Terms of Use

1. Who operates the service

Hello Stranger is operated by Dominic Shannon trading as Hello Stranger, a sole trader. Hello Stranger is the service’s standalone brand. Business correspondence address: not supplied by the operator. Support, appeals and privacy requests: on-site support. Support, privacy and appeals email: anyaonly90@gmail.com. There is no subscription or automatic renewal.

These terms describe Hello Stranger’s beta service. They are subject to review against the operator’s actual business, audience, technology and moderation arrangements. Calling the service a test does not remove rights or duties imposed by law.

2. Minimum age and account access

You must be at least 18 to use Hello Stranger. Everyone aged 18 and over is welcome, subject to these rules. This is a minimum age, not a recommendation. Hello Stranger is a general conversation service, not an adult-content service; sexual content is prohibited. Do not let a child use your account, appear on camera or listen to a chat. If you believe a participant is under 18, leave and report the concern. A simple age declaration does not verify a person’s age. Separate age verification is currently switched off. Access relies on your 18+ declaration; participants’ ages are not verified. The Yoti integration is retained for possible future use. The required risk assessments must also be completed before public launch.

You can use webcam chat as a guest without a ChatGPT account. A necessary browser cookie identifies your guest session for matching, reports and blocks. Guest access lasts up to 30 days in that browser. Clearing cookies, changing browsers or cookie expiry creates a different identity and can defeat blocks and suspensions. Do not use this to evade restrictions. Administrators must sign in with an authorised ChatGPT account.

3. What the service provides

The service attempts to connect two available people for a live webcam and microphone conversation. You control whether to start, mute your microphone, pause your camera, skip or stop. Skip ends your current connection and begins a new search. Stop releases the camera and microphone used by this page.

Calls last up to 60 minutes in the launch version; you may start a new chat afterwards. No particular person, waiting time, compatibility, conversation duration or availability is guaranteed. Gender filters use self-declared gender, not verification; they may mean longer waits. The site does not verify a participant’s identity, intentions or conduct.

Text chat during a call

You can send typed messages to your current chat partner alongside video and audio. The same conduct rules apply to spoken, written and visual content. Messages are limited to 1,000 characters and are not saved by the application on its servers. The browser shows up to the most recent 100 messages and clears the conversation on Skip, Stop or disconnection. Participants may still copy or capture messages.

Moderators do not receive the text conversation through camera reviews. To report unwanted messages, use Report & leave and describe what happened. The report includes your description, not an automatic chat transcript. Do not include unnecessary personal information or unlawful material.

4. User conduct

Do not show nudity, pornography, sexual activity, sexual exploitation, graphic violence or illegal material. Do not encourage suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, dangerous challenges or harmful substance use. Do not pressure anyone into sexual conversation, sharing intimate material, keeping unsafe secrets or moving to another service. Do not sexually harass, threaten, stalk, blackmail, bully or abuse another person. Child sexual abuse or exploitation, grooming, trafficking, terrorism, encouragement of serious violence and non-consensual intimate imagery are prohibited.

Do not discriminate, encourage hatred, expose another person’s private information, run scams, solicit payments through deception, distribute malware or use the service for unlawful selling. Do not use bots, artificial traffic, impersonation, misleading prerecorded streams or tools intended to defeat safety controls. Do not advertise or solicit sexual services.

Only share your own webcam and microphone with people who can lawfully appear or be heard. You must not secretly record, photograph or rebroadcast other participants. Do not expose bystanders, private documents, addresses or identifying details. A rule against recording cannot technically prevent another person using an external recording device.

5. Safety spot-checks and administrator access

Authorised administrators and moderators may view and hear live webcam conversations as part of safety spot-checks, also called dip sampling, and to investigate reports of inappropriate or suspicious behaviour. This includes both participants’ video and audio. The purpose is to check compliance with the rules and protect users.

The chat screen explains this before you start and includes this disclosure in the required Terms of Use acknowledgement. There is no additional in-chat notification when snapshot sampling or live review begins. The acknowledgement before chat and these terms explain that either type of check may take place. Moderators do not receive your camera feed before you have started a chat. You may leave at any time using Stop; stopping ends the site’s access to your camera and microphone. Pausing the camera or muting the microphone also applies to the feed shared with a moderator.

