Privacy Policy

Chat Plays Games (chatplaysgames.com and its live streams on Twitch and YouTube) · Last updated 28 October 2026

Chat Plays Games is a live stream in which viewers vote in chat on the choices of a video game while it is being played. Viewers on Twitch can also vote by clicking on the video, through our Twitch extension. This policy explains what information the stream's software and the extension read, what they keep, and what they publish. The short version: we count votes and keep only the counts. We do not store your name, your account ID or what you wrote.

Who runs this

The stream and chatplaysgames.com are run by boardengineer, based in the United States of America. Contact: contact@chatplaysgames.com.

YouTube API Services

The stream uses YouTube API Services to read the live chat of our own YouTube live streams, and to post the stream's own messages in that chat: each vote's options and result, and answers to commands. By watching or chatting on our YouTube stream you are also using YouTube, and the YouTube Terms of Service apply. How Google handles your information is described in the Google Privacy Policy.

What we read

While the stream is live, our software reads the public chat messages of our own live stream, from YouTube (through the YouTube Data API) and from Twitch. For each message it reads the text, the time it was sent, the author's channel or account ID and display name, and whether the author is the channel owner or a moderator.

The Twitch extension

The extension draws the votes and the game's state (deck, relics, map and so on) over the video, and lets you vote by clicking. It is built to work without knowing who you are.

What Twitch gives it. Always: a token Twitch signs for every extension, holding the channel's ID, your role (viewer, moderator or broadcaster) and an opaque ID, a random ID Twitch makes for the extension that is not your Twitch account. Only if you choose to share your identity (Twitch asks you first, and you can revoke it in Twitch's settings): your Twitch user ID. Your user name, email and other account details are never given to the extension.
Counting your click. Our web server checks the token and counts one vote per person, using the opaque ID, or your Twitch user ID if you shared it. With a shared identity, a click and a number typed in chat count as one vote, not two. A short-lived rate limit against spam uses the same ID. Both are held in memory only and are gone when the vote closes; they are never written to logs or files, and never shown on stream or on the website.
Who may click. The stream may limit clicking to logged-in viewers, or to viewers who shared their identity. The extension says so when that applies.
In your browser. The extension remembers your language, whether you hid it, and whether a side panel is open, in your browser's local storage. These never leave your browser. It sets no cookies and loads nothing from Google Fonts.
Twitch's part. Twitch runs the extension and your account; see the Twitch Privacy Notice.

What we do with it

Counting votes. A message that is a vote (a number such as "2") is counted for that option. To allow one vote per viewer, the software turns the author's account (YouTube channel ID or Twitch login) into a random-looking key: a keyed hash (HMAC-SHA256) whose key is created fresh each time the software starts. The key cannot be turned back into your account, it changes every time the software restarts, and it is kept only in memory.
Answering commands. A message such as !what Bash or !deck is answered in chat with game information. The answer does not mention who asked.
Nothing else. Messages that are not votes or commands are ignored. We do not analyse, profile, sell or share viewers' messages or accounts.

What we keep

Information	Kept?
Message text, author names and account IDs	No. Used in memory while a vote is counted, then discarded. Not written to logs or files.
The per-viewer vote key	No. In memory only, gone when the software restarts.
Extension IDs (opaque ID, shared Twitch user ID)	No. In memory while a vote is open, then discarded. Not written to logs or files.
Vote results: how many votes each option got, which option won	Yes, as part of the run's history. Counts only, with no information about who voted.
Technical logs	Yes, on our computers and our web server (a rented server at DigitalOcean in Toronto, Canada), for fixing problems. They record what the software did (for example "a vote closed", "the YouTube read failed") and never viewers' names, IDs or messages. The web server does not log individual page requests. If a request fails with a server error, the error report can include that request's IP address; it stays in the server's own system log and is overwritten as the log rotates.

What we publish

chatplaysgames.com shows the history of each run: the game's choices, the fights, and for each vote the number of votes per option and whether chat, the streamer or the software decided it. It shows no viewer names, account IDs or chat messages. The web server never receives chat messages at all. It receives the game's state and these counts, and the extension's clicks as described above.

Sharing

We do not sell, rent or share viewers' information with anyone. The vote counts above are public on purpose.

Our YouTube account access

To read and post in our own stream's chat, our software is authorised with the stream's own YouTube account (Google OAuth). Viewers never sign in to anything of ours; sharing your identity with the extension is done by Twitch, and gives us only your Twitch user ID. The access token is stored only on the stream's computer, and it can be revoked at any time from Google's security settings.

Cookies and the website

chatplaysgames.com sets no cookies of its own and uses no advertising or tracking cookies. It may store a few display preferences in your own browser (for example whether a filter is switched on); these never leave your browser.

The site is delivered through Cloudflare, a content delivery network. Like any web server, it sees your IP address in order to serve the page, and it may set strictly necessary security cookies (for example to tell people from bots). See Cloudflare's privacy policy.

The pages load their fonts from Google Fonts, so when you open them, Google receives your IP address and browser details, as described in the Google Privacy Policy.

Children

The stream is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. As described above, we keep no personal information about any viewer.

Your choices

Don't want your messages read? Simply don't chat while a vote is running, or don't send votes or commands; we ignore everything else.
You can use the extension without sharing your identity, hide it with its eye button, or turn extensions off in Twitch's player.
Since we don't keep viewers' information, there is nothing about you for us to delete. If you have a question or concern, contact contact@chatplaysgames.com.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.