Being a digital native and user centric organization, we respect our community and user’s privacy and committed to keep that as one of our core principles in building our service.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, protect and disclose information that applies to our Service, and your choices about the collection and use of your information. If you do not agree to our privacy policy, please do not use the HookZApp Services.

This Privacy Policy applies to all our Services unless specified otherwise.

Please also read HookZApp Terms of Service ("Terms"), which describe the terms under which you use our Services.

To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as SMS authentication in certain cases) to verify your identity before registering your mobile phone number and granting you access to the HookZApp Service

All your chats and Calls whether its 1-2-1 or group or with a business will always be end-to-end encrypted and this will never change

Information We Collect

HookZApp may obtain the following types of information from you and your mobile phone device, which may include information that can be used to identify you as specified below (“Personally Identifying Information”):

The type of information we collect depends on how you use our service as our platform is feature rich beyond our core communication services such as Chat, Audio & Video Calls. The additional features are available to you either as free standard or paid services based on your location and if used by you, require us to collect additional information to provide such features. You will be notified of such a collection, as appropriate. If you choose not to provide the information needed to use a feature, you will be unable to use the feature.

For example, you cannot share your Precise Location Information with your contacts if you do not enable location sharing on your device. Permissions can be managed through your device-based settings on both Android and iOS devices.

Account Sign up Information

You must provide your mobile phone number, age range and a unique username of your choice as mandatory information to sign up an account with HookZApp. You will not be able to create an account without this mandatory information. You can also add optional information to your account, such as a Profile picture, Gender, and "Bio" information.

Your Contacts

Contacts in your phone who aren’t using HookZApp Service, we protect their privacy by managing the phone number in a way that is designed to prevent those contacts from being identified by HookZApp. We do this by creating a cryptographic hash value of their phone number, and then delete the number. The hash value enables us to connect you more efficiently with these contacts when they join HookZApp. We also collect information of users who had contacted you even though they are not in your contact list, users you have blocked and users who had blocked you.

Cookies Information

When you visit the HookZApp website or web-based services, we may send one or more cookies to understand, operate and provide our service and to improve your experience.

Cookie is a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. HookZApp uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser.

You can modify your cookies setting to disable specific cookies by following the instructions provided by your browser (usually under the setting section). However, the HookZApp Site may not function properly if you have disabled browser cookies

User Content

Your Messages, Media & Files within Messages, and Calls

We offer end-to-end encryption for the chats (both 1-2-1 & group) and calls you make & receive in our service. End-to-end encryption means that your calls, messages, media & files within messages including content like images, audio, video, documents are encrypted to protect against third parties (including HookZApp) from seeing that content.

Usually, your messages are stored in your device(s) and not on our servers. We temporarily store your messages in an encrypted form while they are being delivered. Once your messages are delivered, they are deleted from our servers.

If a message cannot be delivered for any reason, we keep it on our servers in an encrypted form for up to 10 days while we try to deliver it. If the message is still undelivered after 10 days, we shall delete it. We cannot see the contents of undelivered messages stored on our servers as they are encrypted.

When a user sends media within a message, we store that media in an encrypted format on our servers for up to 30 days to swiftly deliver to other recipients if a user chooses to forward the media. We cannot see the media as it is encrypted.

Moments

Moments allows you to publish text, photo, video, GIF and ClipZ video updates that will disappear after 24 hours. Your Moments updates may be visible to everyone who have your mobile number in their contacts list as default, but you have full control to limit and choose the users who can see your Moments in privacy section under settings. To message on other’s Moments and receive message to your Moments, you and your contacts must have each other's phone numbers saved in your phones’ address books. It will also be end-to-end encrypted.

ClipZ

ClipZ is one of the key features of HookZApp which allows users to create, upload, watch and share a short form video. ClipZ primary identifier is HookZApp username or mobile number through which other users can search and find you in ClipZ. We may publish recommended videos for you based on your locations, interests and viewing history in ClipZ

• The comments in the ClipZ are not private and not encrypted as its visible to all users but you can control your own videos to enable or disable comments and share option using the settings section in ClipZ
• You can follow other users’ video and others can follow your videos; you can view all the users who are following you
• Our access to your mobile device camera, gallery, photos, and microphone are essential for you to use the ClipZ feature to upload and share your videos
• We may process information about your followers, comments, and the likes you receive to the video content you upload, for the purposes of promoting your content to other users and to explore whether your profile presents further opportunities for collaboration.
• We may collect information about the images and audio that are a part of your User Content, such as identifying the objects and scenery that appear, the existence and location within an image of face and body features and attributes, the nature of the audio, and the text of the words spoken in your User Content. We may collect this information to enable special video effects, for content moderation, for demographic classification, for content and ad recommendations, and for other non-personally identifying operations.
• We may collect your preferences, including your interests, gender, and age for the purpose of personalising content in ClipZ and Explore
• We may collect your usage pattern in ClipZ such as your Ads view duration, content watch duration, contents that you mark as favourites, the users you follow and how you engage with mutual followers for the purpose of content personalisation.

