Last updated 23 October 2026
At a glance
- Kept in DenmarkYour account and everything you send is stored on our server in Denmark, inside the EU.
- No ads, no sellingWe don't sell your data, show ads or let others track you in the app.
- You choose who sees youDiscover, posts and what you're doing are up to you, in Settings.
- Extra safe sign-inTurn on two-step sign-in, and see and sign out every device you're signed in on.
- Take it with youDownload your messages, friends and profile in one file, from Settings → Privacy.
- Delete any timeDelete your account in Settings, and your data is erased right away.
- Who we are
- What we store
- Why
- Who can see it
- Who we share with
- How long
- On your computer
- Your rights
- Children
- Changes
Who we are
Snakkes is a messenger for Windows and Mac, run from Denmark. We are the data controller for the personal data in Snakkes, which means we decide how it's used and are responsible for looking after it. Questions about your data? Write to us on the Help page.
What we store
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Your account | Username, email address, your password as a one-way hash (nobody can read it), when you joined, and your settings, such as what friends may send you. |
| Your profile | Display name, display picture, status, personal message and name style. |
| Messages and files | Your chats and group chats: messages, photos, files, reactions, replies, edits, pinned messages (and who pinned them), nudges, winks, polls and your votes, and games (including the drawings in Draw and Guess, and Ludo with your group). When you send a link, the preview your app made (the page's title, description and picture) is kept with the message. |
| Friends and Activity | Your friends, friend requests, blocks, groups, suggestions, streaks and invites (including who joined through your invite), and your posts and updates in Activity. |
| Circles | The Circles you're in and made, your role and sparks there, what you write in them and your reactions, and invites to them. |
| What you're doing | The game you're playing, the song playing on Spotify, or the YouTube video open in your browser (never from private windows), shown next to your status. Only if you turn it on, when you create your account or in Settings → Privacy, and never while you appear offline. |
| Devices and sign-ins | Which devices you're signed in on (such as “Snakkes desktop (Win32)”), the app version and when each was last used, so you can see them and sign them out in Settings → Security. With two-step sign-in on, also which devices you've confirmed with a code (as a random key, not your device's name or ID). |
| Feedback, reports and help | What you send in Feedback, reports you make (with the message you reported, and the latest messages in that chat if you choose to include them; from a group chat, those can be other members' messages too), and help requests from our Help page, with the email address you give. |
| Notifications | Notices to you under the megaphone in the app, such as an answer to your feedback or news from the Snakkes team, and whether you've read them. Which emails you want (unread messages, friend requests, a note when you've been away), and when we last sent one, so you never get the same one twice. |
| Terms of Use | When you accepted our Terms of Use, and which version. |
| Snakkes More | Whether you have it, until when, whether you've used the free trial, and weeks you got for inviting a friend. If you buy More: the IDs Stripe gives your customer account and subscription, whether the subscription is active or cancelled, and when it renews. Your card details go straight to Stripe and never reach us. |
| Your data download | If you ask for a copy of your data, the file we make for you, until it expires, and when you asked. |
We don't store your calls. Voice and video, and screens you share, go directly between your computer and your friend's.
Why we use it
- To run Snakkes for you (our agreement with you, GDPR article 6(1)(b)): your account, delivering messages and files, calls, games, polls, friends, Activity, streaks, invite rewards, your Snakkes More subscription if you buy one, and emails with codes for signing up, two-step sign-in and resetting your password. Also the emails about unread messages and friend requests while you're away, which you choose in Settings → Notifications. They say who wrote and how many messages, never what they wrote.
- To remind you of Snakkes (our legitimate interest, article 6(1)(f)): if you've been away for two weeks, one email about what you've missed, and once more after six weeks. You can turn it off in Settings → Notifications or with the link in the email.
- To keep Snakkes safe and working (our legitimate interest, article 6(1)(f)): stopping spam and abuse, handling reports, the word filter (see below), two-step sign-in and showing where you're signed in, limiting how many requests can be sent, and fixing problems.
- Things you turn on yourself (your consent, article 6(1)(a)): being shown in Discover (was Find Friends) and showing friends what you're doing. Both are off until you turn them on, and you can turn them off in Settings → Privacy whenever you like.
- When the law requires it (article 6(1)(c)): giving you a copy of your data when you ask, keeping records of payments for Snakkes More as Danish bookkeeping law requires, or if the authorities lawfully ask us for information.
The word filter. What you write on Snakkes is checked automatically against a short list of words. In posts in Activity, display names, usernames and personal messages, a blocked word means it can't be saved, and you're asked to change it. In private chats and group chats, a blocked word is sent but hidden behind a box wherever the message shows. Some words are only flagged: what you wrote is saved and shown, and a moderator looks at it. In a chat, a flagged word gets a box around it saying it's pending moderation, so you and the people you're talking to can see it, and that one message (with who sent it and to whom) goes to the moderators. Chat messages without a flagged word aren't seen by anyone but the people in the chat.
We never use your messages for advertising. Apart from the word filter stopping a word, we don't make automated decisions about you, and a person always looks at anything flagged before any action is taken.
Who can see what
- Your friends see your name, username, picture, status, personal message and, if you turn it on, what you're doing. They see the messages in your chats with them.
