ChatlekWhat Happens to Your Messages After You Log Out
A precise walkthrough of Chatlek's actual message deletion behavior: what's deleted, when, and the one narrow exception.
The short version
When your Chatlek session ends, whether you log out, close the tab, or time out from inactivity, your profile, every conversation you were part of, and every message inside those conversations are permanently deleted from the live database. This isn't a soft delete or an archive step; the records are removed outright, and Chatlek doesn't currently keep database backups, so there's no copy anywhere that could later resurface that data.
While a session is active
Messages are transmitted in real time over a WebSocket connection and stored only for as long as the session sending or receiving them stays active. Even during an active, long-running conversation, only the most recent messages up to a fixed limit are retained; older messages in a very long thread are trimmed automatically as new ones arrive. That trimming is a storage safeguard rather than a moderation action, and it happens independently of whether the session itself is still active.
The one exception: safety reports
If you or the person you're chatting with submits a safety report, the reason given, any written details, and any messages specifically attached as evidence are retained beyond that session. This is a deliberate, disclosed exception: it exists so a report can still be reviewed for safety purposes after the conversation it describes has otherwise been deleted. Reported content is used only for reviewing that report, and nothing else about your account or other conversations is affected by it.
Why this matters beyond Chatlek specifically
Not every chat platform that calls itself private handles data this way. Some retain messages for a fixed number of days after a session ends, others retain them indefinitely for undefined "business purposes," and many share usage data with third-party analytics or advertising services regardless of what happens to the message content itself. Chatlek's own Privacy Policy is explicit that no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services are integrated at all, so there's no separate pipeline collecting data about a conversation even if the conversation itself is later deleted.