Privacy policy

Who runs this site and what it is

This policy explains how Character handles information about the people who visit oltec.co.nz. It takes effect on 6 August 2026 and replaces any earlier version.

This site is an independent editorial resource covering AI character chat applications. It is not an AI chat service, it does not operate any of the apps it describes, and it has no relationship with Character Technologies, Inc. or with any competing publisher. What it covers and how it is researched is described on the about page. There is no account system here, no chat interface, and no way to send us a message except by email. Nothing on this site creates or holds an account on a chat platform, so the sign-in problems described on Character AI login, the billing arrangements on Character AI Plus, the audio uploads on Character AI voice, and the characters described on Character AI bots all sit with that company instead of with us.

Enquiries about data protection go to [email protected]. We process personal data in line with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation) and its retained UK equivalent for visitors in Europe and the United Kingdom, the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 for the jurisdiction of the domain, and the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act for residents of California.

What we collect

Information you send us

If you write to one of the addresses listed on the contact page, we receive your email address, whatever name you sign with, and the content of your message. That is the whole of it, and it exists only because you chose to write.

We do not collect payment details, chat account credentials, passwords, or identity documents. Nothing on this site asks for them, and any message containing them will be deleted rather than stored.

Information collected automatically

Visiting any website leaves technical traces, and this one is no exception. Each item below is collected for a stated reason.

• IP address. Used to determine the country a visit comes from, so regional differences in app availability can be measured, and to defend the site against automated abuse. It is truncated before it reaches our analytics.
• Browser type and version. Taken from the user agent string and used to confirm that pages render correctly on the browsers people actually use.
• Operating system and device type. Used to see whether a page is read mostly on a phone or a desktop, which affects how tables and long passages are laid out.
• Pages viewed and time spent on each. Used to identify which coverage is useful and which sections readers abandon.
• Referring address. Shows whether a visit arrived from a search engine, a link, or directly, which tells us which questions people are arriving with.
• Browser language. Used to confirm the audience matches the language the site is written in.
• Screen resolution. Used to test the layout at the sizes people actually read it on.

None of this is combined into a profile of an individual reader, and none of it is used to target advertising at you elsewhere. The chat platforms covered here operate differently, and what one of them permits itself is documented on is Character AI safe.

Cookies used on this site

Cookies are small text files stored by your browser. Essential cookies keep the site working and cannot be switched off without breaking basic navigation. Analytics cookies measure aggregate usage. Functional cookies remember display preferences. Marketing cookies here do one job only: they record that a referral came through one of our links, as explained in the affiliate disclosure. They do not build an advertising profile and do not follow you around the web.

Cookie names ending in an asterisk or a string of characters vary by property. Third-party cookies are set by the provider named in the table, under that provider's own policy.

Why we process data

• Running and improving the site. Aggregate reading patterns show which pages answer a question and which do not, which decides what gets rewritten.
• Measurement. Google Analytics 4 supplies traffic statistics in aggregate form. IP anonymisation is enabled, and the reports do not identify individual visitors.
• Search performance. Google Search Console shows which queries reach the site, which informs what gets covered next.
• Referral attribution. When you follow an affiliate link, the network sets a cookie so the referral can be credited. This is required for the funding model described in the affiliate disclosure.
• Security. Server logs and bot management protect the site against denial of service attempts, scraping, and spam.
• Correspondence. Messages sent to our addresses are read and answered, which requires storing them for as long as the exchange is live.

Legal grounds

Under Article 6 of the GDPR, processing on this site rests on three grounds. Consent under Article 6(1)(a) covers analytics and marketing cookies, given through the consent banner on your first visit and withdrawable at any time. Legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) cover site security, abuse prevention, and the technical operation of the site; the interest is keeping a free resource available and accurate, weighed against the limited data involved. Article 6(1)(b) covers handling correspondence you start.

Withdrawing consent is done by clearing cookies for this domain or by changing your browser settings, and it does not affect the lawfulness of anything processed before the withdrawal.

Who else receives data

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with the app publishers we cover. Data reaches the following processors as part of running the site.

• Google LLC (United States). Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console receive anonymised IP data, page interaction data, and device information. Google's policy is published at https://policies.google.com/privacy, and Analytics can be blocked entirely with the official opt-out extension at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Cloudflare, Inc. (United States). Provides content delivery, denial of service protection, and bot management. It processes IP addresses and request metadata. Its policy is at https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.
• Hosting provider. Maintains server logs containing IP addresses, requested addresses, and timestamps, for security and diagnostics.
• Affiliate networks. When you follow a tracked link, the operator of that programme records the click and the associated cookie identifier. They receive the fact of a referral, not your identity.

Data may also be disclosed where a law or a valid legal order requires it. Nothing else leaves the site.

Transfers outside your region

Google and Cloudflare are established in the United States, so data processed by them leaves the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Those transfers rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and, where the recipient participates, on the EU to US Data Privacy Framework adequacy decision. A copy of the safeguards relied on can be requested from [email protected].

How long data is kept

Once a period ends the data is deleted or irreversibly aggregated so that no individual can be identified from it.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right of access (Article 15) to a copy of the personal data we hold about you, answered within 30 days; the right to rectification (Article 16) of anything inaccurate or incomplete; the right to erasure (Article 17) where no legal ground requires us to keep it; the right to restriction (Article 18) while a dispute about accuracy or lawfulness is resolved; the right to portability (Article 20) in a structured, machine-readable format; and the right to object (Article 21) to processing based on legitimate interests.

Residents of California may request disclosure of the categories of personal information collected and the purposes for it, request deletion, and opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information. This site does not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA, and exercising these rights never results in worse treatment. Residents of New Zealand hold rights of access and correction under Information Privacy Principles 6 and 7 of the Privacy Act 2020.

To exercise any of these, write to [email protected]. Receipt is acknowledged within 72 hours and the request is completed within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority: the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in New Zealand (https://www.privacy.org.nz), the Information Commissioner's Office in the United Kingdom (https://ico.org.uk), or the data protection authority of your member state within the European Union.

Security

Connections to this site are encrypted with TLS using 256-bit ciphers, which is why the address begins with https. Server software and site dependencies are patched on a regular schedule. Administrative accounts require two-factor authentication, and access to correspondence is limited to the people who answer it. Backups are encrypted at rest.

No system is completely secure, and claiming otherwise would be dishonest. What we can say is that the amount of personal data held here is deliberately small, which limits what any failure could expose.

Minors

This site is intended for adults aged 18 and over, in line with the age restrictions applied by the services it covers. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

If we learn that data belonging to a minor has been collected, it is deleted immediately. A parent or guardian who believes a child has sent us information should write to [email protected] and it will be removed.

Changes to this policy

This policy is revised when the way the site works changes or when a legal requirement does. The date at the top of the page always shows the current version. Substantial changes are flagged on the site itself rather than made quietly, and continuing to use the site after a revision means the current version applies.

Related pages: the affiliate disclosure explains the tracking attached to referral links, the editorial policy covers how content is produced, and the contact page lists every address in use.