Version 6.0 - 24 May 2018
(Previous version 5.0 - 14 April 2015)
In this Privacy Policy, we'll describe the types of personal data you might share with us when you use Voxilate and HeyTell applications, web sites, and services. We'll describe how we use this data, how we secure it, how long we retain it, and with whom we share it. We will also provide you with information about exercising your rights to remove or retrieve data you have shared.
As HeyTell was designed with privacy at its core, we'll also use this policy to explain the different privacy levels available to you when you use HeyTell to avoid sharing personal data. For example, if you configure your privacy as High, your email address(es), phone number(s), and social media profile info is not shared with us (in fact, if you previously had a lower level of privacy, setting your privacy to High will delete previously-stored contact information from our database). See Taking Advantage of Built-In HeyTell Privacy Levels and Controls for more information. Contact information isn't required for usage and we only retain what we need to run and maintain the service. If you do choose to share your contact information on HeyTell, it's used solely for app functionality -- we do not use your email addresses, phone numbers, or social media information for marketing purposes, nor do we share or sell it. When the data is no longer necessary, we remove it from our systems (for example, accounts are cleared after a year of inactivity) and we provide you with a method to clear your data yourself if you choose.
Please review this policy in full, as by using Voxilate Applications and Sites you agree to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service, which is incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy. You agree that you are solely responsible for the information you share with Voxilate and with other users of Voxilate Services, Applications, and Sites and understand that you do not have to share phone numbers or e-mail addresses with others or with Voxilate to use Voxilate services, applications, and sites. You can use the quick links below to jump to each section of our policy.
Information We Share with Third Parties
Removing Your Information from Voxilate/HeyTell Systems
Requesting Copies of Your Information Stored on Voxilate/HeyTell Systems
Taking Advantage of Built-in HeyTell Privacy Levels and Controls
Future Modifications to this Policy
The following sections describe the information we may collect, how it is used, and how long it is stored when:
The Voxilate and HeyTell web sites track basic information about their visitors which includes IP address, browser and operating system type, timestamps, and referring pages. We also use a third party service, Google Analytics, to log visits to our web sites. We do not make any attempt to de-anonymize this aggregated information. Voxilate does not itself set browser cookies to store user information (although Google Analytics does set first party cookies - see Information We Share with Third Parties for more information). Our server-based Internet access and error logs are retained in secure storage for 90 days for aggregated analytics and network security monitoring purposes, after which point they are expunged from Voxilate systems.
To identify you to the HeyTell service and connect you with other users, HeyTell may collect some personally identifying data about you. Note that you are not required to provide your name, phone number(s), email address(es), or social media accounts to use HeyTell, but information that can be considered personally-identifying in some cases, like your Internet Protocol (IP) address, is collected when you access Voxilate services (as you cannot access any online service without an IP address!).
Voxilate, Inc. will never share your IP address, name, email addresses, phone numbers, social media account information, geolocation data, or voice recordings with third-parties, other than those required to facilitate the service (as described in Information We Share with Third Parties) and other users of the service with which you communicate, without your express permission unless you give your consent or as required by law. If we receive a law enforcement request for your account, we will notify you using the contact information you have provided, unless prohibited by law.
Voxilate collects the following information about you based on the information included in the Contact that you select as your HeyTell Identity:
- Your name, if you provide it to the app
- Your phone numbers, if you provide them to the app
- Your email addresses, if you provide them to the app
- Your Facebook account ID, if you connect your HeyTell account to Facebook
- Your Twitter account ID, if any connect your HeyTell account to Twitter
The following list describes the classes of personal information that you might share with HeyTell, describes whether sharing is required or optional, how the information is used, who it is shared with, and how long it is retained:
An IP address is required to access the Internet. When you connect to Voxilate systems, it is logged to server logs for the purpose of tracking system access and detecting errors and network intrusions. It is not used to de-anonymize or track specific users. We do not store your IP address in Voxilate databases, and log files which contain the IP address are purged after 90 days.
