We take the protection of our users' privacy seriously. When you use our services, we may need to collect and use information about you. Through this Privacy Policy, we want to explain to you how we collect, use, store and share this information when using our services, and the ways we provide you with access to, update, control and protect this information. This Privacy Policy is relevant to the Services you use and we hope you will read it carefully and, if necessary, make the choices you deem appropriate in accordance with the guidelines in this Privacy Policy. We have tried to keep the technical terms used in this Privacy Policy as simple and concise as possible and provide links to further instructions for your understanding.
By choosing to use or continuing to use our services, you consent to the collection, use, storage and sharing of information about you in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or related matters, please contact us at akeychat@gmail.com.
We will collect information that you provide voluntarily when using the service and through automated means to collect information you generated during the use of features or receipt of the service in the following ways.
In order to help you register an AKeyChat Pro account so that you can use AKeyChat Pro's software features, we need to collect the following information from you.
When you register AKeyChat Pro, you can create an account by cell phone number, you need to provide your cell phone number, and we will send you a verification code through your cell phone number in order to verify if your identity is valid. After the registration is completed, you can change your nickname; you can also improve your personal information, such as gender, etc. according to your own needs. We can obtain the personal information you fill in to fulfill the account management responsibility, the third party SMS verification code service party can only obtain the cell phone number, and cannot obtain any associated account information other than the cell phone number.
The functions of our products, the required authorization and the collection of information are as follows.
(1) Instant Messaging
Our instant messaging feature provides you with the ability to chat with your friends, including single chat and group chat, you can send your text, voice, video and other messages in the chat interface. We will use this feature to meet your instant communication need with your friends. To send or save pictures and files, the feature need to get permission to access your album and file storage, otherwise it will not work properly. The photo-taking feature requires permission to access to your camera.
We do not collect your instant messaging history (i.e., chat history, including text, voice, video, pictures, and documents of all kinds). However, we may prohibit you from using some or all of the features of AKeyChat Pro when we have reasonable suspicion that you are engaging in illegal and criminal activities or violating the legal rights of others through AKeyChat Pro (such as receiving reports or complaints from others and having a case filed by public prosecutors and law enforcement agencies).
(2) Voice messages and calls
When you send "voice messages" or use the "voice call" function, we will call your microphone authority, if you refuse to provide, we will not be able to provide you with voice message recording and sending and voice call function.
When you use AKeyChat Pro, the application will collect some device information and log information on a minimal need basis for failure analysis, identity verification, customer service, security prevention, fraud monitoring, archiving and backup purposes to ensure the security of the products and services we provide to you; to help us design new services and improve our existing services; to enable us to better understand how you access and use our services. For software certification or management software upgrades.
All access to information and requests for permissions will be made only after the user launches the App and clicks the "Agree" button when viewing the User Agreement and Privacy Policy prompt box, and only once each time the App is launched.
The device information collected will not be saved directly in plain text, but will be encrypted and sent to the server for storage, and the frequency of sending is once per app launch. Device information alone cannot identify a specific natural person, and such information is de-identified, anonymized, and encrypted to ensure that there is no risk of leaking personal information about the user.
Please understand that the collection of device information is the premise and basis of our service provision, and if you refuse to provide it, you will not be able to use the AKeyChat Pro application.
(1) Equipment and log information collected and used by the application itself.
The app will collect Android ID as the unique identification of this device according to the minimum need according to system compatibility, to identify the current user account login device, to prevent the user account from being stolen by others with other devices, to enhance the security of user use and protect user privacy.
When the App connects to the server, the server will automatically get the IP address. Since IP addresses are usually assigned based on regions, they can be used to distinguish the approximate source of a user's login location. After the server obtains the IP address, it can prevent criminals from logging in through the risky IP, enhance the security of the software and protect users' information. At the same time, the server will encrypt and save the IP address, so there is no risk of leaking users' personal information.
Application log information: software version number, overall operation, usage and frequency of the software.
Network security event-related log information: such as network crashes, system activity and other information. If you do not want this information to be collected by us, you will not be able to use AKeyChat Pro.
(2) Device and log information collected and used by the application's built-in third-party SDK.
In order to implement the message notification function on Google Pixel / Samsung / Huawei / Xiaomi / OPPO / VIVO series cell phones, the application integrates a third-party [Push SDK], which cooperates with the server side to implement the [Message Push] function, and the [Push SDK] needs to collect information using your device identification OAID and encrypted Android ID, application information using the push service such as application package name, version number and running status, device manufacturer, device model, device memory, operating system version, Push SDK version, device's home country (country or region), SIM card operator name, current network type and other information. In order to better understand the rules of personal information collection and use, you can visit the specific Push Privacy Policy on Google Firebase / Huawei / Xiaomi / OPPO / VIVO Open Platform for more details.
[Bugly SDK] will get the phone model, phone brand, Android system version, Android system API level, vendor system version, CPU architecture type, whether or not the device is root, disk space occupied size, memory size, and SDCARD space occupied size. SDCARD space size, memory space size, network type, and the current running process name and PID of the application, which can be used to determine the ANR status of the current process, troubleshoot the crash problem, and improve the stability of the application. In order to better understand the rules of personal information collection and use of Bugly SDK, you can visit the website of "Bugly SDK Personal Information Protection Rules" to learn more about its Privacy Policy.
(1) AKeyChat Pro will not collect users' personal information in the silent and background states without their permission, and all the information required for the operation of the App is described in the previous section.