Access is restricted to authorised moderator accounts. A reason is required for each spot-check. The service logs review access and moderation actions, including relevant account and room identifiers and times. Live reviews are time-limited. The service may create small, temporary camera snapshots in the authorised moderator’s browser to display many cameras in a table. A receive-only video stream is sent to that browser while sampling is active so it can refresh the images about every eight seconds. Audio is not requested for the snapshot table. The moderator can select a camera and open its conversation for live video and audio review before deciding to keep the chat open or end it. A decision to keep a chat open is not a guarantee about the user’s future behaviour. Snapshots are kept only in browser memory and cleared when that review stops or the page closes; they are not uploaded to an image store or saved as a gallery by this application. The design does not record video or audio.

Spot-checks are occasional, not continuous supervision. There is no promise that every chat will be watched, every report will receive an immediate response or every incident will be prevented. The service is not an emergency service. Any future recording feature, monitoring expansion or material purpose change requires a separate assessment and updated notices before use.

6. Risks and your choices

Conversations with strangers carry risks. Someone may lie, offend, manipulate, expose inappropriate material or attempt to obtain personal information. You decide whether to continue a conversation and may leave whenever you wish. Do not disclose financial details, passwords, precise location, medical information or other sensitive personal data to strangers.

You use the service knowing these risks, but this is not an agreement that the operator has no responsibility. Your acceptance of risk does not waive your legal rights or excuse the operator from applicable safety, privacy, consumer or other legal obligations.

Webcam connections can fail or expose network information, including an IP address, to another participant through the connection process. The application requires Cloudflare TURN relay connections. The relay is configured and two-device video and audio calls have been tested. Do not treat the service as anonymous, confidential or suitable for sensitive discussions.

7. Reporting, intervention and account restrictions

Please report anything that makes you uncomfortable, even if you are unsure whether it breaks a rule. You will not be penalised for a good-faith report that is not upheld. A saved report also prevents these two account or guest identities being matched again; it cannot prevent a person returning with a different account, cleared cookies or another browser. Use Report & leave during a chat to send a description of a concern to the admin and end the conversation. Do not create, download or submit unlawful images as evidence. Where there is an immediate danger, contact the appropriate emergency service directly.

Moderators may end a conversation, review an incident or suspend an account where reasonably necessary for safety, security or rule enforcement. Decisions should be proportionate and based on available information. A report is an allegation, not proof. An authorised moderator can reverse a mistaken suspension after reviewing an appeal; the action and reason are logged. Restoring access does not remove report-based match blocks. A suspension does not guarantee that the same individual cannot attempt to return using another account.

The public service must provide a working complaints and appeals contact, reasonable response arrangements and a way to challenge mistakes. An on-site support inbox is available; you may also email anyaonly90@gmail.com. Dependable handling arrangements must be completed before launch. Refund, data-access and other statutory rights remain available to suspended users. Suspension does not by itself cancel a payment-provider subscription; the operator must help the user stop renewals where appropriate.

8. Free chat and credit purchases

Everyone matching is free. When purchases are open, a one-off £3.99 payment buys 100 credits through Stripe. There is no subscription, monthly charge or automatic top-up. You must sign in to buy and use credits. The Credits page states whether checkout is available; accepting these terms alone never authorises a payment.

Each new match using a gender filter costs 1 credit. The credit is taken when a matching person is found, not while you wait or change a selection. Choosing Skip with a filter selected costs another credit when a new match is found. Both users’ choices must be compatible. Gender is self-declared and not verified. Matching, call length and another participant’s behaviour are not guaranteed. For a failed call or disputed credit charge, contact support so it can be reviewed.

Credits are linked to your signed-in account, cannot be transferred, and are not money. This version does not apply an automatic credit expiry. Any service closure or material change must respect applicable remedies and consumer rights. Refunded or disputed payments may have corresponding credits removed; credits already used may leave a balance to resolve with support.

