Privacy Policy

HaloChat utilizes state-of-the-art security and end-to-end encryption to provide private messaging and Internet calling services to users worldwide (“Services”). Your calls and messages are always encrypted, so they can never be shared or viewed by anyone but yourself and the intended recipients.

Information you provide

Account Information. You need to create a HaloChat account via third-party authorization (such as Google account, Apple account). You may optionally add other information to your account, such as a profile name and profile picture. This information is end-to-end encrypted.

Messages. HaloChat use end-to-end encryption. This means that all data is encrypted with a key that only you and the recipient know. HaloChat cannot decrypt or otherwise access the content of your messages or calls. We do not store your secret chats on our servers, but HaloChat queues end-to-end encrypted messages on its servers for delivery to devices that are temporarily offline (e.g. a phone whose battery has died). We also do not keep any logs for messages in secret chats, so after a short period of time we no longer know who or when you messaged via secret chats. For the same reasons, your message history is stored on your own devices, and you can only access those messages from the device they were sent to or from.

Additional technical information is stored on our servers, including randomly generated authentication tokens, push tokens, keys generation algorithm, and other material that is necessary to establish calls and transmit messages. HaloChat limits this additional technical information to the minimum required to operate the Services.

Media in Secret Chats. When you send photos, videos or files via chats, before being uploaded, each item is encrypted with a separate key, not known to the server. This key and the file’s location are then encrypted again, this time with the secret chat’s key — and sent to your recipient. They can then download and decipher the file. This means that the file is technically on one of HaloChat’s servers, but it looks like a piece of random indecipherable garbage to everyone except for you and the recipient. We don’t know what this random data stands for and we have no idea which particular chat it belongs to. We periodically purge this random data from our servers to save disk space.

Contacts. HaloChat can optionally discover which contacts in your address book are HaloChat users. We may require you to authorize your third-party cloud drive or device storage to backup contacts.

To make it easier for your contacts and other people to reach you and recognize who you are, the screen name you choose, your profile pictures, and your username (should you choose to set one) on HaloChat are always public. We don't want to know your real name, gender, age or what you like. We do not require your screen name to be your real name.

Location Data. If you share a location in a chat, this location data is treated like other messages in cloud or chats respectively.

If you share your Live Location in any chat or turn on ’Make Myself Visible’ in People Nearby, HaloChat will use your data to display your location to those users with whom you are sharing it, even when the app is closed – for as long as you keep these optional features activated.

User Support. If you contact HaloChat User Support, any personal data you may share with us is kept only for the purposes of researching the issue and contacting you about your case.

Managing your information. You can manage your personal information in HaloChat’s application Settings. You can update your profile information or choose to enable additional privacy features.

For example, you can add your birthday to your profile if you wish to do so. You can granularly choose which users are able to see it on your profile (by default, your Contacts), and they may receive a reminder during the day. We may use data about your age to determine your eligibility for accessing age-specific content.

Cross-Device Functionality. We may also store some aggregated metadata to create HaloChat features that work across all your devices.

Bot Messages

Ecosystem. HaloChat has an API that allows third-party developers to create bots. Bots are apps that look like special HaloChat users: you can talk to them from your chat list, add them to groups or use a special “inline” interface to access their features. By performing any of these actions, you will be sending some of your data to the respective third-party bot developers.

How Bots Can Receive Data. You can send data to bot developers when you interact with their bots in one of these ways:

• By sending messages to a bot.
• By using an inline bot.
• By participating in a group with a bot.
• By pressing buttons in messages sent by a bot.
• By paying for goods and services via bots.
• By sending a join request to a group or community.

What Data Bots Receive. In any of the above cases, the developers of an automated user (bot) can get your public account data: your screen name, username and profile picture(s).

Bots can also receive the following data when you interact with them.

• Bots will obviously get your messages when you send them something.
• If you click on links or buttons provided by the bot, the bot can potentially get your IP address (provided that it controls the website to which the link leads).
• If the bot is a member of the same group with you, it may know you are a member.
• Bots added to groups can operate in two modes: with access to messages in the group or without access. If the bot has access to messages, it can see everything that happens in the group. The interface clearly shows whether or not a bot has access to messages in groups.
• To facilitate text localization, bots you interact with, may receive your interface language based on your app or operating system language settings. Note that if you update your language settings, bots may continue to receive your previous language for some time.

