Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 9, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Ubersoft LLC, a Virginia limited liability company doing business as punchi (“punchi,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, and shares information when you use punchi.tv and related services (the “Service”). By using the Service, you agree to this Policy.
Information we collect
Information you provide
- Account information — your email address, username/handle, display name, and password (stored only as a secure hash). If you sign in with Google, we receive basic profile information from Google instead of a password.
- Profile and channel details — your avatar, channel title, category, tags, description, support and schedule links, and custom emotes you upload.
- Content you create — chat messages, follows, and any live video you broadcast through the Service.
- Date of birth — asked once, when you enter Rooms or Punchi Park, set up an 18+ channel, or add it in Settings. We keep the date rather than a yes/no answer because your age changes and a stored yes would not. It is used to work out your age for Rooms, other 18+ areas such as Park booths, and to decide who you can privately message, and for nothing else; it is never shown to anyone or to other users, and it is not used for advertising or recommendations.
- Connected Twitch and Kick accounts (streamers who choose to connect) — if you connect your Twitch or Kick channel in Settings → Chats, we store its user ID and name, and the access and refresh tokens Twitch or Kick issue. We use them only to show your Twitch/Kick chat in your punchi chat and to post your own punchi chat messages there. Disconnecting deletes them and asks Twitch or Kick to revoke them.
- Feedback you send — your message, any screenshot you attach, the page you were on when you sent it (without any codes or links’ extra details), and whether you agreed to be credited. Our support team adds notes as it handles your feedback. Only punchi staff can see it, and we use it only to fix problems and improve punchi.
Information collected automatically
- Usage and log data — such as pages viewed, channels watched, viewer presence (heartbeats used to count live viewers), and timestamps.
- Watch time — when you’re signed in, we count how long you watch each channel, to award passport stamps.
- Device and connection data — including IP address, browser type, and similar technical information collected by our hosting and content-delivery providers.
- Sign-in and security records — the IP address you signed up from, the IP address and browser of each signed-in session, and a record of sign-in attempts. We use these to keep accounts safe and stop abuse. Sign-in attempts are deleted after 30 days, and sessions when you sign out or they expire.
- Push notifications (punchi apps) — if you allow notifications, your device gets a push token from Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, which we store so we can send you alerts, such as a channel you follow going live. It is tied to the device and removed when you sign out.
- Now playing (punchi LIVE app, streamers only, off unless you turn it on) — if you turn it on and give the app notification access, then while you are live it reads the track playing on your phone (for example in YouTube Music): title, artist, position, length and up to the next four queued tracks, and sends them to punchi to show on your channel page and stream overlay. It sends nothing while you are not broadcasting, reads no other notifications, and the track is cleared when you stop, or after 15 minutes without an update. Turn it off in the app’s You screen, or remove notification access in Android settings.
- Cookies — We use a few small cookies, all needed for punchi to work as you’d expect. We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies:
- The sign-in session cookies (keep you signed in; one also remembers whether you chose ‘remember me’)
- The time-zone cookie shows times in your time zone.
- punchi_18_ok remembers that you confirmed you’re 18 or older, so you aren’t asked on every page. It stores only that yes, for up to a year, and you can clear it any time by clearing your cookies.
- punchi_app marks a page opened from the punchi apps so it shows the app version. It lasts 30 minutes.
- If you’re punchi staff or a moderator: two cookies that remember which staff role you’re acting in and whether your staff badge shows.
How we use information
- Provide, operate, and maintain the Service, including streaming, chat, and follows.
- Authenticate you, secure your account, and verify your email address.
- Enforce our Terms of Service, moderate content, and keep the community safe (for example, applying the chat word filter, timeouts, and bans).
- Respond to your requests, reports, and copyright notices.
- Detect, prevent, and address abuse, fraud, security, and technical issues.
Emails about punchi news
If you tick ‘Email me punchi news’, we’ll occasionally email you about new punchi features and apps. It’s off unless you turn it on. One exception: in October 2026 we sent a single email announcing the Punchi APP to all verified accounts, except those under 18 by saved birthday or that had unsubscribed. Every other news email goes only to people who turned news on. You can turn it off any time in Settings or with the unsubscribe link in every email; it works in one click. We keep a record of when you opted in or out, and which emails we sent you, for 2 years after you delete your account, to show we had your permission. We don’t send news to accounts whose saved birthday shows they’re under 18.
