Cookie Policy

Privacy Promise

At Tawkie, keeping your privacy safe is really important to us. We make sure privacy is at the heart of everything we do, from creating our services to making products you enjoy. This way, you can trust us completely and focus on making meaningful friendships and connections.

Our commitment to privacy

We're really grateful that you trust us with your information, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We think about your privacy from the start when we make our products and services. We ask experts in many areas, like law, security, engineering, and design, to help us make choices that really respect your privacy.

Our promise to be clear with you

We understand that privacy policies can be hard to understand and want to do the opposite of that. We're working hard to write our Privacy Policy in simple language because we actually want you to read and understand how we handle your privacy.

Our promise to keep your information safe

We have special teams whose job is to protect your data. We always look for ways to make our security better and invest in making sure your information is as safe as possible.

1. Where Our Privacy Policy is in Effect

This Privacy Policy is for all things we run under the Tawkie name - that includes our websites, apps, events, and any service we offer. We just call all these things our "services" in this policy to keep it simple. And to make sure you know it's there, we've put links to this Privacy Policy on all the services it applies to.

Some of our services might need their own specific privacy policy. If that's the case, the specific service's privacy policy will be the one that counts, not this general one.

2. Information We Gather

Naturally, we need some info about you to help you build meaningful connections, like the basic details in your profile and what kind of people you want to meet. We also keep track of how you use our services, like your access logs, and we get information from other places too. For example, when you link our services to your social media account or when you add info to your profile from social media. If you're looking for more specifics, we've laid them out in more detail below.

3. Information You Provide Us

When you use our services, you decide to share certain information with us. Here's what that includes:

When you create an account, you give us your phone number and email address, along with basic information needed for the service to work, like your gender, birthdate, and who you're interested in meeting.
You can choose to tell us about your sexual orientation when you fill out your profile. By providing us with this and any other information, you agree to let us use it as described in this Privacy Policy. You can add more to your profile too, like your personal bio, interests, and photos or videos. For adding things like photos or videos, you might let us access your camera or photo gallery.
If you sign up for a paid service or buy something directly from us (not through a platform like iOS or Android), you give us and our payment processors details about what you're buying and your payment information, like your debit or credit card info or other financial data.
When you join in surveys, focus groups, or market studies, you share your thoughts on our products and services, your answers to our questions, and your feedback.
If you take part in our promotions, events, or contests, we collect the information you provide to register or enter.
If you get in touch with our customer care team, we collect the information you share with us during those conversations.
Sometimes, you might provide information about other people (for instance, if you want to use a friend's contact details for a feature). We use this information to fulfill your request.
It's important to note that we also process your conversations with other users and the content you post to help run and keep our services safe, as well as to maintain a safe community for everyone.

4. Information We Get from Others

Besides the information you give us directly, we also get info about you from other sources, which includes:

Members: Other users might provide information related to you as they use our services, such as when they interact with you or if they report an issue that involves you.

Social Media: If you choose to connect your social media accounts with our services, like signing up or logging in through your social media or other accounts (for example, Facebook, Google, or Apple) or sharing content from your social media accounts to our services (like photos from Instagram or music preferences from Spotify), we get that information.

Other Partners: Sometimes, we get info about you from our partners, especially if our ads are shown on their platforms. They might tell us how well a campaign performed. When it's legal, we might also get information about people who are suspected or have been found guilty of misconduct from third parties. This is part of our effort to keep our users safe and secure.

5. Information Collected When You Use Our Services

As you use our services, we automatically collect and generate technical data based on your activities. Here’s a breakdown:

Usage Data: When you use our services, we track your activities. This includes when you log in, which features you use, the actions you take, content you see, webpages you came from, and ads you interact with. We also track your interactions with other users, like who you're connecting with, your matches, and your message exchanges.
Device Information: We gather details from the devices you use to access our services. This includes things like your IP address, device ID and type, app settings and performance, app crashes, and identifiers such as advertising IDs (random numbers you can reset through your device settings). We also use cookies and similar tracking technologies to identify your device or browser uniquely.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We and possibly others use cookies, pixels, web beacons, and SDKs to recognize you and/or your devices. You can find out more about why we use these and how to manage their use in our Cookie Policy.
"Do Not Track" Signals: Some browsers allow you to signal that you don't want your online activities tracked by using a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature. However, not all browsers have this, and there's no standard for how DNT signals should work. As such, our services, like many others, don't currently respond to DNT signals.