Bots Are Not Maintained by HaloChat. The terms of use for certain bots are set by HaloChat. No other bots or third-party bot developers are affiliated with HaloChat. They are completely independent from us. They should ask you for your permission before they access your data or you make it available to them.

Information we may share

Other HaloChat Users. Note that by entering into the Terms of Service and choosing to communicate with such other users of HaloChat, you are instructing us to transfer your personal data, on your behalf, to those users in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We employ all appropriate technical and organizational measures (including encryption of your personal data) to ensure a level of security for your personal data that is appropriate to the risk. However, note that if you chat with others and share data with them, they become capable of sharing such data further with third parties without your knowledge or consent, and HaloChat has no way to prevent this.

Third Parties. We work with third parties to provide some of our Services. For example, when you register for our Services by Third-Party. These providers are bound by their Privacy Policies to safeguard that information. If you use other Third-Party Services like YouTube, Zoom, Dapp, Bot, etc. in connection with our Services, their Terms and Privacy Policies govern your use of those services.

Translation of Chats, Channels and specific Messages at the Request of the User.Users can choose to translate a specific text message into a different language by tapping “Translate” in the action menu of the message. HaloChat Premium users can also optionally enable automatic live translation on any chat, group or community.

Since HaloChat may rely on a third-party, such as Google LLC, for automatic translation of messages, the text of any message or set of messages that users choose to translate may be shared with Google in order to obtain their translated versions. Google will only access the data to provide a translation and will not use it for any other Google products, services, or advertising.

Transcription of Voice and Video Messages at the Request of the User.Some users can choose to convert a voice or video message to text by tapping on the Voice-to-Text icon (“->A”) displayed on eligible messages(to be able to use this option, users should subscribe to HaloChat Premium in the Settings > HaloChat Premium section of the HaloChat application).

Since HaloChat may rely on a third party, such as Google LLC, for voice-to-text conversion, the audio data of voice and video messages that users choose to convert to text may be shared with Google in order to obtain their transcribed versions. Only audio data may be shared for this purpose (no other data, such as the user's IP address or any information about their account is shared). According to the agreement between HaloChat and Google, HaloChat will pay for the transcriptions on behalf of its users and Google will only access the audio data to provide a transcribed version – it will not log audio data or transcripts, and will not use the data for any other Google products, services, or advertising.

Other instances where HaloChat may need to share your data

• To meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
• To enforce applicable Terms, including investigation of potential violations.
• To detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues.
• To protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of HaloChat, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law.

Deleting data

Accounts. If you would like to delete your account, you can do this on the deactivation page. Deleting your account removes all messages, media, contacts and every other piece of data you store in your device DataBase, and temporary data, account information and other data stored in the halochat cloud. This action must be confirmed via your HaloChat account and cannot be undone.

Messages.

• In chats, HaloChat will delete all messages by default, and the destruction time can be set.
• In chats, users deleting a message always instructs the app on the other end to delete it too.
• Any party can choose to delete any messages in one-on-one chats, both sent and received, for both sides. There is no time limit. Any party can also opt to clear the entire chat history for both parties, in which case the apps will be instructed to remove all messages in that chat, regardless of how many messages are retained by either of the participants.
• In groups and community, deleting a message removes it for all participants.

Self-Destructing Messages. HaloChat default messages are deleted in chat, destruction time can be set. As soon as such a message is read (2 checks appear highlighted), the countdown starts. When the timer expires, both devices participating in the chat are instructed to delete the message (include photo, video, etc.). Media with short timers (less than a minute) are shown with blurred previews. The timer is triggered when they are viewed.

Account Self-Destruction. By default, if you stop using HaloChat and do not come online for at least 12 months, your account will be deleted. You can go to Settings to change the exact period after which your inactive account will self-destruct.

Updates

We will update this privacy policy as needed so that it is current, accurate, and as clear as possible. Your continued use of our Services confirms your acceptance of our updated Privacy Policy.

Terms

Please also read our Terms which also governs the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about our Privacy Policy please contact us through HaloChat Customer Service.

Effective as of May 23, 2025

Updated May 23, 2025