Privacy and safety
Last updated: 16 October 2026
This page summarises, in plain English, what happens to what you type into Tobava. It is a guide, not the legal text: the Privacy Policy is the full and binding version, and if the two ever differ, the Privacy Policy applies.
The short version
- Your chat questions, and anything you attach or say, are sent to the AI provider that answers them.
- Chats are saved to your account only if you are signed in, and never for temporary chats.
- On the free plan, the question and answer from an exchange may be sent to an ad partner to pick a sponsored card.
- Paid plans show no ads, use only AI providers that do not train on your chats, and remove personal details before your message leaves Tobava.
- Tobava does not sell your conversations.
What is saved, and where
| How you use Tobava AI | Where the conversation is kept |
|---|---|
| Without an account | In your browser only. Not saved on Tobava's servers. |
| Signed in (free) | Saved to your account on Tobava's own servers, as text, so you can open it on any device. Your 30 most recent chats are kept; older ones are deleted automatically. |
| Signed in (AI Light or AI Plus) | Saved to your account as text. Every chat is kept until you delete it. |
| Temporary chat | Not saved to your account. |
Attached images and files are never saved with a chat; only the file name is kept. Your personalisation instructions and settings such as answer language are kept in your browser and sent with each message.
Deleting your data
- One chat: delete it from the Recents list in the menu.
- All chats: Settings → Data → Delete all.
- Your whole account: Settings → Account → Delete account permanently removes your account and saved chats. You can also ask by emailing [email protected].
Backups of saved conversations are kept for up to 7 days. If you have had a paid plan, billing records such as invoices are kept for at least 5 years after each payment because Australian tax law requires it, even after you close your account.
What goes to AI providers
Tobava AI uses third-party AI models. To answer you, Tobava sends the AI provider the content of the conversation: your messages, any attachment, and voice recordings for transcription or spoken replies. Providers may be outside Australia, including in the United States. They receive the conversation, not your Tobava account details such as your name, email address or payment details.
On free use, each provider handles the content under its own terms. On paid plans, only providers and settings that do not allow training on your conversations are used, and Tobava never uses your conversations to train AI models itself.
Live web search on paid plans. When a paid model needs current information, it searches the web through the AI provider's search service. The search is based on your conversation after Tobava's personal-details check (below).
Personal details removed on paid plans
On AI Light and AI Plus, before your message leaves Tobava's servers, Tobava automatically looks for personal details such as names you use about yourself or people you know, phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, dates of birth and ID numbers, and replaces them with placeholders such as [NAME_1]. The AI provider only sees the placeholders. The real details are put back into the answer on Tobava's servers before it reaches you, and the list of replaced details is discarded once the answer is complete. When this happens, a note under the answer tells you how many details were removed.
Health information is deliberately left in so health questions can still be answered properly. Automatic detection is not perfect, so avoid typing details you would not want shared, on any plan.
Ads on the free plan
If you use Tobava AI without an account or on a free account, a card marked Sponsored may appear under an answer. To choose a relevant one, the question and answer from that exchange are sent to Tobava's advertising partners, along with your IP address and browser details, which they use to estimate your country and city and to filter out fraud. They do not receive your name, email address or Tobava account details. They also record whether an ad was seen or clicked.
- Paid plans and temporary chats never show these ads and never send anything to the ad partners.
- These ads are not shown to visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland.
- Google AdSense may also show display ads on some pages for guests and free accounts, and Google may set cookies. Paid plans don't load them.
Ads never change what Tobava AI says. More detail is in the Ads and Affiliate Disclosure.
Your account and payments
A Tobava account stores your email address and a bcrypt-hashed version of your password, never the password itself. Verification codes and password reset emails come from [email protected]. If you subscribe, our payment processor handles your card on its own secure checkout page; Tobava never receives your card number. Tobava keeps your billing name, email, address and phone number, your plan and renewal date, and a record of how much of your plan's AI allowance each answer used. Those usage records do not contain your messages.
Location
Tobava estimates your approximate location from your internet connection. It is used, for example, to make “near me” searches local. If you allow location access for the weather widget, your approximate location is sent to a mapping service to find your city name.
Staying safe with AI answers
- Don't share secrets. Never type passwords, full card numbers or bank logins into any AI chat.
- Use temporary chat for sensitive topics you don't want in your history.
- Check before you act. AI answers can be wrong. Open the sources, and get professional advice for medical, legal and financial decisions.
- Be careful with links. Sources and search results lead to other websites, which have their own privacy practices.
- Age. Tobava is not directed at children under 13. Under the Terms, users must be at least 13, and under-18s should have a parent's or guardian's consent.
Your rights and questions
You can ask to access, correct or delete the personal information Tobava holds about you by emailing [email protected]. Tobava aims to respond within 30 days. For anything not covered here, read the full Privacy Policy.
Still stuck? Email [email protected] and tell us what you were trying to do. For a bug, include the page address and the browser you use.