Information that is public
The Service is a public platform. Your display name and handle, avatar, channel page, and chat messages are visible to anyone who can access the Service. When you broadcast, your stream is public to viewers of your channel. Please do not share information in chat or on your channel that you want to keep private. When you visit the punchi BBS (/bbs), other signed-in users can see your handle, when you visited, the one-liners you post, the messages you post in its message conferences, the polls you create (votes are counted without names), the ANSI art you send once staff approve it, your high scores in its door games and its nightly trivia hour (including its daily, weekly and all-time boards and its monthly Hall of Champions), your caller level and title, which reflect how much you use the BBS, your character in its multiplayer door games (its level and standing, and game news lines that name you, such as who you fought), and that you are on the BBS while you are there.
If a streamer connects another platform’s chat, those messages are shown in their punchi chat under the sender’s name on that platform; see “Chat from other platforms” below. A streamer’s now-playing track (see above) is public on their channel.
Donations to punchi. When you donate to punchi itself (not to a channel), we thank you by name in the chat of the channel you came from, and list you on the Hall of Fame with your handle (the name chat shows you by), your total given (for the month, and in all), and whether you give monthly or one-time. Your card number is never seen or kept by us; Stripe handles it. You can choose to be anonymous instead, before you pay (the “Keep me anonymous” box on the donation form) or at any time in Settings, where it takes effect at once: you are then shown as “Anonymous” on the Hall of Fame and “Someone” in chat, and your gift still counts toward the total. If you donated before September 26, 2026, when this began, you are anonymous unless you choose otherwise.
Credit for feedback. If you agreed to be credited when you sent feedback, your @handle can appear in punchi’s release notes (What’s New) when the change it led to ships. To stop future credits, contact support.
Passport stamps. Your passport is private: only you can see it until you turn on “Show my passport” in Settings. When it’s on, anyone who visits your profile can see the channels you’ve stamped and when you earned each stamp. Stamps from 18+ channels are only ever shown to you. If the birthday on your account shows you’re under 18, your passport is never shown to anyone else.
How we share information
We do not sell your personal information. We share information only as described here:
- Service providers — we use third parties to run the Service: Hetzner for hosting and for receiving and processing the live video, Bunny as the content delivery network that streams video to you, Resend for the emails we send you (verification and account mail), and Stripe for payments (subscriptions, gifts, donations, cheers, JABS and unlocks) — your card details go to Stripe directly and we never receive or store them, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver push notifications to the punchi apps, and GoatCounter to count page views. The audio and video in Rooms is relayed through our own LiveKit and TURN servers and is not recorded. punchi staff may join any Room without a camera to check it follows the rules. These providers process data on our behalf, and they are the only ones, apart from Twitch and Kick for streamers who connect them. Nothing else is loaded from or sent to a third party — no font service, no advertising, no social network.
- Twitch and Kick — only for streamers who connect them. We receive chat messages from the connected channel and send the streamer’s own messages to it.
- GoatCounter — we count page views so we can tell whether anybody is finding the site. It sets no cookies, does not follow you to other sites, and does not build a profile of you. It records the page, the referrer, and rough details like browser, screen size and country; it does not store your IP address. There is nothing in it that identifies you, and nothing about it is shared or sold.
- Google sign-in — if you choose to sign in with Google, your use of Google is governed by Google's privacy policy.
- Legal reasons — we may disclose information if required by law or to respond to valid legal process, protect our rights and users, enforce our Terms, or address copyright (DMCA) and safety issues.
Chat from other platforms
Some creators stream on punchi and on other platforms, such as Twitch, at the same time. If a creator turns on multichat, punchi shows that channel’s public chat from those platforms next to punchi’s own chat, so everyone watching sees one conversation.
What we show. For each message: the sender’s public username or display name on that platform, the message text, the emotes and badges that platform shows publicly, and the time it was sent. We don’t collect anything else about the sender: no email, IP address, account details or private messages.
Where it comes from. The messages come from the creator’s public chat on the other platform, through that platform’s public chat service. They were already public there. That platform’s own privacy policy and terms still apply to them.
How long we keep it. We use these messages only to show them live on punchi. They are held only in our server’s memory, for at most about ten minutes (so the punchi apps can show them too), and are gone after that or whenever the server restarts. They are never saved to punchi’s database, chat history or VOD replays. We don’t use them for ads or profiling, and we don’t sell them or share them with anyone else.
Deletions and bans. If a message is deleted on the original platform, or its sender is banned or timed out there, punchi removes it from the live display. The creator can also remove relayed messages from their channel’s chat.
Removal requests. If your messages from another platform appear on punchi and you want them removed, or you have a question about them, email support@ubersoft.pro with your username on that platform and the punchi channel. We’ll answer within 30 days, and we can stop relaying your username altogether. If you’re in the EU, UK or California, you also have the rights described in the rest of this policy, including the right to object to this use.
