Talkwave Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how Talkwave Inc ("Talkwave," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, shares, and retains personal information when you use the Talkwave app for iOS and Android and related services (the "service"). Talkwave is a voice chat and friendship platform for adults age 18 and older. The same version of this policy is shown in the app and published at https://talkwave.ai/app/privacy.

2. Information we collect

Account and sign-in information: your email address (for email sign-in, or the address Apple or Google shares with us, which may be an Apple private relay address), your Apple or Google account identifier, your Talkwave user ID, sign-in session records, and email verification requests (the address, time, and requesting IP address). We store only a one-way hash of each verification code, never the code itself.
Eligibility and profile information: date of birth; nickname; gender choice (female, male, or prefer not to say); a profile photo, if you choose to upload one (we keep only a square copy that we resize and re-encode without location or any other embedded metadata, never the original file); native language; up to five interests you pick from Talkwave's topic catalogue, including language-practice topics that carry a language and level; profile introduction; user code; interface language; and in-app settings such as notification choices and whether people you have met may follow you.
Room activity: the topics and rooms you join, when you join and leave, the room alias and cartoon avatar assigned to you for each room session, your microphone and speaking state, the room members you mute, and room connection events.
Social activity: the people you have met in rooms (with the topic, time, number of encounters, and up to five recent room aliases and cartoon avatars), private notes you write about people you have met or your friends, friend requests, friendships, friend follows, your daily Hook allowance and how you use it, blocks, and related timestamps.
Messages: private text messages exchanged between friends.
Safety information: reports (the reason, any note you add, and the room in which the report was made, or the profile photo or the friend that was reported), room removals, temporary topic restrictions, profile photo removals, and moderation notes.
Abuse-prevention information: how many profile photo uploads your account, and the network address you use, attempted each day (the full address for IPv4; for IPv6, only the first half of the address, which identifies the network); the email domain you used when you created an account with email; and, if Talkwave restricts an account or a network for going over the upload limits, the restriction record (the account or network address, the reason, the date, when the restriction starts and ends, and whether it was lifted early), together with the restricted account's sign-in identifiers (its Apple or Google account identifier) and a normalized form of its email addresses (ignoring letter case and "+" tags, and, for Gmail, dots).
Support information: messages and attachments you send to [email protected].
Voice and room recordings: live voice is transmitted so people in the same room can hear one another. To counter crime of every kind, Talkwave has no choice but to record room voice and keep the recordings for a limited time. We tell you this clearly every time you sign in, and you must agree before you can use the service; if you do not agree, you are signed out.
Device and diagnostic information: app version and build, operating system, device model, push notification token, IP address, connection and error events, and security events.

Talkwave does not request access to your device contacts or location and does not read your photo library. If you choose to upload a profile photo, you pick it in your device's photo picker, and only that one image is sent to Talkwave. The app contains no advertising or third-party analytics software.

3. How we use information

We use information to:

create, authenticate, protect, and support accounts;
confirm that users meet the age requirement;
provide profiles, cartoon avatars, profile photos for your friends, private notes, topics, voice rooms, room aliases, encounters, friends, follows, Hooks, messages, settings, and notifications;
deliver and maintain live voice connections;
provide mute, report, block, room-removal, and other safety functions, including automatic checks that reject prohibited words in nicknames, profile introductions, and messages;
prevent abuse: count profile photo upload attempts, automatically restrict accounts and networks that go over the upload limits, keep a restricted account's email address and Apple or Google account from being used to sign in or create another account while the restriction lasts, and decide whether a new account may be created with an email address based on its domain;
review reports, including reports about profile photos and about friends, remove profile photos that break our rules, enforce our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, and respond to valid legal requests;
record room voice and review recordings to investigate reports, prevent and respond to crime, and cooperate with law enforcement;
respond to support and privacy requests; and
diagnose failures, maintain security, and improve reliability.

Your gender choice is used for two things: to assign a suitable room alias, and to set the color of your cartoon avatar (pink for female, blue for male, and yellow for prefer not to say or if no choice has been made). Anyone who can see your avatar can see its color, so other users can tell which option you chose. Your gender choice is never shown as text and is not used for advertising. Talkwave contains no advertising and sells no paid digital content.

4. What other users can see

Your avatar is always a cartoon avatar assigned by Talkwave, except where this section says your friends see your profile photo. Cartoon avatars come from sets that Talkwave provides, and rooms in different topics may use different sets. In rooms, a new cartoon avatar is assigned at random for each room session; outside rooms, Talkwave uses a default cartoon avatar derived from your account.