Your email address may be used to:
- Allow other users to search for your HeyTell account.
- Upon your request, send you an email message asking you to verify your email account(s) in order to verify your HeyTell account (this prevents another user from impersonating you on the service).
- Respond to customer service matters, including downtime, account maintenance, breach or law enforcement notifications
You may receive invitation emails from other users of HeyTell; these emails are sent by the user personally and do not travel through Voxilate servers. Voxilate is not responsible for the transmission of such emails or the content of such emails. This also applies to SMS message invites, if sent directly from the sender's phone. If the user does not have SMS capability, they may send an invite using our third-party partner, Twilio. Please see Information We Share with Third Parties, below, for more information about these messages.
Your phone number may be used to:
- Allow other users to search for your HeyTell account.
- Upon your request, send you an text message asking you to verify your phone number in order to verify your HeyTell account (this prevents another user from impersonating you on the service).
Voxilate will never use your phone number to contact you without your express consent. However, other users may use the phone number they have on record for you to invite you to the service via text message (SMS). The application will allow you to invite other users via text message and others to invite you via SMS using your phone number. Voxilate is not responsible for any carrier charges incurred by receipt or transmission of SMS invitations.
NOTE THAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SMS COSTS FOR SMS INVITES YOU SEND TO OTHERS AND RECIPIENTS MAY ALSO BE CHARGED FOR SMS MESSAGES RECEIVED. WHEN IN DOUBT, USE FREE METHODS TO CONNECT TO FRIENDS: USE EMAIL, FACEBOOK, OR TWITTER INVITES, OR CONNECT WITH FRIENDS WHO USE LOW PRIVACY AND HAVE PROVIDED YOU WITH THEIR HEYTELL CONTACT INFORMATION (email address, phone number, Facebook ID, or Twitter ID). In addition, if you send SMS invitations to landlines, note that some telecom providers will translate SMSes you send to speech, which can be more expensive to the recipient and can be obtrusive, so please be careful when sending invites--if in doubt, use email, Twitter, or Facebook invites or connect to friends with Low privacy, which doesn't require any invitation acceptance.
You can avoid sharing your phone number with Voxilate by creating a contact in your Address Book that represents you and includes an email address but does not include a phone number. However, please be advised that users will still be able to invite you to the service using SMS if they have your phone number.
The HeyTell service allows you to receive and transmit voice recordings from person to person. As such, recordings of your voice are transmitted between your mobile device and Voxilate servers. By using HeyTell, you agree to the recording of your voice and that you have the consent of others that you record and are complying with any jurisdictional local laws regarding the recording of others. You and your contacts' person-to-person voice recordings are stored until you and any other recipients successfully download the messages to your mobile device, at which time they will be purged from the Voxilate systems. If a person-to-person voice message is not downloaded by its recipient, it is deleted from Voxilate systems after 30 days. Group voice messages are removed from Voxilate systems after 30 days.
Voice messages exported to Facebook or Twitter will remain on HeyTell servers and may be accessible from Facebook, Twitter, or to anyone who has a link to the posted content. Any message exported to email will transit through public Internet infrastructure and can also be extracted by malicious users. While you should never transmit confidential information via HeyTell, you should be especially cognizant of these risks when exporting messages to external sources.
Please note that you transmit voice recordings to others at your own risk. You should consider the privacy risks associated with transmitting voice recordings. For example, while we do block programmatic export of received messages inside the app, we cannot control the behavior of the recipients of your voice recordings, nor the treatment of your messages that have been exported to Facebook, Twitter, email, or other users' devices. Voxilate, Inc is not responsible for any further dissemination of your voice recordings by such recipients.
When you search for a friend who has HeyTell, the email address, phone number, Twitter ID, or Facebook ID you search for is transmitted to HeyTell systems, where it is used to locate a matching contact. This information is used solely to find the individual contact you're trying to locate and is not stored permanently on HeyTell systems. We do not scan, request, nor store the full contents of your device's address book; HeyTell contact searches are only performed for a single contact at a time.