Why we’re allowed to do this. Under the GDPR, our legal basis is legitimate interests: letting a creator and their audience see one chat when the creator has asked for it. This only uses messages their senders already posted in public, and you can object at any time using the contact above.
Content moderation and recordings
Chat and broadcasts may be moderated by channel owners, their moderators, and site administrators.
If someone reports you, site staff may read the reported messages and your recent chat, including whispers and other private messages, to handle the report. We do this only for reports and never read private messages otherwise.
If you report someone or something on punchi (a person in a Room, a channel or a stream), or our nudity filter covers a camera, we save a still image of what was reported with the report so staff can review it. Report images are deleted 90 days after the report is closed, unless needed for a ban appeal or required by law.
Material that appears to show the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child is preserved securely, reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement as US law requires, and kept for as long as the law requires.
Live broadcasts are recorded. Recording is on by default for every channel. When you finish a broadcast, the recording is kept and published on your channel as a past broadcast that anyone who can see the channel can watch, in the same way the live stream was public. Recordings are deleted automatically seven days after the broadcast began, and we delete a recording sooner if you ask us to. If you would rather your channel was not recorded at all, contact us and we will turn it off for you — there is no self-service switch for this yet.
Data retention
- Passport stamps and the watch totals behind them are kept while your account exists and are deleted with it. The day-by-day watch log used for the daily limits is deleted after 35 days.
- Chat messages are ephemeral and are automatically pruned after a short period (roughly 72 hours).
- Private messages (whispers) are kept on our servers with no automatic expiry. You can take back a message you sent until it’s read. “Clear all” and clearing a conversation only hide it from your own inbox: nothing is deleted, and the other person keeps their copy. A conversation is deleted for both people when either person’s account is deleted. If a message is reported for child safety, a copy is sealed as evidence, and anything under a legal hold is kept until the hold ends.
- Stream recordings are kept for seven days from the start of the broadcast, then deleted automatically.
- Your date of birth, if you gave one, is kept with your account for as long as the account exists, and is removed when the account is deleted.
- Account information is retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period afterward, or as required by law.
- JABS purchases. If you buy JABS, we keep a record that you agreed to immediate delivery (your account ID, the time and the wording you agreed to) for 2 years after the purchase, even if you delete your account, so we can answer cancellation or payment disputes.
- Twitch and Kick tokens are stored encrypted and kept until you disconnect, delete the channel or your account, or remove punchi’s access on Twitch. Then we delete them and ask the platform to revoke them. Relayed Twitch and Kick messages are never written down; they are held in server memory for about ten minutes, then forgotten.
- Feedback, its screenshots and our notes are kept while your account exists, so we can follow up and tell you when a fix ships, and are deleted when you delete your account.
When we delete something, it’s removed from punchi straight away, but copies can stay in our backups for up to 30 days until those backups expire. Backups are used only to recover from failures, and we don’t restore deleted data from them except to repair the service.
Your choices and rights
You can update your profile, avatar, and channel details in your settings at any time.
You can delete your account yourself from Settings → Profile. Deletion is scheduled 30 days ahead: nothing is removed during that time, and signing in before the date lets you cancel it in one click. Any subscriptions you pay for stop billing immediately when you ask, and canceling the deletion does not restart them. When the date passes, deleting removes your login, profile, follows, subscriptions, points, whispers, and any channel you own along with everything on it. Messages you posted in chat and on the BBS remain where they were with your name removed from them. You can delete your own BBS posts yourself before you delete your account, and you can ask us to remove any message that still identifies you. We keep records of payments and of any reports involving your account. Your username is retired permanently rather than released, so that nobody can register it later and inherit the mentions and links that still point to it. Accounts whose email address is never verified are deleted 30 days after sign-up, after a reminder email about a week before. Deletion works the same way as when you delete your account yourself.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete your personal information, or to request that we stop certain processing. To make a request, contact us at support@ubersoft.pro.
Request a copy of your data: email support@ubersoft.pro and we’ll send you a copy of the personal information we hold about you, within 1 month. Your date of birth is shown to you, and only you, in Settings → Profile; if it’s wrong, you can request a correction.
Children
The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Some channels are marked as 18+/mature; you must meet the applicable age requirement to view that content. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us so we can remove it.
Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your information, including hashing passwords and limiting access. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
International users
The Service may be operated from, and information may be processed in, countries other than your own. By using the Service, you understand your information may be transferred to and processed in those locations.
Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Policy.
Contact
Questions about this Policy? Email support@ubersoft.pro. For copyright concerns, see our Copyright / DMCA page.
You can also reach us by mail: Ubersoft LLC, 332 W Lee Hwy, Suite 230, Warrenton, VA 20186, United States.
