Privacy policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

CETEChat is run by Beyond Tomorrow Enterprises Pty Ltd (ABN 34 683 765 139), based in Sydney, Australia ("we", "us"). This policy explains what information we handle when you use CETEChat and this website, and how we protect it. We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

The short version

Your messages, files and calls are end-to-end encrypted. They are locked on your device before they are sent and can only be unlocked by the people in the conversation. We do not have the keys, so we cannot read them, share them or hand them over.

What we cannot access

• The content of messages, including edited versions
• Files you share, including their names and types
• The audio and video of calls, which travel encrypted directly between participants (or through a relay that cannot decrypt them)
• What you search for, because search runs on your own device

What we do collect

• Account details: your name, email address, job title (if you add one) and profile colour.
• Workspace details: which companies you belong to, your role in each, channel names and topics, and who is in which conversation.
• Metadata we need to deliver messages: when a message was sent, which conversation it belongs to, file sizes, read positions and reactions.
• Security information: sign-in times, IP addresses and device type for your active sessions, and a record of administrative actions in each workspace.
• Approximate location: the country (and sometimes city) your IP address points to when you sign up and sign in. We work it out on our own server with an IP location database (from DB-IP), without sending your address to anyone. We use it to show you where your account is signed in, to spot suspicious sign-ins, and for statistics about where CETEChat is used. We never track your precise location.
• Your password: never stored. Your device turns it into a key; we keep only a one-way hash of a separate sign-in key.
• Notifications: if you turn them on, a push address for your device. Notifications contain names and conversation references, never message text.

How we use it

Only to provide and secure CETEChat: delivering messages and calls, sending notifications and account emails (such as confirming your email or resetting your password), preventing abuse, and supporting you when you contact us. We do not sell your information and we do not use it for advertising.

Who can see what

People in a workspace can see each other's names and profiles. Workspace owners and admins can see members' names, email addresses, roles and sign-in status, and the workspace's audit log. Nobody outside a workspace can see who is in it.

If you report a message, you can choose to include its text. The report, and the text if you include it, is shown to the workspace's owners and admins and to the CETEChat team, so they can act on it. The person reported is not told who reported them. People you block are not told either.

A workspace owner can choose to be included in direct messages that involve a guest (for example a client talking with staff). When this is on, the owner is added to those conversations as a visible member and can read them; everyone in the conversation sees a label saying the owner can see it. Owners are never added to conversations without that label.

Where it is stored

On servers in Sydney, Australia, run by a hosting provider we contract. Encrypted content stays encrypted at rest; only your team's devices hold the keys.

Service providers

We use a small number of service providers: a hosting company that runs our servers in Sydney, an email delivery service for account emails (such as confirming your email or resetting your password), and Stripe for payments. Card details go straight to Stripe and never reach our servers; Stripe may process payment information outside Australia under its own privacy policy. Push notifications are delivered through Apple, Google or Mozilla's push services, which receive only an encrypted notification.

Keeping and deleting information

We keep your information while your account is active. Deleted messages have their encrypted content removed from our servers. If your workspace uses disappearing messages, messages and files are erased from our servers automatically when their time is up. Our servers are backed up daily so we can recover from a failure. Each backup is kept for 14 days and then overwritten, so anything deleted is gone from our backups within 14 days. Backups hold messages and files only in their encrypted form.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account yourself at any time, in the app or on the web: open Settings, then Security, then Delete my account, and confirm with your password. If you cannot sign in, email privacy@cetechat.com from the address on your account and we will delete it for you.

• Erased straight away: your profile, encryption keys, devices, sign-ins and notification addresses, every message and file you sent, and your reactions.
• Threads: where other people replied to one of your messages, your message is replaced by "This message was deleted." with no content, so their replies still make sense.
• Your company: if you are the only person in a workspace, it is deleted with everything in it and any subscription is cancelled. If you are the only owner of a workspace that has other people, make someone else an owner first.
• Kept: messages your teammates sent stay with them. Each workspace's audit log keeps a note that your account was deleted, with your name only. To stop the same company claiming repeated free trials, we keep the anonymous fingerprint Stripe gives the card used for a trial (never the card number).

Your choices and rights

You can update your profile at any time, and you can ask us for access to, correction of or deletion of the personal information we hold about you by emailing privacy@cetechat.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Website

This website uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are useful. It sets first-party cookies and sends usage data to Google. The CETEChat app (app.cetechat.com) uses no analytics or tracking. Our fonts and images are served from our own server.

Contact

Questions about privacy: privacy@cetechat.com. For help with the app: support@cetechat.com. To report a security issue: security@cetechat.com.