If you use the HeyTell geolocation feature to share your location information with contacts, your GPS coordinates at the time are sent through Voxilate systems embedded within your voice message and may reside in memory (if picked up quick) or on disk (if the recipient doesn't download it for awhile). When your recipient downloads the message, your message, along with the coordinates, is deleted from Voxilate systems. If your recipient doesn't download the message, it is removed from Voxilate systems after 30 days. If your app does not have any HeyTell Extras installed and you are therefore using an ad-supported version of the application, your location may also be sent to Google for the purpose of delivering relevant advertisements and complying with jurisdictional laws. See AdSense/AdMob for information about opting out or refrain from sending location information if using an ad supported version of HeyTell.
You can control whether you choose to share your location information by changing the settings on your mobile device. On iPhone, iPod, or iPad, the first time you attempt to use the HeyTell geolocation feature, you will be prompted to approve or deny HeyTell access to your device's GPS functionality. On other platforms, you grant HeyTell permission to access your location information when you install the HeyTell application installation, but HeyTell will not enable geolocation unless and until you open the Maps page. Make sure that you have verified and fully trust the party with whom you share your location information (it's a good idea to exchange voice messages to verify them first!) before using the Maps page to send a message. Voxilate is not responsible for any inappropriate sharing of location or any damages that may be caused by such disclosure.
TO AVOID SHARING LOCATION DATA, DO NOT OPEN THE MAPS PAGE IN THE APPLICATION AND DO NOT SEND MESSAGES WHILE THE MAPS PAGE IS ACTIVE. If your device's operating system supports it, you can also block HeyTell from accessing your location. On iOS, you can do this by opening the Settings app, tapping Location Services > Heytell and setting Location for HeyTell to "OFF."
Voxilate does not does not store your location in the HeyTell database and does not permanently store your location on its servers; like your voice messages, they are temporarily stored on Voxilate systems only until you and your recipient(s) have successfully exchanged messages. However, GPS locations may be stored on you and your recipients' mobile devices. If you transmit a message on the Maps page with location enabled, and then disable it (or send a message from Recent Conversations), your contact may still see your old location data, but will not see your updated location.
Your Facebook and Twitter account IDs may be used to:
- Allow other users to search for your HeyTell account.
In addition, if you export messages using Twitter or Facebook, HeyTell may also have access to your Twitter and Facebook account information and have permission to post as you in order to post HeyTell messages you have selected for export. HeyTell will never post without your explicit authorization. To de-authorize HeyTell's access at any time, disable the connection by opening the HeyTell Profile page, tapping the social media icon that corresponds with the account you want to disable, and tapping Log Out. You can also log into Twitter or Facebook and de-authorize the HeyTell application directly from those sites.
If you purchase extra features using the Apple App Store, your personal information is not shared with Voxilate. We receive an electronic receipt that is associated with your HeyTell user account. All refunds are processed through Apple Support.
If you purchase extra features using Google Play, Google provides us with your rough location (typically, a city, state and zip inside the US and the country, if outside the US). The reports we receive do not personally identify customers. We retain these reports inside the Google Play Console so that we can issue refunds and for tax purposes.
When you contact HeyTell support, we may collect information from you to help troubleshoot your issue. This includes your email address or social media name/handle and any device information or queries you provide us. If you would like to expunge customer support information you have shared with us, email us at privacy@heytell.com and we will comply with any reasonable request.
Voxilate uses certain trusted third parties to provide information technology services to us, including web hosting, maintenance, software features such as SMS invites, database storage and management, and advertising (in ad-supported versions of the HeyTell app). Your data may be shared with these third parties by virtue of being hosted remotely, but is only shared to the extent necessary for system operation and only pursuant to contractual obligations requiring these third party service providers to maintain the privacy and security of this data.
