Last updated: June 19, 2026
The short version
Haze is an anonymous, local, after-hours social app for adults 21 and over. We built it privacy-first and anonymous by design. You don't bring your real name, and we don't ask for it. You pick a handle and a color, and that's who you are here.
This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. It's written in plain English on purpose. Haze is operated by Champlin Enterprises (founder Kevin Champlin), based in Illinois, USA, and the service is hosted in the United States. By using Haze you also agree to our Terms of Service and our Content & Safety Policy, which are companions to this document.
Information we collect
We try to collect as little as possible, and most of what we hold is the stuff you create on purpose. Specifically:
- Your handle and color. This is your identity on Haze. No real or legal name is required or requested.
- A neighborhood and approximate location. We use an approximate latitude and longitude to rank nearby venues and people. This is not precise, real-time tracking, and you control whether you share location at all (more on this below).
- What you post and send. Posts, direct messages, and any images you upload.
- Your IP address. Used for security, abuse-prevention, and rate-limiting.
- Your email address — only if you give it to us. Email is optional and used solely for sign-in. We never require it to use Haze.
We don't ask for your real name, phone number, date-of-birth document, or any of the identity baggage other apps demand. The point of Haze is that you can show up as a handle and a color and nothing more.
How we sign you in
Haze uses passwordless, magic-link sign-in. If you choose to provide an email address, we email you a one-time link to sign in. We don't store passwords, because there aren't any. If you'd rather not hand over an email, you don't have to.
How we use your information
We use the information above to:
- Run the app — show you nearby rooms, venues, and people, and deliver your posts and messages.
- Sign you in via your one-time magic link.
- Keep Haze safe — prevent abuse, spam, and fraud, enforce rate limits, and respond to reports.
- Comply with the law and protect people, including the child-safety obligations described below.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not run ad networks or behavioral advertising. There's no surveillance business model underneath Haze.
Location data
Location is approximate and you're in control. If you choose to share it, we use a rough latitude and longitude to rank the venues and people near you. That's it. We are not tracking your precise movements in real time, and we don't build a location history of your life.
You decide whether to share location at all. If you'd rather not, Haze still works — you just won't get the nearby ranking.
When you upload an image, we re-encode it on our servers, which strips the EXIF metadata embedded by your camera or phone — including any GPS coordinates baked into the file. So even if a photo "remembers" where it was taken, that information doesn't follow it onto Haze.
How long we keep things (and why some things linger)
Haze is built to be ephemeral. Most of what you post is meant to disappear:
- Posts expire automatically — roughly 8 hours at night and about 48 hours during the day.
- Rooms close when their time is up.
Once that window passes, the content is gone from the normal experience. That's the design — Haze is the moment, not the archive.
A few things are kept longer, and we want to be honest about that. We retain certain records — security logs, IP addresses, moderation and abuse records, and records related to child-safety reports — for longer than the normal expiry window. We do this to keep the community safe, to investigate abuse, and to meet our legal obligations. We keep these no longer than we reasonably need to for those purposes.
You can delete your account at any time. Doing so removes your profile and your content, subject to the safety and legal retention described above.
How we share information, and who helps us run Haze
We don't sell your personal data. We share information only in a few narrow situations: with the trusted service providers ("subprocessors") that help us operate Haze, to comply with the law, to enforce our Terms, and to protect the safety of people on and off the app.
Our subprocessors are:
- Cloudflare — content delivery, DNS, and scanning uploaded images for known child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
- Mailgun — sending transactional email, including your sign-in links.
- A US-based hosting provider — running the servers Haze lives on.
- Laravel Reverb — powering the real-time websocket connections that make rooms feel live.
These providers process data on our behalf to deliver the service. They aren't advertising networks, and we don't hand your information to data brokers.
Cookies and local storage
Haze uses a small, boring set of cookies and local storage:
- An essential session cookie that keeps you signed in.
- An age-gate acknowledgement so we remember you confirmed you're 21+.
- A Day/Night mode preference so the app looks the way you left it.
That's the whole list. No third-party advertising cookies, no cross-site tracking pixels, no following you around the internet.
Child safety and our 21+ rule
Haze is strictly for adults 21 and over. It is not intended for anyone under 21, and we don't knowingly allow minors to use it. If we learn that someone under 21 has used Haze, we will remove the account, and depending on what we find, we may be required to make a report.
We take child safety seriously and without exception. Cloudflare scans uploaded images for known CSAM. If we become aware of apparent child sexual abuse material, we report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), preserve the related records as required by federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2258A), and cooperate with law enforcement. There is zero tolerance for this on Haze.
If you ever encounter something that endangers a minor, please contact us immediately at [email protected].
Your choices and rights
You have real control over your data on Haze:
- Stay anonymous. You never have to give us your real name, and email is optional.
- Control location. Share it or don't — your call, and you can change your mind.
- Access and delete. You can delete your account, which removes your profile and content (subject to the safety and legal retention described above). If you'd like to know what we hold about you, get in touch.
Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — for example, the right to access, correct, delete, or port your information, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We honor these rights where they apply. To make a request, email us at [email protected]. Because Haze is anonymous, the main thing we can tie to you is your handle and any email you provided, so please reach out from or reference the email you signed in with so we can find the right account.
Security
We work to protect your information with sensible safeguards: encryption in transit, server-side image re-encoding that strips EXIF and GPS metadata, IP-based rate limiting, and abuse controls. Keeping Haze anonymous is itself a security measure — we simply don't hold the sensitive identity data that makes a breach dangerous.
That said, no system is perfectly secure, and we can't promise absolute security. We'd rather tell you that plainly than pretend otherwise.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Haze grows or as the law changes. When we make a meaningful change, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top and, where appropriate, give you a clearer heads-up in the app. If you keep using Haze after an update, that means you accept the revised policy.
How to contact us
Questions about privacy, or about this policy? We're real people and we read our mail.
- General and privacy: [email protected]
- Safety and child-safety concerns: [email protected]
Haze is operated by Champlin Enterprises, Illinois, USA. For more on the rules of the road and what's allowed, see our Terms of Service and Content & Safety Policy.