street, 18th khoroo, Khan-Uul District, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Email: support@tenchat.mn.