Privacy policy

Last updated 4 November 2026 · Tambay.live is in beta

Tambay.live is a quiet online tambayan: you choose a lantay on a map, take a seat, and chat or play with the people there. We collect only what that needs. There are no ads or tracking cookies. Tambay keeps its own product analytics, with no outside analytics company: an anonymous random ID kept in your browser (not your name, email or IP address), when you visit and for how long, and which features are used, such as taking a seat, sending a chat message (never its text), sharing a lantay or asking Pepe something. If you are signed in, these are linked to your account. We use them to see whether people come back, which features help them connect, where something gets in the way, and to judge future ideas such as optional support or a store. They are kept long-term and not deleted automatically; Delete my data unlinks them from your account, and clearing this site’s data in your browser starts a new anonymous ID.

Public online count and directories

We publish one site-wide number of people currently seated in lantays, based on seat heartbeats received within the last five minutes. We count each signed account or signed guest identity once, exclude automated characters, banned seats and our designated Test Tambayan, and refresh the total at most once per minute. This number can briefly include someone who just left without disconnecting. It does not count every person browsing the welcome page or map. The public endpoint is /api/online-count.

External directories, including Metamoa (operated by FLOAT Co., Ltd.), may retrieve and display this total to help people discover Tambay.live. Only the aggregate number is provided: no names, email addresses, account or guest identifiers, IP addresses, room names, individual activity, messages, photos or voice clips are included. This does not install Metamoa tracking code in Tambay.live or send your browser to Metamoa. Visitors who choose to open an external directory are subject to that directory’s privacy policy. Public release announcements and event details may also be shared by the operator; user-created content is not automatically exported.

Optional voice rooms: Only signed-in people seated in the same lantay can join its voice room. Joining sends live audio and connection information to Agora, our voice provider. Tambay does not record these calls. We keep your account ID, lantay, daily connected time, temporary voice ID and speaking status to enforce the 30-minute daily allowance and show who is present. Voice disconnects when you leave or change lantays, use the allowance, or stay inactive. Agora may process connection metadata under its own privacy policy. You can remain in text chat without joining voice.

Pepe, our AI ka-tambay

Guests can message Pepe privately using their signed browser guest identity. Each guest gets two thinking questions and five personal YouTube requests per Philippine calendar day. Successful requests and their replies are saved on our server for replay and chat history; failed requests do not use the allowance. App guidance and standalone language changes do not use the thinking allowance. In Tambayan ni Pepe, Pepe joins automatically and sends a personal welcome once per visitor per day. Only that visitor sees the welcome in their inbox and speech bubble. Delete my data removes these guest records.

Tagpuan is a private place for two signed-in people. In Ka-Tambay Tagpo you invite an accepted ka-tambay, who chooses whether to join; you can turn invitations off. Random Tagpo is for adults: each time you join you confirm that you are 18 or older (we keep only the time you confirmed, not your birth date, and we do not verify identity), choose what you are open to and, optionally, interests from your profile. Matching uses only what you are open to, shared interests and waiting time; no AI judges people or attraction. Random Tagpo uses aliases during the session. Afterward, Add as ka-tambay sends an ordinary friend request with your profile name; the recipient can accept or ignore it. Choosing No sends no request. Tagpuan chats are stored on our server and deleted 24 hours after they are sent. The admin may review Tagpuan chats for safety, without appearing in the Tagpuan. If you report a Tagpuan, the recent conversation is kept with the report until it is resolved. If Pepe is called into a Tagpuan he can read that Tagpuan’s chat to answer @Pepe; his answers there are not kept in your private Pepe chat. You can block anyone from their profile or inside a Tagpuan: blocking ends any shared Tagpuan, removes the ka-tambay connection, and stops invitations, matching, friend requests, private chat requests and Pepe suggestions between you. Delete my data removes your Tagpuan sessions, chats, queue entry, settings and the blocks you made.

Signed-in users can summon Pepe into a lantay. While present, he can receive that lantay’s group messages from a rolling 24-hour window, including display names, to answer directed questions. Chat shows a notice while he is present. Private conversations with Pepe belong to your account and are not included in group context. OpenAI provides conversational replies; TypeSafe classifies requests. Tambay has not opted in to sharing data with OpenAI for model training, so what Pepe reads is not used to train AI; OpenAI keeps its abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days and then deletes them, and Pepe’s replies are requested without storage on OpenAI’s side. We do not send your account email as part of this context. Deleted source messages are excluded from future context and derived group replies are removed. Automatic connection to Pepe does not give permission for introductions or sharing interests. His private messages and usage records are removed when your account is deleted. AI responses can be incorrect.

Two ways to come in

• As a guest (a random tambay): no account. Your browser gets a random, signed guest ID in a cookie so the seat and messages you post are yours. Close the browser's data and the guest is gone.
• Signed in (Google, or email and password): an account with your email, a display name, and either a password hash (never the password itself) or Google's ID for you. You need an account to create a lantay, keep a scrapbook and invite people to chess.

What we keep

When you accept the Terms of Service at sign-in, we record the terms version, acceptance time and sign-in method. If you also tick the separate optional news checkbox, we record that choice and its time. We activate newsletter consent only after your email is verified, including a verified Google sign-in. Existing accounts are not enrolled automatically; an unchecked newsletter box leaves any existing subscription preference unchanged. You can unsubscribe from any newsletter email; unsubscribing does not affect your Tambay account.