Information Collected with Your Consent:

Precise Location Data: With your permission, we can collect your exact location (latitude and longitude) from your device. This can still happen in the background when you're not actively using the services, if you've allowed it. If you don't allow it, we won't collect this data, and certain location-based services might not be available to you.
Photo Verification Data: If you opt into our Photo Verification feature, we collect data on your facial geometry, which in some places could be seen as biometric data, to verify your identity. More details about Photo Verification and how we handle this data can be found in our guidelines.
ID + Photo Verification Data: Choosing our ID + Photo Verification feature means we collect your facial geometry data (potentially considered biometric in some areas) and a copy of your ID to confirm your identity. Further information about this process is available.
Other Information: With your consent, we might collect other types of information, such as photos and videos, whether you're uploading them or participating in live streaming features on our platform.

6. How We Use Your Information

We primarily use your information to provide and improve our services, ensure the safety of you and our community, and to offer you advertisements that might interest you. Below we elaborate on the various purposes for using your information, along with specific examples.

A. Managing Your Account and Services

Setting up and taking care of your account
Giving you customer support and addressing your queries
Communicating with you about our services
Adjusting prices, offering discounts and promotions, and processing your purchases
Running sweepstakes and competitions

B. Connecting You With Other Users

Suggesting your profile to other members and vice versa
Showing members each other’s profiles
Helping members search for and connect with each other

C. Introducing New Tawkie Features to You

Signing you up for and showing your profile on new Tawkie features and apps
Managing your account on these new offerings

D. Advertising and Marketing

Carrying out and evaluating the success of advertisements and marketing campaigns on and off our platform
Informing you about products or services we think you might find interesting

E. Enhancing and Developing Our Services

Conducting focus groups, market research, and surveys
Analyzing customer support interactions to enhance service quality
Studying how members use our services to make improvements (for example, altering a feature based on user feedback)
Creating new features and services based on member requests

F. Combatting Fraud and Inappropriate Behavior

Identifying and dealing with potential, suspected, or confirmed breaches of our Terms of Use by reviewing reports and interactions between users
Understanding how to prevent breaches of our Terms of Use and designing measures against them
Keeping data related to violations to address and prevent future occurrences
Upholding our rights as outlined in our Terms of Use
Providing feedback to those who report issues, including the actions we've taken

G. Legal Compliance

Fulfilling legal obligations
Assisting law enforcement

To manage and provide our service to you, we use your information based on different legal reasons:

Providing Our Service: We use your info for purposes A, B, and C because it's necessary to fulfil the contract we have with you. This means, when you use our service for making connections, we process your information to keep your account and profile up to date, make your profile visible to other members, recommend members to you, and deliver both free and paid features to you and others.

Legitimate Interests: For purposes D, E, and F, we process your information because it aligns with our legitimate interests. For example, we study how users interact with our services to keep improving them, we make suggestions that might interest you, and we promote our services. We also use your information to maintain the safety of our members, process data to enforce our rights, assist with law enforcement, and protect ourselves in legal situations.

Complying with Laws: For purpose G, we handle your information as necessary to comply with laws and regulations and to show that we're following them. For instance, we keep records of web traffic and transactions as required by law for accounting, tax, and other reasons, and to respond to law enforcement requests. We also maintain records of consents given by members and any decisions to opt out of certain features or processing.

Consent: If you provide us with information that's considered "special" or "sensitive" in some places, like your sexual orientation, you're giving us your consent to process this information as described in this Privacy Policy. We might also ask for your consent for specific purposes, like collecting your exact location or using your information for certain reasons. You can take back your consent anytime by changing your settings (for example, turning off location tracking) or by removing your content (like if you've added sensitive info to your profile). You can withdraw your consent at any time by reaching out to us using the contact details at the end of this Privacy Policy.

7. How We Share Your Information

Our main goal in sharing members' information is to help you make meaningful connections. Here’s how and with whom we may share your information:

With Other Members:

When you share information on the service (like your public profile), other members can see it. Be cautious about what you share and ensure it's something you're okay with being public.
Your profile and content can be made visible according to your privacy settings.
If someone reports you (for example, for breaking our Terms of Use), we might tell the reporter what actions we took because of their report.

With Service Providers and Partners:

We work with vendors to help us run, promote, and improve our services. This includes things like data hosting, customer support, marketing, and security. Sometimes, we share your information in a secure, unreadable form with advertising vendors.
We carefully vet our vendors and partners, who must all follow strict privacy terms.

With Our Affiliates:

We share your info with our affiliates for safety purposes (like banning bad actors across all platforms) and to help us manage our data (as processors on our behalf). This help includes technical processes, marketing, analytics, and fighting against abuses.
We might also share data with other companies for corporate reasons, like audits or reporting, as permitted by law.

Sharing Functionality:

Our services let you share other members' profiles, and they can share yours outside our services.

For Corporate Transactions:

If our company undergoes a business change (merger, sale, etc.), your information could be part of the assets transferred or shared.

With Law Enforcement/When Required by Law:

We might disclose your info if it’s necessary to comply with legal processes, prevent crime, or protect someone's safety.

