Can PolyBuzz see your chats? A plain reading of the policy

So I'd treat your PolyBuzz chats as private from other people on the internet, but not from PolyBuzz itself.

Here is what the official privacy policy says, and what it leaves open:

• Input text is one of the data types PolyBuzz collects
• It says photos and precise geolocation are collected "to train our AI algorithm"
• It lets PolyBuzz pass data to outside partners that help deliver functionality, and it names "the Chat-GPT platform" as one of them
• It keeps personal information "for no longer than is necessary" for the stated purposes, with no fixed number of days
• It does not say whether staff read chats, or whether chat text itself trains the AI

The marketing tells a softer story. PolyBuzz's own tagline promises a chat service that is "Free, Private, and Unlimited", and the FAQ repeats that chat is private. I read "private" there as "nobody else in the app sees it", not as "the company never touches it". Those are different promises, and only the first one is on offer.

Some people worry about privacy because of what they write, not who reads it. For what it's worth, other reviewers describe PolyBuzz's content as staying suggestive rather than explicit, so it is not a place for anything past that level anyway. If you are comparing it with Character AI on content, my Character AI NSFW guide covers that side.

Just below, the table "The apps side by side" sets PolyBuzz against five other apps feature by feature, which helps if privacy is pushing you to look around.

What I can do is reason from the facts that are there. PolyBuzz collects the text you send. It shares information with outside partners that help the service work, and it names the ChatGPT platform as one of them. So at minimum, your messages pass through PolyBuzz's systems and may pass through a partner's.

In my book, anything that passes through a company's systems is something that company can reach if it needs to.

Here is how I'd set your expectations, fact by fact:

• Collected: yes, what you type is listed as input text
• Shared: possibly, with third parties that help deliver functionality
• Read by a person: not stated either way
• Kept: for as long as the stated purposes need, with no set limit given

That leaves a gap in both directions: nothing confirms your chats train the model, and nothing promises they don't.

I would like a clear sentence here, the kind some companies publish with an opt-out attached. PolyBuzz's policy on file has neither. My advice is to act as though your words could be used, and write accordingly. It costs you nothing and protects you if the answer turns out to be yes.

Two practical takeaways. Don't upload real photos of yourself if training use bothers you, since photos are the one thing the policy names for training. And keep location sharing off where your phone lets you choose. My full PolyBuzz review goes through the rest of the app: plans, coins, voice and images.

A discreet billing name is a real privacy question when someone else sees your statements. Here is what is on file:

• Candy AI bills as EverAI
• OurDream AI bills as DREAM STUDIO LLC AL
• Nomi AI bills as NOMI.AI
• GirlfriendGPT bills as NDAI.CC
• SpicyChat bills as NDAI.CHAT

The billing name PolyBuzz uses is not on file. What is known is that its legal documents name a Hong Kong company, Singularity Mutual Entertainment Culture Media Limited, while the Apple App Store lists the seller as CLOUD WHALE INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY LLC. Payment methods on file are card, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

If you pay through Apple or Google, the purchase goes through your store account, which some people find more comfortable.

For me, the most discreet names on that list are the ones that don't spell out the app, like EverAI or NDAI.CC. NOMI.AI is the most obvious. None of that says anything about how chats are handled, though, so treat billing names and chat privacy as two separate checks.

An app can have a perfectly discreet statement line and still keep everything you type, or the reverse. Neither one tells you about the other, which is why I look at both.

If you care about both, my approach would be to read each app's own privacy policy before paying, looking for three things: whether chats train the model, whether you can opt out, and how deletion works. It takes a little time, but I know of no fairer way to compare. My ranked list of apps like PolyBuzz is a good place to start that shortlist, since it sorts the options by what their official pages show.

The box below sums up OurDream AI, one of the apps whose billing name is on file.

I'd still keep one caveat in mind: the absence of such a feature on file is not the same as a written promise.

The characters themselves are a different matter. PolyBuzz says it has over 20 million unique characters, and character creation is free, so the library is built largely from what users make. If you create a character, assume its name, picture and story may be seen by others.

Keep your real name, your town and anything personal out of a character you build, even if the chats with it stay private.

There is also the question of people around you. On a shared phone or computer, anyone who opens the app while you are logged in can scroll through your chat list. That is not a PolyBuzz issue, just a practical one. A screen lock, and logging out on shared devices, handles most of it.

On a family computer, I'd also avoid saving the password in the browser, since the next person to open the site would land straight in your chat list. Small habits like these protect you more than any policy wording.

One more angle I find useful. Ads on the free plan mean an ad network is part of your session, and other reviewers report plenty of pop-up ads on the free version. The records don't say what those ad partners receive, but if ads bother you on privacy grounds, the paid plans are ad-free from Premium upward.

If you want to cut the cost of going ad-free, my coupons hub shows the deals that are live right now, although it has no PolyBuzz code at the moment.

My overall view: from other users, your chats look private; from the company, assume they are not. That is roughly where most chat apps sit, and it is the right mental model to write with. The box below leads to PolyBuzz, if you decide the trade-off is fine for you.

First, check which account you are in. The terms mention using PolyBuzz either as a guest or as a registered user. If you chatted as a guest on one device and later signed in, or used a different login, your chat list may look different.

Nothing on file says whether guest chats move to a new account, so I wouldn't count on it.

Second, compare the web and the app. PolyBuzz is available on the web, iOS and Android. Log in to the same account somewhere else and look: that quickly tells you if the conversation is still there.

If it shows up on one and not the other, the chat still exists and the problem is only the display, which is far better news than a lost conversation.

Third, think about deletion. If an account was deleted under Settings > Delete Account, the chats went with it, and nothing on file describes a way back.

My advice if you are leaving: cancel any subscription through the store first, then delete the account. Nothing on file says deleting stops a renewal, and a plan you can no longer see is hard to cancel. For step-by-step guides on deleting, cancelling and billing across the apps on file, my help pages for companion apps have them in one place.

If you are staying, the lighter option is to be selective about what you type from now on. You can't unsend what is already stored, but you can decide what goes in next.

What would change my view is a clear, published statement: whether chat text trains the AI, and a way to opt out. Some apps publish exactly that. PolyBuzz's policy on file does not, and I'd weigh that before paying for Premium at $19.90 a month or Ultimate at $29.90 a month.

Paying more buys stronger memory models and no ads, not stronger privacy terms. The same policy covers free and paid users alike, as far as anything on file shows, so your plan choice and your privacy choice are really two separate decisions.

Your full real name together with where you live or work. Passwords, bank details or card numbers, even as a joke in a scene. Photos of yourself or other people you would not want stored. Private details about friends, family or partners who never agreed to be in your story.

None of that makes a chat less fun. Characters respond to feelings and situations, not to your postcode. A made-up name and a vague city work just as well, and they keep you safe if a policy ever changes or a system is ever breached.

If you are going through something hard and using a chat app to talk it through, that is understandable, but an app is not a substitute for people who know you. A friend, a doctor or a local support line can help in ways a chatbot can't.

Everything here comes from PolyBuzz's official privacy policy, terms and FAQ, with my opinion on top. It is a desk guide, not a hands-on audit. My page on how I check the apps explains how each app gets weighed. The FAQ below answers the shorter privacy questions.