Twilio: If your device does not have texting capability, we allow you to use the Twilio service to send SMS-based invites. This sends your invitation message and recipient phone number to Twilio in order to transmit the SMS invite. Voxilate has a Data Protection Agreement in force with Twilio to ensure this data is protected.
Google Analytics: When you access a Voxilate web site, Google Analytics places first party cookies and collects Web page access information, including but not limited to cookie data, referring links, and your IP address. We also use Google Analytics to randomly sample application functions users access to improve the application and assist in troubleshooting application issues. We do not use this information to personally identify specific users, but rather for administration, maintenance, service improvement, and aggregate analytics purposes. Data is retained for 14 months, currently the lowest setting Google allows. Should they change this option, we plan to make the retention period lower and will update this Privacy Policy accordingly. Voxilate has a Data Protection Agreement in force with Google Analytics to ensure this data is protected.
Google Ads (AdSense/AdMob): HeyTell is a free app and is subsidized by users who purchase in-app Extras and users who receive in-app ads. Ads are not displayed to users who have installed a purchased Extra. If you do not have any purchased Extras installed, Google AdMob/AdSense is used to serve these ads. Please visit How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services for information about how Google uses information provided to them via ads and how to control ads you see. Voxilate has a Data Protection Agreement in force with Google AdSense to ensure your data is protected.
Google AdMob may deliver personalized advertising in certain jurisdictions. You can disable this by visiting http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/html/mobile-about.html from your mobile browser and click the Opt-Out links available. If on Android, you can visit Settings > Google > Ads on your device, then restart all ad-enabled apps to disable personalized ads. In addition, purchasing any HeyTell extra will remove in-app advertisements for as long as the extra continues to be installed. If you uninstall, you can restore any purchased extras free of charge as long as you are using the same application store purchasing account (or family account, if applicable) that you originally used to purchase the item.
By using the HeyTell application, you consent to in-application advertising provided by Google AdMob if Extras are not installed.
Amazon Web Services: We host our services on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. Voxilate has a Data Protection Agreement in force with Amazon to ensure your data is protected.
While we pledge to delete your information upon your request via privacy@heytell.com, we also believe that you should have the power to clear your account without our assistance and encourage you to take advantage of this feature.
Please note that user accounts and associated metadata (contact info, friends lists) are automatically deleted from our systems after one year of inactivity if not otherwise deleted or inactivated. Feel free to contact us at privacy@heytell.com at any time and we will be happy to check our systems to verify that your account was expunged.
TO REMOVE OR MODIFY ANY CONTACT INFORMATION FROM THE HEYTELL SYSTEM: From within your Contacts app, modify the contact you use as yourself and remove or modify the entries you would like to change. Then, on the Profile page inside HeyTell, select this user as your User Identity. This will update Voxilate systems immediately, provided you have Internet access. Note that setting your privacy to "High" on the Privacy page will remove all email addresses and phone numbers from your user record, and will leave only your name.
TO DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT AND EXPUNGE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION:
1. On the Profile page, clear all fields associated with your "This is me!" contact. On iOS, tap Change to access this contact. On other platforms, clear the Name, Email, and Phone Number fields.
2. Block each friend (select your friend from the Conversations page, then tap the check mark button and select Block). This ensures that friends will not be able to send additional messages to you (which would be stored on the server; while incoming messages are expunged after a certain number of days if you don't download them, blocking friends ensures that no messages will be stored on the server).
3. Return to the Profile page and set your Privacy to High.
4. Wait a few seconds to ensure that HeyTell communicates with the server, then delete the app.
After performing either of these options, feel free to send a request to Voxilate at privacy@heytell.com from the email address originally associated with the account and we will verify and provide you with confirmation that your contact information was successfully cleared. If you encounter any issues or have any questions about deleting your account, contact us at privacy@heytell.com and we'll be happy to help!