In a room: other members hear your voice and see your room alias, the cartoon avatar assigned to you for that room session (in the color set by your gender choice), and your microphone and speaking state. No one in a room sees your nickname, user code, or profile photo, not even your friends. Members who are not your friends do not see your native language, interests, or introduction; your friends can see them on your member card. If you mute someone in a room, that person can see that you muted them; other members cannot.
People you have met: they see the room alias and cartoon avatar from your most recent encounter, where and when you met, how many times you have met, and up to five recent room aliases with their cartoon avatars. They do not see your profile photo there, even after you become friends. While Let people I've met follow me is on, they can also see whether you are online and use a Hook to join your current room when room rules allow. When it is off, they cannot see when you are online and cannot use a Hook to follow you.
Friend requests and search: the other side of a friend request, and people who find you by your user code or full registered name, see your nickname, user code, and default cartoon avatar. They see your profile photo only if you are already friends.
Friends: your friends see your nickname, user code, native language, interests, and introduction, your online status and current room, and the messages you exchange. Outside rooms (in their friends and message lists, your chat, search results, and your profile), they see your profile photo if you have uploaded one, and otherwise your default cartoon avatar. Once you stop being friends, or either of you blocks the other or deletes their account, they can no longer see your photo.
Private notes: a note you write about someone you have met or a friend is shown only to you. The person it is about and other users never see it, and it does not appear in rooms or notifications.
Never shown to other users: your date of birth, email address, sign-in provider, and room voice recordings. Your gender choice is never shown as text, but it sets the color of your cartoon avatar (Section 3).
Reports and blocks: a reported person is not told who reported them or what the outcome was. Blocking someone does not notify them, and the automatic mute that comes with a block is not shown to the person you block.

5. How information is shared

We share information only in the following circumstances:

With other users, as described in Section 4.
With service providers, who process information only as needed to provide their function for Talkwave:
- Amazon Web Services: hosting of servers and databases, and delivery of verification emails (Amazon SES);
- Cloudflare: network delivery and protection for Talkwave's API and voice signaling connections, which pass through Cloudflare in transit, and private storage and delivery of profile photos (Cloudflare R2);
- Apple: Sign in with Apple and the Apple Push Notification service;
- Google: Google Sign-In and Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android notifications;
- Shorebird: delivery of app updates.
Live voice is carried and recorded by LiveKit software that Talkwave runs on its own servers; Talkwave does not use LiveKit Cloud. Room voice recordings are stored in private, access-controlled storage operated for Talkwave by Cloudflare (Cloudflare R2) and are not available to the public. Profile photos are kept in separate private Cloudflare R2 storage for Talkwave, are not available to the public, and are delivered only after Talkwave checks, on every request, that the person asking is you or one of your friends.
For safety and legal reasons: we may disclose information, including room voice recordings, when reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to valid legal process, prevent harm, investigate abuse, fraud, or crime, or protect users, Talkwave, and the public. If anyone uses Talkwave to commit a crime, we will give the police every assistance needed, and we may report risks to the authorities on our own initiative.
In a business transaction: information may be transferred as part of a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, subject to applicable law and appropriate notice.

We do not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it to track you across other companies' apps and websites.

6. Retention

We keep information only as long as described below.