• What you add while using Tambay: the name, Peep, note and short bio on your seat; group and private chat messages; ka-tambay friend requests; lantays you create (name, map location, and whether it is locked); scrapbook notes and photos (accounts only, private to you); Tambayan ni Pepe Wall notes, selected scrapbook photos and voice clips of up to 10 seconds (accounts only, visible to people in that lantay); suggestions you send; chess games and invitations; notifications sent to you. New Tambayan ni Pepe Wall entries are limited to three per account per Philippine calendar day; edits to an existing entry do not use another entry.
• A random browser ID, so the seat you take belongs to that browser only.
• Safety records: reports people send with the megaphone (who sent it, what was reported and why), text our filters refused (kept 90 days), bans, and short rate-limit entries that stop spam.
• A fingerprint of your internet connection, when you create a lantay or take a seat: a one-way, keyed code made from your IP address (not the address itself). It limits regular lantay creation to one per connection and helps protect seat requests from abuse. People sharing a connection may fill the ten bench seats. The code cannot be turned back into your address. Seat records expire after about 5 minutes without updates.

We do not keep your IP address itself, your location, contacts or device details. A pin you place on the map is the place you choose, not where you are.

Signed-in people may show an AFT label after about five minutes without interaction and can remain seated while their browser sends heartbeats. A guest’s seat is released after about five minutes without interaction. Creators and admins may still remove or ban occupants. Accepted ka-tambay friends can see whether your account has been active recently. The online indicator uses recent page or seat updates and may take about 90 seconds to turn offline after you leave.

While you play music, radio or YouTube, a short “Listening to…” label can appear beside your seated avatar for others in that lantay. It clears when playback stops or your seat expires. The status stores a title, not the playback URL or a full listening history.

How long

Group chat messages and their reactions are deleted after 90 days. Ka-tambay friend messages, replies and reactions stay with your account until you delete your data. Tagpuan replies and reactions follow its 24-hour chat window. A room-private conversation is saved in each participant’s browser: the server holds a delivery copy until the recipient saves it, then removes that copy. To support replies and reactions, the server also keeps a message ID, up to 100 characters of its text, and reactions for up to 24 hours; older room-private messages in your browser can still be read but cannot receive new replies or reactions. Clearing this browser’s site data removes its local private-chat history. Your seat expires about 5 minutes after the page stops sending updates, or immediately when you choose Leave. Lantays, scrapbook entries, friend requests and suggestions stay until you delete them or delete your data. When a lantay is deleted, its group chat goes with it and anyone inside is moved back to the map.

Optional interests you add to your profile are saved to your account when you choose Save changes. You can remove them in your profile. They are visible only to you unless you turn on “Let Pepe suggest me to tambays who share these interests” (off by default). Then Pepe may show your display name, avatar and the interests you share with another signed-in person in his private chat with them, so they can send you a ka-tambay request, which you can accept or ignore. Your email and other interests are never shown. Turn it off at any time in your profile.

What stays in your browser

Unli tambay can request that your screen stay awake while this page is visible. For signed-in users it is enabled by default after ten minutes without interaction; you can turn it off in the menu. Guests can enable it manually. The preference and idle timer stay in your browser and are not sent to our server. This does not count as activity or change AFT and guest seat-expiry rules. Your browser or device may refuse or release the request, including when the page is hidden or power saving is active. Keeping your screen on uses battery.

Your profile, current lantay, sound and display settings, room-private chat history and drafts, your cookie choices and which chat messages you have seen are kept in this browser's local storage. Private histories are separated by account or guest session and lantay. See the cookie policy.

Who else is involved

• Our server: Tambay.live runs on its own server (Hostinger, in a data centre we rent). Your data above is stored there.
• Google, only if you choose "Continue with Google": Google tells us your email, name and ID for you. We never see your Google password.
• Cloudflare's family DNS checks the website address of a link posted in chat (only the address, never who posted it) to block adult and unsafe sites. Answers are remembered for a week.
• OpenStreetMap, only if you allow it: searching for a place outside our list, or showing street detail on the map, sends your search words and IP address to OpenStreetMap (their privacy policy).
• YouTube opens only when you tap the karaoke link or play a lantay TV. When you ask Pepe to play something, only your search words (not your name or account) are sent to Google’s YouTube search to find a public video.

We do not sell or share your data with anyone else.

Moderation

Names, bios, notes, lantay names, Tambayan ni Pepe Wall text and chat are checked before they are saved: adult content, hate, swear words and unsafe or shortened links are refused. People can report a Tambayan ni Pepe Wall entry, including a voice clip; the admin can review and remove reported entries. The Tambay.live admin reads reports and refused text to keep lantays safe, and can remove messages and lantays and ban people.

Your choices and rights

Under the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 you can ask what we hold about you, correct it, withdraw consent and have it deleted. You can change your cookie choices at any time on the cookie policy page, and complain to the National Privacy Commission.

Delete my data

This deletes everything Tambay.live holds for you straight away: your account (if you have one), seats, messages, nicknames, scrapbook notes and photos, your Tambayan ni Pepe Wall entries and their shared media, suggestions, notifications and games, and the lantays you created with their chats (anyone inside is moved back to the map). If you were banned, the ban stays (with your name removed) so it still works. Your browser's Tambay.live storage is cleared too.

Delete my data

Children

Tambay.live is meant for people 13 and older. If you are under 18, please use it with a parent or guardian's permission.

Contact

Questions or requests: johncyongco@gmail.com. We answer within 15 days.