Is Freshchat GDPR compliant?

What does Freshchat do?

Part of the Freshworks suite, offering chat and bots. It behaves like the rest of the category: loaded everywhere, storing an identifier from the first page view.

Does Freshchat need consent?

Yes. Freshchat is Chat, which is never strictly necessary for a website to function. Under ePrivacy Article 5(3), and its national transpositions, storing or reading anything on the device for that purpose requires consent first, and that consent has to be as easy to refuse as it is to give.

ePrivacy Art. 5(3) · TDDDG § 25 (DE) · TKG 2021 § 165(3) (AT) · GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)

Does Freshchat send data outside the EEA?

Yes. Freshchat processes data outside the European Economic Area, so you need a transfer mechanism under Chapter V and you have to say so in your privacy policy. In practice this means standard contractual clauses, or a provider certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

GDPR Art. 44 · GDPR Art. 46

What can I use instead of Freshchat?

How do we detect Freshchat?

We load your page in a real browser as a first-time visitor who clicks nothing, then look at what it contacted. Freshchat is recognised by requests to freshchat.com, wchat.freshchat.com and freshworks.com, and we report whether it merely loaded or actually sent data, and whether it set a cookie before any choice was made.