Information	Retention
Account, sign-in identity, the email domain recorded when the account was created, profile (other than the profile photo), interests, and settings	While your account is active. After account deletion, hidden from others immediately and deleted from our main systems within 30 days. The sign-in identifiers of a restricted account are kept longer, as shown below.
Profile photo	Until you replace or remove it, Talkwave removes it, or you delete your account. From that moment it is no longer shown to anyone, and it is deleted from storage shortly afterwards, usually within minutes. A photo that is the subject of a report still under review is kept until that review ends, and no longer than 30 days after it stopped being shown. A copy left over from an upload that did not finish is deleted within 2 days.
Private messages	While both accounts exist, including after the two accounts stop being friends or one blocks the other. If either person deletes their account, the conversation becomes read-only for the other person, and the whole conversation with every message is deleted 30 days after the deletion.
Encounters, friend requests, friendships, and blocks	While your account is active. Removed immediately when either account involved is deleted.
Private notes	Until you change or clear them. Removing a friend does not delete your note about them, and you may still see it in your Met list. When either person blocks the other, the notes the two of them wrote about each other are deleted at once. When an account is deleted, every note written by it or about it is deleted at once.
Room participation records and Hook history	While your account is active. Deleted within 30 days after account deletion; Hook records of other users that refer to you are unlinked from you. The record of whom you muted in a room is removed shortly after you leave that room.
Reports and moderation records	Up to 180 days from the date of the report, then deleted. If the reporter or the reported person deletes their account, report notes and every link that identifies that person are removed within 30 days of the deletion; only the report reason, status, and dates remain until the 180-day limit.
Security and sign-in records (verification requests, verification email delivery records, related IP addresses, and security events)	90 days. Records about a confirmed security incident may be kept for as long as needed to resolve that incident.
Profile photo upload attempt counts (for each account and each network address)	Deleted automatically 26 hours after the first attempt of the day.
Account and network restriction records, including the network address involved	Kept permanently, including after the account is deleted, so that repeat violations receive longer restrictions and restrictions can be reviewed. A restriction that Talkwave lifts as a mistake is marked as such and no longer counts toward longer restrictions.
Sign-in identifiers and normalized email addresses of a restricted account	While the restriction is in effect, even if the account is deleted in the meantime. Deleted after the restriction ends or is lifted.
Room connection events from the voice server	7 days.
Notification delivery records and general diagnostic logs	30 days. A push token stops being used immediately when you sign out, delete your account, or the provider reports it invalid, and is deleted within 30 days after that. A token unused for 90 days is retired the same way.
Support emails and attachments	12 months after the request is closed. Correspondence about a legal request is kept as long as that request requires.
Room voice recordings	30 days, then deleted automatically. A recording needed for a specific report, crime investigation, or valid legal request is kept as long as that matter requires, as described below.
Database maintenance copies	Talkwave does not keep a separate rotating backup archive. Before database maintenance we may make a one-time copy of the database so the change can be reversed if it fails. The copy is kept in restricted server storage and is deleted no later than 30 days after it is made; information deleted from the main system during that time may remain in the copy until then.

We keep specific information longer than shown above only when a particular legal claim, valid legal process, or investigation of a specific incident requires it. Such a hold covers only the records concerned, is documented with its legal basis, scope, and the conditions for releasing it, and ends when those conditions are met.

7. Account deletion

You can delete your account in the app under Me > Delete account:

Read What happens after deletion and tap Continue deleting.
Confirm your identity again with the sign-in method used by the account: enter the six-digit code sent to your email address, or complete a fresh Apple or Google sign-in.
Tap Delete account.

If your account is restricted, tap Delete account on the restriction screen instead; deletion works the same way.

When deletion is confirmed:

the account can no longer sign in, and all of its sign-in sessions end;
your profile (including your profile photo), friendships, encounters, private notes, blocks, and room presence stop being visible or usable by others, and notifications to your devices stop;
for accounts that used Sign in with Apple, we attempt to revoke Talkwave's Apple authorization;
the remaining account data is deleted or de-identified from our main systems within 30 days, following the retention rules in Section 6, except that restriction records are kept permanently; and
the account cannot be recovered. Signing in again later with the same email, Apple, or Google account creates a new, empty account. If the account was restricted when it was deleted, that email address and Apple or Google account cannot be used to sign in or create an account until the restriction ends.

If you cannot access the app, email [email protected], preferably from the address linked to the account. We may need to verify that the account is yours before acting on the request.

8. Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal information, to receive a copy of it, and to object to or restrict certain processing. You can:

edit your nickname, gender choice, native language, interests, introduction, and settings in the app;
upload, replace, or remove your profile photo, and write, change, or clear your private notes, in the app (your cartoon avatar is assigned by Talkwave and cannot be chosen);
choose whether people you have met may follow you, and which notifications you receive;
manage microphone and notification permissions in your device settings;
use mute, report, and block;
delete your account as described in Section 7; and
email [email protected] to request access to or a copy of your information, to correct information you cannot edit in the app (such as an incorrect date of birth), or to make any other privacy request.

Where the law allows, we may decline to delete information that we need to keep to prevent abuse and fraud or to enforce a restriction, such as the restriction records described in Section 6.

We may need to verify your identity before completing a request, and you may use an authorized agent where the law allows. We respond as required by applicable law and will not treat you differently for exercising these rights.

9. Security and international processing

We use technical and organizational measures intended to protect information, such as restricted access to production systems. No system can guarantee absolute security. Talkwave and its service providers may process information in the United States and other countries where they operate, subject to applicable safeguards.

10. Adults only

Talkwave is only for people age 18 and older. If we learn that a person under 18 has provided personal information, we may restrict or close the account and will delete or otherwise handle the information as required by law.

11. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy when the service or legal requirements change. Each version is identified by its effective date. When a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will provide notice through the app or another appropriate means, and request your consent where the law requires.

12. Contact

Talkwave Inc
Email: [email protected]
Support page: https://talkwave.ai/app/support