Privacy & SMS Policy

Last updated: October 7, 2026

What we collect

• Phone numbers and names of chat members, provided by the chat's administrator or by the member themselves.
• Message content: we do not keep it. A message is held only for as long as it takes to hand every copy to the phone company, and is erased at that moment. Nobody at Klal Chat can read what a group has said, and no screen in our system will show it. What we do keep about each message is who sent it, when, how many people it went to, how long it was, and whether each copy arrived. Those records are a chat's delivery log and its bill.
• Consent records — when a number joined, the exact text of the opt-in reply, and any STOP/START events — kept permanently, because carriers and the law require us to prove consent.
• Billing details are handled by Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers.
• An administrator's email address, asked for once after the first login. We use it for Stripe receipts and, if a group is started but not finished, for up to three reminder emails, one a day, each with an unsubscribe link. It is not used for newsletters, and it is shared with nobody but Stripe. Members are never asked for an email address.
• Why a sign-up stopped. A group that has been started but not paid for asks its administrator what stopped them, as one tap from a short list. Answering is optional, there is no text box, and the answer is kept with that group.
• Chipping in. When someone pays toward a group's bill through a chip-in link, the name they type is optional and is shown only to that group's administrator. Stripe handles the payment and the receipt.
• The phone line. If you call our automated line, we keep which menu choices you pressed, the number you called from, and — when you agree to the terms by keypress — a record of what was read to you and that you pressed 1. Calls are not recorded, and there is no voicemail. A card entered on the keypad goes directly from the phone company to Stripe: we receive a reference to the saved card, never its number, security code or expiration date. A PIN you choose is stored only as a one-way hash.

SMS program disclosures

• Messages come from Klal Chat: member-to-member group texts, one invitation text to a number an administrator adds (they receive group messages only if they reply YES, and if they never answer no second invitation is sent), short notices to the group when someone joins by themselves or a member's name is set or changed (each gives the last 4 digits of that member's phone number, with their name once they have one), requested login codes for administrators (one text per request), and occasional account or service alerts to administrators (such as a trial-ending reminder, a yearly-renewal reminder, or a confirmation of a change made on the phone line). No marketing messages.
• Consent is required. Nobody receives group messages without opting in: added members must reply YES to a single invitation, or text the group's JOIN code themselves. Administrators opt in by signing up: on the website they enter their own number at the admin login and confirm it with a one-time code; on the phone line they confirm the number with a one-time code and agree to the terms by pressing 1 after hearing them. Either way they become their chat's first member when they create it.
• Message frequency varies by group activity. Message & data rates may apply.
• Text STOP to cancel at any time — you will receive no further messages from that number. Text HELP for help, or contact support@klalchat.com. STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, and QUIT also cancel; INFO also gets help.
• No third-party marketing. No mobile information will be sold or shared with third parties for promotional or marketing purposes. Mobile opt-in data and consent are never sold, rented, or shared with third parties or affiliates for their marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data will not be shared with any third parties, except with service providers acting on our behalf solely to deliver the service (e.g. our SMS carrier).

How we use information

We use this information only to run the service: routing messages to a chat's members, showing administrators their roster and usage, billing, preventing abuse, and meeting carrier and legal requirements. We do not advertise, profile, or sell data.

Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share a group's member list. The numbers and names in a chat belong to that chat. They are not a mailing list, they are not an asset, and they are not for sale — not to advertisers, not to other groups or organizations, not to anyone running their own campaign, and not for any purpose beyond delivering that group's own messages. This is not limited to marketing: apart from the two exceptions below, we do not hand a group's roster to anyone, for anything.

The first exception is the companies that run parts of the service for us: our SMS carrier (to deliver messages), the voice carrier that runs the phone line (to take calls, and to hand a card entered on the keypad to Stripe without it passing through us), Stripe (payments), and our hosting provider (infrastructure). Each is bound to use what it receives only to provide its service to us. The second is the law. Where the law, legal process, a subpoena, a court order, or a legally binding demand from a government or regulatory authority requires us to disclose a group's member list, we do, and only as far as the requirement reaches. That exception covers the member list and nothing else on this page. It cannot produce the text of a message, because no copy exists to hand over. Mobile opt-in data is never shared for marketing or promotional purposes, under that exception or any other.

What SMS cannot do

Text messaging is not encrypted. It is not private the way an encrypted messaging app is. Your mobile carrier, and the messaging company that puts our texts onto the network, can read the content of messages that pass through them. That is true of every text anyone sends, and no service built on SMS can change it. What we control is our own system, and there we hold nothing: the text is never written down, so there is nothing here to be leaked, subpoenaed, sold or looked at by an employee. Treat a group text the way you would a postcard.

Your choices

• Text STOP to any of our numbers to stop all messages from it.
• Call our phone line and choose "stop receiving texts" to stop every message from every Klal Chat number, now and in future. Only you can undo that: text START to any of our numbers, or call the line again.
• Text #exit to leave one chat and keep receiving messages from your other chats.
• Email support@klalchat.com to ask what we hold about your number or to request deletion (consent and opt-out records may be retained as required for compliance). No request can produce the text of your messages, from you or from anyone else. We do not have it.

Contact

Klal Chat is a service of Kosher Institute of America LLC.

Klal Chat · support@klalchat.com