General Location Information

We may use IP addresses and other information like phone number area codes, to estimate your general location (e.g., country) even though you do not choose to use our precise location-based features (see Information You and We Share),

Precise Location Information

We enable you to share your Precise Location Information from your device when you choose to use location-based features such as below but not limited to,

• Send your current or live location to your contacts or businesses
• To find people, location, business & groups nearby

Precise Location Information that you share with your contacts in your chats is encrypted so HookZApp cannot see it. You can control your Precise Location Information sharing in your in-app settings and your device-based settings

Your Group Information

You can create, join, or get added to groups and such groups get associated with your account. You give your groups a name. You can provide a group profile picture or description. We also collect information about when groups are created or updated but we can see the messages in the groups.

Your Channel Information

You can create, join, or get added to channels though invitation link or by search. You can provide a name to the channel and description and a profile picture which will be visible to us. We also collect information about when channels are created and number of participants at any given point. Pls note that the messages and medias in the HookZ channel whether it’s private or public channel are not end-to-end encrypted.

Customer Support Communications

You may contact us for customer support or to report to us about any misuse and when you do so, you may provide us with information related to your use of our Services, including copies of your messages, any other information you judge helpful, and how to contact you back (e.g., an email address). For example, you may contact us for issues such as impersonation of your account.

User Choices

We collect information about your in-app settings, privacy settings, ClipZ settings, group & channel settings, and records about when you have accepted our Terms. Only you are in control of your account & privacy settings which can be used to change who can see your "last seen", profile photo & video, "Bio" information, Moments updates, read receipts or add you to groups. We also collect information about whether you have enabled push notifications and whether you wish to send disappearing messages.

Information from Third Parties

You may choose to share certain data with us from third parties or through your use of the Platform, we may collect such third-party data automatically. We have set out further detail on the information we receive from third parties below,

Advertisers, Advertising Networks, and Analytic Providers.

We use the information collected from you, and your interaction with the Platform and other third-party sites and Apps, to infer your likely interests to provide you with more relevant advertising. This information tells us about websites you've visited, apps you've downloaded and purchases you have made so that we can predict what else might interest you in the future and assess how effective the advertising on our Platform is. We collect this information using Cookies and similar technologies on our Platform and from similar information received from third parties who advertise on our Platform and whose sites/Apps you visit.

Information from Other Users. We may receive your information from other users of our Service while activities such as contact upload like you do so when you upload their contacts. We require each of these users to have lawful rights to collect, use, and share your information before providing any information to us. You should be aware that in general any user can take screenshots of your chat screen or make recordings of your calls with them and send them to us or anyone else or post them on another platform.

User Reports. Just as you can report other users, other users or third parties may also choose to report to us your interactions and your messages with them or others on our Services; for example, to report possible violations of our Terms or policies. When a report is submitted to us through the reporting tools, we receive information from the reporter on both the reporting user and those reported.

Technical Information we collect about you

We collect certain information about the device you use to access the Platform, such as your IP address, user agent, mobile carrier, time zone settings, identifiers for advertising purposes, model of your device, the device system, network type, device IDs, your screen resolution and operating system, app and file names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms, battery state, audio settings and connected audio devices. Where you log-in from multiple devices, we will be able to use your profile information to identify your activity across devices. We may also associate you with information collected from devices other than those you use to log-in to the Platform.

How we Use and process your Information

Under applicable data protection law in the European Region (such as the GDPR), companies must have a legal basis to process information. We rely on different legal bases to process your information for the various purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

We will use the information we collect about you in the following ways as necessary to conclude and perform our contract with you, our Terms.

• assist you in signing up and managing your account with us
• to ensure that you are old enough to use our Platform (as required by law).
• provide you with user support and to communicate with you
• to send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages and broadcast your Moments
• to make, receive, join, or leave the voice or video calls
• collect metrics about calls and aggregate them to optimize call quality.
• Assist you in creating backup of your chat history
• Identify whether your contacts are HookZApp users when you choose to sync your device’s address book using contact upload
• to create and join in Groups to communicate with multiple users at the same time
• to ensure your safety and security including reviewing user content in the ClipZ & Explore sections, and associated metadata for breach of our User Guidelines and other inappropriate content.
• to help us detect and combat abuse, harmful activity, fraud, spam, and illegal activity on the Platform.
• provide you with location-based services (where those services are available in your jurisdiction).
• To carry out data analysis and test the Platform to ensure its stability and security.
• To improve, promote and develop the Platform to provide the continuous service for you
• to facilitate sales, promotion, and purchase of goods and services primarily via ClipZ & HookZApp Explore section
• to enable you to use the social networking feature on the Platform, for example, by allowing other users to connect with you via the "People Nearby" function or through their phone contacts.
• provide you with personalised advertising in ClipZ & Explore section
• provide you with Value Added service. For example - Mobile recharge, Utility bill payments, etc.
• enforce our terms, conditions, and policies.

