Privacy Policy

Effective date: January 1, 2026 · Last updated: January 1, 2026

WatercoolerChats ("we", "us", or "our") operates a Slack bot that pairs coworkers for short coffee chats. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding it.

1. Information We Collect

When a workspace admin installs WatercoolerChats, Slack grants us a bot access token and the following workspace data:

Workspace identifiers — Slack team ID and team name
User identifiers — Slack user IDs and display names
Email addresses — pulled from Slack user profiles (requires the users:read.email scope)
Pairing records — which users were paired, when, and whether the chat was marked complete
Settings — cadence, timezone, opt-in model, and other workspace configuration

We do not record the content of any conversations, DMs, or messages sent between users.

2. How We Use Your Information

To create and deliver weekly coffee-chat pairings
To send intro and reminder messages via Slack DMs
To generate icebreaker questions (optionally via Claude by Anthropic — see Section 5)
To compute participation statistics shown inside Slack
To enforce opt-in/opt-out preferences per user

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any purpose unrelated to the WatercoolerChats service.

3. Legal Basis (GDPR)

For users in the European Economic Area, our legal basis for processing personal data is legitimate interests — specifically, the interest of your employer in facilitating employee connection — and performance of a contract with the workspace that installed the app. You may withdraw consent by opting out via /watercooler stop.

4. Data Retention

Workspace and user data is retained for as long as WatercoolerChats is installed in your Slack workspace.
When the app is uninstalled, all workspace data is automatically deleted within 30 days.
Pairing records are retained for statistical purposes during the active subscription period.

5. Third-Party Services

Slack Technologies — we interact with the Slack API to read workspace members and send messages. Slack's Privacy Policy applies to all data on their platform.
Anthropic — if an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is configured, icebreaker prompts and /watercooler ask responses are generated via Claude. Only the workspace name and aggregate statistics are sent to Anthropic — no personal identifiers. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
Railway / cloud hosting — our servers run on Railway. Data is stored in a PostgreSQL database with encryption at rest. See Railway's Privacy Policy.

6. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (TLS), database encryption at rest, and scoped Slack API tokens stored securely as environment variables. No system is 100% secure; please contact us immediately if you believe a breach has occurred.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you
Request correction of inaccurate data
Request deletion of your data
Opt out of processing by using /watercooler stop or by asking your workspace admin to remove your user record

To exercise any of these rights, email us at privacy@watercoolerchat.xyz. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Children's Privacy

WatercoolerChats is not directed to children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced in the app via a Slack message to workspace admins at least 14 days before taking effect.

10. Contact

Questions or concerns? Email us at privacy@watercoolerchat.xyz.