(2) When AKeyChat Pro enters the silent or background state, if the cell phone system encounters network connection restrictions caused by energy saving or hibernation, the app will not repeatedly try to access the network, in order to maximize the power consumption of the phone and improve the user experience.
(3) If users use voice call function in AKeyChat Pro App and want to maintain stability during long time call, they can enter "Settings" - "System Settings", turn on the "Keep Connected" switch and add the App to the whitelist of system low-power mode to avoid interrupting network connection during long time call when the system locks screen and enters low-power mode. When not using the voice call function, there is no need to turn on this switch.
(4) AKeyChat Pro has introduced a third-party Bugly SDK to collect the crash log of the application. This SDK is only used to locate the crash problem for the need to locate the crash problem and collect the Android ID (see the previous description) in the background state of the application. This information is only read, not saved locally and not uploaded to the server. None of the above information is collected in relation to the user's personal information, and no commercial analysis of the collected information will be conducted.
1. Access, correction and deletion of personal information
We will do everything possible to take appropriate technical measures to ensure that you can access, correct and delete your registration information or other personal information that you provide when using our services. You can access, modify and delete your personal information by opening the Edit icon on the Personal Settings page of the AKeyChat Pro App. When accessing, modifying and deleting the aforementioned information, we may ask you to verify your identity to ensure the security of your account.
2. Cancel your account
You can submit the autonomous cancellation application through [Settings] - [Security Settings] - [Account Cancellation]. If the autonomous cancellation fails because of the server version problem, you can submit the cancellation application to us through email akeychat@gmail.com.
3. Revoke authorization
You can revoke your authorization through the permission request window when AKeyChat Pro App first runs on your device, or modify the corresponding permission settings of AKeyChat Pro in the device settings, but your refusal of authorization may cause some functions to be unavailable, for example, the camera permission is denied, so you cannot take and send photos instantly when chatting.
We will not share your personal information with any third party without your consent, except for the following cases:
We may share your personal information with third party service providers, contractors and agents (e.g., providing your cell phone number to an SMS verification code service provider to help you complete your account registration and password retrieval service for AKeyChat Pro) to provide our services to you for the purposes described in the "How We Collect and Use Information" section; to fulfill our obligations and exercise our rights under this Privacy Policy, and to understand, maintain and improve our services.
If we share your personal information with any of these third parties, we will endeavor to ensure that such third parties comply with this Privacy Policy and other appropriate confidentiality and security measures that we require when using your personal information.
As our business continues to grow, we may enter into mergers, acquisitions, asset transfers or similar transactions, and your personal information may be transferred as part of such transactions. We will notify you prior to the transfer.
We may also retain, preserve or disclose your personal information for the purpose of. (1) To comply with applicable laws and regulations. (2) To comply with the provisions of a court order or other legal process. (3) To comply with the requirements of relevant government authorities. (4) Reasonable purposes necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to protect the public interest, or to protect the personal and property or legitimate rights and interests of our customers, us, or other users.
We will retain your personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy (for example, we will retain your cell phone number and the personal information you fill out for as long as you register and use AKeyChat Pro) and for as long as required by law or regulation. We will delete or anonymize your personal information when the storage period expires or when our products and services cease operation, unless otherwise mentioned by law.
We use a variety of security techniques and procedures to protect against the loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure of information. For example, in some services, we use encryption technology to protect the personal information you provide. However, please understand that, due to technical limitations and the potential for malicious means, it is not always possible to guarantee 100% security of information in the Internet industry, even with all efforts to enhance security measures. You should be aware that the systems and communication networks you use to access our services may experience problems due to factors outside of our control.
The personal information we collect will be stored within the on-premise private AKeyChat Pro server your operator owns.
A number of our Services allow you to share information about yourself within your own social networks, such as information you upload in AKeyChat Pro (including your publicly available personal information, contacts, groups you create), your responses to information uploaded or posted by others, and including data and log information related to such information. Other users of our Services may also share information about you (including related data and log information).
Therefore, please consider carefully the content of the information you upload, post and communicate through our Services. In some cases, you can control the range of users who have access to the information you share through the privacy settings of some of our Services. To request the removal of information about you from our Services, please do so through the means provided in these special terms of service.
We encourage parents or guardians to guide minors in their use of our Services. We recommend that minors encourage their parents or guardians to read this Privacy Policy and that minors seek the consent and guidance of their parents or guardians before submitting personal information.
This Privacy Policy applies to all of our services, except for certain specific services. Those specific services will be subject to a specific privacy policy. The specific privacy policies for certain specific services will describe more specifically how we use your information in these services. The privacy policy for that particular service forms part of this Privacy Policy. If there is a discrepancy between the privacy policy of the particular service and this Privacy Policy, the privacy policy of that particular service will apply.
Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to the following:
information collected by third party services accessed through our Services (including any third party websites).
information collected through other companies or organizations that perform advertising services within our Services.
We may revise the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time, and such revisions form part of this Privacy Policy. If such revisions result in a actual reduction of your rights under this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by prominently displaying the revisions on our home page or by sending you an email or otherwise before the revisions become effective. In such event, by continuing to use our Services, you agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy, as amended.
If you have any questions (including complaints, contacting the person in charge of personal information protection), you can contact us through the following ways
AKey Co., Ltd.
E-mail: akeychat@gmail.com
Update date: Sep 7th, 2022
Effective date: Sep 7th, 2022