Because of the nature of the HeyTell service, we retain the minimal amount of account information required to run and maintain the service. HeyTell messages are permanently stored on you and your recipients' phones, not on HeyTell servers. That said, you absolutely have the right to request that we share the data that we have that pertains to you. To request this, contact us at privacy@heytell.com with as much information as you can provide about your account so that we can locate it. This could include your user account name or alias, IP address(es), user account phone number(s), user account email address(es), user last known activity date, or any other information that may help us identify the account. We reserve the right to require that you verify the account using email, phone, social networking account, or other method before sharing any information to ensure that private information is protected.
All data that you share while using Voxilate Services is processed in the United States and is subject to United States laws. If you do not reside in the United States, information you share will be transferred to the United States and processed and stored using the standards we describe in this privacy policy. By using Voxilate Services, Applications, and Sites, you consent to the processing of your data in the United States.
Voxilate, Inc. is dedicated to keeping your data secure and, to that end, employs security best practices to keep your data protected. As part of the effort to keep your data protected, all contact information and voice data transmitted through the HeyTell application is encrypted with an SSL connection using AES-256 bit encryption between your mobile device and the Voxilate data center. HeyTell systems are secured and continually monitored against intrusions. Only authorized Voxilate employees retain access to HeyTell systems. If we detect a system breach, we will notify the public and will personally notify you using the email associated with your account, if provided.
That said, there are a number of risks in transmitting any kind of data over the public Internet and allowing voice recordings to reside on a physical device, so UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE THE HEYTELL SERVICE TO TRANSMIT CONFIDENTIAL OR PRIVILEGED INFORMATION OF ANY SORT. By using the service, you agree that you are solely responsible for the information you share with other users of the system and understand that you do not have to share phone numbers or email addresses to use the service.
Voxilate Services, Applications, and Sites are not targeted to users under the age of 13 (or 16, in jurisdictions where the age of 16 applies) and we do not knowingly collect information from users under the age of 13. In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, if we discover that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personally-identifying information, we will remove it from our systems immediately. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 (or under the age of 16, in jurisdictions where the age of 16 applies) and discover or believe that your child has provided us with personally-identifying information, please contact us at privacy@voxilate.com with information related to the account and we will remove the data from our systems.
The HeyTell service has implemented several privacy controls and options to allow you to control your privacy when using the application.
Low Privacy: If you have configured Low privacy for yourself on the Profile page, anyone who knows the contact information you set for yourself in the email address or phone number fields can contact you without an invitation. If connected to Facebook or Twitter, anyone who knows your Facebook or Twitter IDs can contact you without an invitation.
Medium Privacy: If you have configured Medium privacy for yourself on the Profile page (or have accepted the application defaults, Medium is the default HeyTell setting), mutual HeyTell friends who know the contact information you set for yourself can contact you without an invitation. If connected to Facebook or Twitter, mutual Twitter friends and Facebook friends can contact you without an invitation. Otherwise, users must send you an invitation by email or SMS and you must accept it before they are allowed to speak with you.
High Privacy: If you have configured High privacy for yourself on the Profile page, users who you have talked to before will be able to speak with you. Otherwise, users must send you an invitation by email, SMS, Twitter, or Facebook and you must accept it before they are allowed to speak with you.
When using HeyTell, you have the ability to stop any HeyTell user who has contacted you from continuing to send you messages. To block a user, select the conversation, tap the check mark button, then tap Block. This will block the user from being able to contact you. After blocking, you can optionally delete the conversation to clear it from view and remove all messages.
From time to time and as products are updated and new product offerings are available, Voxilate, Inc. may find it necessary to update this privacy policy. In the event that there are changes to this policy, including what and how we collect web site and mobile application data, we will update our privacy policy accordingly and post it here.
We take your privacy rights seriously and encourage you to exercise them if you find it necessary as it relates to Voxilate and Voxilate's software products. If you require clarification or have any questions, contact us by email at privacy@voxilate.com or privacy@heytell.com with any questions you have or write to us at:
Privacy Issues
c/o Voxilate, Inc.
2810 N Church St #87905
Wilmington, Delaware 19802
USA