How we share your personal data

We share your data with the following selected third parties:

Business Partners

If you choose to register to use the Platform using your social network account details (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google), you will provide us or allow your social network to provide us with your phone number, username, and public profile. We will likewise share certain information with the relevant social network such as your app ID, access token and the referring URL. If you choose to allow a third-party service to access your account, we will share certain information about you with the third party. Depending on the permissions you grant, the third party may be able to obtain your account information and other information you choose to provide.

Where you opt to share content on social media platforms, the video, username, and accompanying text will be shared on that platform or, in the case of sharing via other instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, a link to the content will be shared.

Payment Providers

We provide information and content to service providers who support our business, such as cloud service providers and providers of content moderation services to ensure that the Platform is a safe and enjoyable place and service providers that assist us in marketing the Platform.

Analytics providers

We use analytics providers to help us in the optimisation and improvement of the Platform. Our third-party analytics providers also help us serve targeted adverts

Advertisers and Advertising Networks

We will share ClipZ and Explore information with advertisers and third-party measurement companies to measure users clicks and viewing of an advertisement. We share your device ID with measurement companies so that we can link your activity on the Platform with your activity on other websites; we then use this information to show you advertisements which may be of interest to you.

Our Group Companies

We may also share your information with other members, subsidiaries, or affiliates of our Group company, to meet the service levels and to improve and optimize our platform

Law Enforcement

We will share your information with law enforcement agencies, public authorities or other organisations if legally required to do so, to comply with legal obligation, process, or request.

Managing and Retaining Your Information

You can access your information using our in-app Request Account Info feature (available under Settings > Account).

We store information for as long as necessary for the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy, including to provide our Services or for other legitimate purposes, such as complying with legal obligations, enforcing, and preventing violations of our Terms, or protecting or defending our rights, property, and users. The storage periods are determined on a case-by-case basis that depends on factors like the nature of the information, why it is collected and processed, relevant legal or operational retention needs, and legal obligations.

If you would like to further manage, change, limit, or delete your information, you can do that through the following tools:

Services Settings

You can change your Services settings to manage certain information available to other users. You can manage your contacts, groups, and broadcast lists, or use our “block” feature to manage the users with whom you communicate.

Changing Mobile Phone Number, Username Profile Picture, And “Bio” Information

If you change your mobile phone number, you must update it using our in-app change number feature and transfer your account to your new mobile phone number. You can also change your profile name, profile picture, and "about" information at any time.

Deleting Your Account

You can delete your HookZApp account at any time (including if you want to revoke your consent to our use of your information pursuant to applicable law) using our in-app delete my account feature. When you delete your HookZApp account, your undelivered messages will be deleted from our servers as well as any of your other information we no longer need to operate and provide our Services.

Deleting your account will, for example, delete your account info and profile photo, delete you from all HookZApp groups, and delete your HookZApp message history.

Be mindful that if you only delete HookZApp from your device without using our in-app delete my account feature, your information will be stored with us for a longer period. Please remember that when you delete your account, it does not affect your information related to the groups you created or the information other users have relating to you, such as their copy of the messages you sent them.

Pending Transactions

We will retain some of your information deemed necessary where any pending transaction and payment details for paid features, purchases, subscriptions even after you delete the account to ensure the payments are cleared for yourself and payments you owe to HookZApp or third parties including businesses and other users

OTHERS

International Users

HookZApp Services are currently hosted in AWS Cloud at EU region and are intended and directed for UK & EU users. If you are a user accessing the HookZApp Service from US, Asia or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from UK & EU, please be advised that through your continued use of the HookZApp Service, which are governed by UK Laws, this Privacy Policy, and our Terms of Service, you are transferring your personal information to the EU and you expressly consent us to that transfer and consent to be governed by UK law for these purposes.

Merger, Sale or Bankruptcy

If HookZApp is acquired by or merged with a third-party entity, we reserve the right to transfer or assign the information we have collected from our users as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control. In the unlikely event of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors’ rights generally, we may not be able to control how your personal information is treated, transferred, or used.

Proof of your identity for age

We sometimes ask you to provide proof of identity for age to use certain features, such as Moments and ClipZ videos, livestream, or financial transactions, or when you apply for a Prime Account, ensure that you are old enough to use the Platform, or in other instances where verification may be required

Changes and updates to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Policy may be revised periodically, and this will be reflected by the “effective date” above. Please frequently check this page to stay cognizant of any changes. Your continued use of our Services constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any modifications.

Contact Us:

If you have questions, comments, or requests regarding this policy, please contact us on product@hookzapp.com with Subject: Attn Privacy