To Enforce Legal Rights:

We may share your information if it reduces our legal risks, protects our rights or those of others, helps enforce agreements, or deals with crime or fraud.

With Your Consent or at Your Request:

Sometimes, we might ask if we can share your information with third parties for specific reasons. We’ll tell you why we want to share it.

Non-Personal and Hashed Information:

We can share non-identifiable or securely hashed information under any of these circumstances, even with advertisers or other third parties, for targeted advertising or analysis. This might be combined with other non-personal or hashed personal information from other sources. More details about how we use cookies and similar tech are in our Cookie Policy.

8. Your Rights and Choices Regarding Your Information

We believe in your right to control your information, so here are the tools and options we provide:

Access/Update Tools: Within our service, you can access and modify information linked to your account using our tools and settings. If you need help with these, our customer service team is ready to assist you.

Device Permissions: Mobile devices allow you to control the app's access to things like contacts, photos, location services, push notifications, and ad identifiers. Adjust these settings on your device to manage consent for collecting or processing this information or for receiving notifications. Changing these settings might affect the app's functionality.

Uninstall: You can stop an app from collecting your information by uninstalling it. To do this, follow your device's standard uninstall process. Remember, uninstalling an app does not delete your account. To close your account, please use the specific feature on the service.

Account Closure: You can close your account using the designated feature on the service.

Privacy Rights: Depending on where you live, your rights might include:

Access/Know: Request a copy of the information we have about you. You might be able to get this in a portable format.
Delete/Erase: Ask us to delete your personal information.
Correct/Rectify/Update: Correct any information by editing your profile. If something can't be corrected this way, contact us.
Object/Restrict: You may object to some processing activities or ask us to restrict them. For this, please reach out to us.

To protect all members, we may ask for proof of identity to fulfil these requests. We may deny requests under certain conditions, such as inability to verify identity, unlawful requests, or potential infringement on others' rights. Requests for others' info (like messages from them) require their consent and identity verification.

Residents of Virginia, Colorado, or Connecticut can appeal denied requests by mentioning “Privacy Request Appeal.” If unresolved, you might contact your state's attorney general.

Data Sales and Targeted Advertising: We don't sell your data for targeted advertising or make profiling decisions with significant legal effects, thus no opt-out is required for such practices.

Complaints: In the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, you have the right to complain to a data protection authority if you're concerned about our handling of your personal information.

This overview helps you understand your rights and the tools at your disposal to manage your information with us.

9. How Long We Keep Your Information

We only hold onto your personal information for as long as we need it for valid business reasons and as allowed by law. If you choose not to use our services anymore, you can close your account, which will make your profile invisible to other members. We automatically close accounts after two years of inactivity. After closing your account, we'll delete your personal data, but here's how we handle it until then:

Safety Retention Period: To keep our members safe, we have a safety retention window of three months after closing an account or one year after an account is banned. This time allows us to look into any illegal or damaging behavior. We keep your info during this period based on our need to protect both our interests and those of potential third-party victims.

After the Safety Retention Period:

A. Legal Obligations: We keep some data to meet legal requirements. For example:

Transaction data is kept for 10 years to comply with tax and accounting laws.
Credit card info is kept for the time users might dispute a transaction.
Logs or "traffic data" are stored for one year to meet legal data retention rules.
Records of consents you've given us are kept for five years to show we're following the law.

B. Based on Legitimate Interest: We keep some information for practical reasons:

Customer care records and related data, along with rough location data from downloads/purchases, are kept for five years to back our customer service decisions, defend our rights, and protect ourselves legally.
Details about past accounts and subscriptions are stored for three years after your last account closes, helping us with financial planning and reporting.
Profile information is retained for one year in case of potential legal disputes.
Information to prevent banned members from creating new accounts is kept as needed to ensure our members' safety.

C. Outstanding Issues: If there's a possible or ongoing issue, claim, or dispute that requires us to keep data, we'll do so:

If we get a legal request to save data, we must comply and preserve the data.
If data is needed for legal proceedings, we'll keep it as necessary.

This approach ensures that we're keeping your information safe and only for as long as needed, either to comply with the law, for our legitimate business interests, or to protect our community.

10. No Users Under 18

Our platform is strictly for people who are 18 years old or more. We do not allow anyone under the age of 18 to use our services. If you think a member might be under 18, please report it through the available reporting function on the service.

11. Privacy Policy Updates

We're constantly seeking new methods to help you forge meaningful connections and aim to keep our explanations of how we handle your data current. Therefore, this policy might evolve. Rest assured, we'll inform you about any significant updates before they are implemented, giving you the chance to go over the changes.

12. How to Reach Out

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, you can contact us at privacy@tawkie.app.

COOKIE POLICY