- Group chats: everyone in the group sees the group's messages and the members' names and pictures, and who voted for what in a poll.
- Circles: everyone in a Circle sees what's written there, and the name, username, picture and level in that Circle of whoever wrote it. Only people in a Circle see who's in it. Being in a Circle doesn't show on your profile or to your friends. Anyone can join a public Circle, so don't write anything there you wouldn't say in public.
- Invites: whoever invited you sees that you joined, and how many days you've chatted until you've both got your week of Snakkes More.
- Posts are seen by friends, friends of friends or everybody, as you choose in Settings → Privacy. Others in Activity only see a post, not the rest of your profile.
- Discover: only if you turn it on, other Snakkes users see your name, username, picture and personal message there.
- Moderators are a few trusted people who look after Snakkes. They can see account details and reports, including messages someone chose to include in a report, and posts, names and chat messages the word filter flagged (a flagged word in a chat has a box around it, so you know). Apart from that, they don't read your chats.
Who we share it with
We don't sell your data or share it for marketing. A few services help us run Snakkes, and only get what they need:
- Our hosting provider in Denmark, where the server and database are, and which sends our emails (codes, invites, the link to your data download, and the notification emails you choose).
- Link previews: when you write a link, your own app visits the page to make the preview, just as when you open it, so that website sees your computer's IP address. YouTube links are looked up through YouTube's oEmbed service. The people you send it to only see the preview; their apps don't visit the page.
- Calls: to connect a call, the computers in the call exchange their network addresses (IP addresses), and use a public STUN server run by Google to find the way to each other. In a group call, everyone in the call connects to each other this way. The call itself doesn't go through Google or through us.
- Stripe, only if you buy Snakkes More. You pay on Stripe's own page, so the card details you type there go to Stripe, not to us. We give Stripe your email address and display name, so it can send you receipts, and Stripe tells us whether your subscription is paid. Stripe handles the payment as its own data controller and follows its privacy policy. For customers in the EU that's Stripe Payments Europe in Ireland, which may also process payment data in the US under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
- The authorities, only when Danish or EU law requires it.
Apart from payments handled by Stripe, your data stays in the EU. If that ever changes, we'll make sure it's protected as the GDPR requires, and update this page first.
How long we keep it
- As long as you have an account. Deleted messages are hidden for everyone in the chat right away.
- Disappearing messages are gone for the people you sent them to when their time is up: they can no longer see the text, link preview or any photo or file, and reactions to it are erased. The time starts when your friend reads the message (in a group, when it's sent), and a message nobody opens disappears after 14 days. You, the sender, keep your own message (shown with a dashed outline in your chat) until you delete it, so it's stored like your other messages. If someone reported the message before it disappeared, the moderators keep their copy.
- When you delete your account, your email address, password, name, picture, personal message, chats, photos, files, friends, friend requests, activities and feedback are erased right away. You leave your group chats and Circles, and your messages there are removed (a Circle you made goes to someone else in it). A Snakkes More subscription is cancelled right away, so you're never charged again.
- Payments for Snakkes More are kept by Stripe, and in our accounts, for as long as Danish bookkeeping law requires (5 years).
- Your username stays reserved, so nobody else can take it and pretend to be you.
- Your data download is deleted 7 days after it's made (or sooner, when you ask for a new one). We keep a note that you asked, so we can count requests.
- A device you signed out from another device is forgotten after 14 days. A device you confirmed for two-step sign-in is asked for a code again after 180 days without use.
- Reports others made about you are kept for the moderators, to keep Snakkes safe. Help requests are kept as long as needed to help you.
- Backups of the database may hold deleted data for a short while before they're replaced.
On your computer
The Snakkes app keeps your sign-in and your settings (like dark mode, sounds and how loud each friend is in calls) on your computer, so you don't have to sign in every time, plus a random key for two-step sign-in, stored encrypted like your sign-in. Signing out removes the sign-in, and uninstalling Snakkes removes the app. Our website doesn't use tracking cookies.
Keeping it safe
The app only talks to our server over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Passwords are stored as a one-way hash, codes from emails expire quickly, and signing in on a new computer signs the old one out. With two-step sign-in on, a new computer also needs a code from your email, and Settings → Security shows where you're signed in, so you can sign out a device you don't recognise. Calls are encrypted between the two computers. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data, and we'll tell you if something serious happens.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- See the data we have about you, and get a copy of it (Settings → Privacy → Download your data),
- Correct it (most of it you can change yourself in the app),
- Delete it (Settings → Privacy → Delete account),
- Take it with you in a common format: Download your data gives you a ZIP file with your messages, photos and files, friends, groups and profile, in JSON and plain text. We email you a link that works for 7 days,
- Object to or limit how we use it,
- Withdraw consent for anything you turned on, at any time.
For anything you can't do in the app yourself, send us a request on the Help page, and we'll answer within a month. If you're not happy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Danish Data Protection Agency, Datatilsynet.
Children
You must be at least 13 to use Snakkes. If you think a child under 13 has an account, let us know and we'll look into it.
Changes to this page
Snakkes keeps growing, so this page will change too. When we make important changes, we'll tell you in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.