Before paying, you are asked to accept the purchase terms and request immediate access to credits. This does not remove statutory cancellation or refund rights. To request cancellation, a refund, or help with an unused balance, contact on-site support or anyaonly90@gmail.com. Applicable rights depend on the circumstances and the service supplied; these terms do not impose a blanket no-refunds rule. Stripe processes card details; Hello Stranger does not store your full card number.

11. Service availability and changes

The operator will use reasonable care and skill in providing the service. Temporary interruptions may occur for maintenance, network problems, security incidents or necessary safety interventions. The operator should explain material paid-service interruptions and provide remedies where required by law.

Material changes to pricing, credits, monitoring or these terms must be communicated before they take effect where required. New prices must not be applied retrospectively to an already paid period. Where a change significantly disadvantages a paying user, the operator must respect cancellation and other applicable rights.

12. Responsibility and limits

The operator does not endorse a participant’s statements and cannot promise that every user will behave lawfully or that every risk will be prevented. This does not exclude responsibility for the operator’s own breaches of contract, negligence, unlawful conduct or failures to meet applicable duties.

To the extent permitted by law, the service is offered for personal, non-commercial use and the operator does not accept responsibility for business losses arising from commercial use contrary to that purpose. Any limitation must be fair and lawful in the circumstances.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Nothing removes your statutory consumer rights, data-protection rights or access to legal remedies. No statement saying use at your own risk overrides this paragraph.

13. Privacy and necessary use of your content

The Privacy Notice explains what information the service uses and why. Live transmission requires a limited permission to transmit your audio, video and typed messages to the current chat partner and your audio and video to the authorised moderator when a disclosed safety review is active. This is not a right to use your footage in advertising, training materials or public recordings.

The operator must establish the appropriate lawful bases, retention periods, supplier arrangements and security measures before public operation. A terms checkbox is not a substitute for a data-protection assessment or a lawful basis.

14. Complaints, legal rights and governing law

These terms are intended for an operator based in England and Wales and use the law of England and Wales, subject to any mandatory protections of a consumer’s place of residence. A consumer is not required to give up a right to bring proceedings in a court available to them under applicable law.

If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining terms continue only so far as lawful and fair. Informal support should be available, but users are not required to waive access to regulators, courts or other remedies.

Public-launch preparation includes confirming the correspondence address and reviewing these terms, the privacy notice and the moderation arrangements. Terms cannot make an unsafe or non-compliant operation lawful.

15. Enforcing the 18+ minimum age

Do not give false age information, share your account with a person under 18 or bypass age checks. If someone appears under 18, leave and report them. The operator may end a chat or restrict access while investigating an age concern. Any age-assurance process must explain the data it requires and how to challenge an incorrect outcome.

A tick box does not verify age. Separate provider checks are currently switched off. Do not assume another participant is an adult merely because they accepted these terms. Future age checks will be explained before they are introduced. The operator must assess whether children are likely to access the service and implement the applicable protections before public launch. A small audience does not remove these duties.

16. Complaints and appeals procedure

You may challenge a removed chat, account restriction, report outcome or a failure to follow these terms through on-site support, including if your account is suspended or age verification has failed. Use the same guest browser or signed-in account to access your inbox. If you lose access, email anyaonly90@gmail.com. Include the approximate date and time, your account reference if available, the decision and why you believe it is wrong. Never send passwords, card details or illegal imagery. A person acting for a young user should explain that relationship; we may check authority before disclosing account information.

The support process is to acknowledge receipt, assess urgency, review the available records and explain the outcome and any corrective action. Where practicable, another authorised reviewer should consider an appeal. Requests receive an automatic receipt, not a human decision. Replies appear in the support page; there are no email notifications. The inbox is checked at irregular times. You may also contact anyaonly90@gmail.com. Dependable staffing and response arrangements must be established before launch. We may limit disclosure to protect another person or an investigation. You retain rights to complain to regulators or use legal remedies.

Reference guidance used for this draft

CMA guidance on unfair contract terms; Ofcom’s online safety compliance guide; ICO guidance on data protection impact assessments. These sources do not certify this site or these terms.