Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Personal Information

When you register for Talkkia, we may collect the following personal information:

• Name and username
• Email address
• Phone number
• Profile picture (optional)
• Date of birth
• Language preferences
• Phone number you choose to add, used so people who have your number saved can find you on Talkkia
• Your contacts' phone numbers, only if you use Find friends and allow contact access (see section 4A)
• Voice recordings you send as voice messages or post as Drops, and text transcripts of Drops

Usage Data

We automatically collect certain information when you use Talkkia:

• Messages and chat history
• Call logs and duration
• Location data (with your permission)
• Step count and fitness activity data
• Device information and identifiers
• IP address and connection information

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for the following purposes:

• To provide and maintain our service: Process messages, calls, and translations
• To improve user experience: Analyze usage patterns to enhance features
• Nearby people feature: Connect you with users in your vicinity
• Fitness tracking: Calculate and display your step count, calories, and distance
• Communication: Send you notifications, updates, and support messages
• Security: Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents
• Personalization: Customize your experience and show relevant content

3. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information only in the following circumstances:

• With your consent: When you explicitly agree to share information
• Service providers: Companies that help us run Talkkia and process data only on our instructions: Google Firebase (notifications), Agora (audio and video calls), Cloudflare (storage of photos, voice messages and Drops), our translation service provider, and our server hosting provider
• Legal requirements: When required by law, court order, or government request
• Business transfers: In connection with mergers, acquisitions, or sale of assets
• Safety and security: To protect rights, property, or safety of Talkkia, users, or the public

4. Location Data and Nearby People

The "Nearby People" feature uses your location to show you users in your area. You can:

• Enable or disable location services at any time in your device settings
• Control who can see your location in app privacy settings
• Free users can add up to 30 nearby users per day
• Premium subscribers have unlimited connections

We do not continuously track your location. Location data is only accessed when you use the Nearby People feature and is not stored permanently on our servers.

4A. Contacts and Find Friends

What we access

When you tap Find friends, Talkkia asks for permission to access your phone's contacts. If you allow it, the app reads the phone numbers in your contacts. We do not collect contact names, photos, email addresses, or other details.

How we protect them

Phone numbers are converted into a coded form (a keyed cryptographic hash) and are stored and compared only in that form, not as readable numbers.

Why we use them

Only to show you which of your contacts use Talkkia, and to let you know when one of them joins. Two people are shown to each other only when each has the other's number saved. We do not use your contacts for advertising, we do not sell them, and we do not share them with anyone else.

Your choices

Find friends is optional. You can refuse contact access, turn it off later in your phone's settings, remove your uploaded contacts in Settings, and switch off "Let people who have my number find me". If you delete your account, your phone number and uploaded contact data are deleted with it.

Your phone number

Adding your phone number is optional. Talkkia does not currently verify it by SMS. Please only add a number that belongs to you; using someone else's number is against our Terms of Service.

4B. Drops and Voice Messages

Drops are short public voice posts that automatically expire 24 hours after posting. A Drop can be heard by other Talkkia users, together with your username, profile picture and city. Before a Drop is shown to anyone, it is automatically transcribed to text and checked against our content rules; Drops that fail the check are not published. You can report or block any Drop or user, and reported Drops may be reviewed by our team.

Voice messages you send in chats are delivered to the people in that chat and stored as described in section 7.

5. Message Translation

When you use the translation feature, messages are sent to our translation service provider for processing. Translations are processed in real-time and are not stored separately from your chat history.

6. Data Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections (SSL/TLS) between the app and our servers, access controls that limit which staff can access personal data, and secure authentication through Google and Apple sign-in. Messages and calls are not end-to-end encrypted at this time. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services and comply with legal obligations. You can request deletion of your data at any time through our "Delete My Data" page.

• Chat history: Stored until you delete it or close your account
• Call logs: Retained for 90 days
• Step counter data: Retained for 1 year
• Account information: Retained until account deletion
• Uploaded contact data: Kept while you use Find friends; deleted when you remove it or delete your account
• Drops and their transcripts: Automatically expire 24 hours after posting, or sooner if you delete the Drop or your account
• Voice messages and media: Retained the same as chat history, until you delete them or close your account

8. Your Rights (GDPR Compliance)

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights:

• Right to access: Request a copy of your personal data
• Right to rectification: Correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure: Request deletion of your data
• Right to restrict processing: Limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability: Receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to object: Object to processing of your data
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time

9. Children's Privacy

Talkkia is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately.

10. International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and maintained on servers located outside of your country. We ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: