Effective date: 2026-01-25
Contact: chadakhelp@gmail.com
Chadak is a voice-first social app where people share short voice recordings called chads. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and your choices.
If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use Chadak.
We may collect your email address (if you sign up with email), sign-in identifiers from Google Sign-In or Sign in with Apple (if you use them), your username and display name, your bio, and avatar/banner images (if you upload them). We also keep your user ID and account settings.
We collect the chads you create, voice comments and replies, voice stories (which expire 24 hours after they are shared), direct messages (voice and/or text), and reports you submit (including the report reason you choose).
Transcriptions are created on your device using your phone's built-in speech recognition. We store the transcription text for chads/comments to make content searchable, improve discovery, including keyword matching, and support moderation and abuse prevention.
We collect actions such as likes, follows, rechads (reposts), bookmarks, comments/replies, mutes/blocks, "not interested" actions, reports, and moderation outcomes.
We may collect push notification tokens (to send notifications), app diagnostics and crash reports, basic device/app information (such as OS version and app version), and limited usage analytics (events such as "created chad" or "opened feed"), if enabled.
We use information to create and manage accounts, operate core features (chadding, playback, feeds, stories, comments, messaging), provide search and discovery (including using stored transcriptions), send notifications you choose to receive, prevent spam/fraud/abuse and enforce rules, and fix bugs and improve performance.
Chadak is public by default. Your chads, voice comments, and stories are public inside the app (a story disappears for other users 24 hours after you share it). Your profile (username, avatar, bio) may be visible to other users. Other users may share your content including by sending a link or rechadding it. Please avoid sharing sensitive information you do not wish to make public.
If you switch to a private account, your chads and stories are visible only to followers you approve.
Direct messages are intended to be visible only to conversation participants.
Regular DMs are not end-to-end encrypted. They are stored on our servers (Firebase) and protected with access controls, but they are not encrypted in a way that only you and the recipient can decrypt. We may access regular DMs only when necessary for security, abuse investigations, legal compliance, or to operate the service.
"Listen once" voice messages are end-to-end encrypted. When you send a voice message in listen-once mode, the audio is encrypted on your device before it is uploaded, and only the conversation participants' devices hold the keys to decrypt it - we cannot listen to it. Each recipient can play a listen-once message one time, after which it locks for them.
You can block users. Blocking is designed to reduce unwanted interactions. However, no system can guarantee that a blocked person can never access your public content outside the app, including if content is shared elsewhere. We aim to prevent blocked users from interacting with you inside the app.
We do not show ads right now.
If we add ads later (after reaching 100K+ users), we may use information to personalize ads and measure performance. This may include your in-app activity (likes, follows, listens, and clicks) and transcription keywords from chads/comments including topics and interests inferred from the text.
If we enable cross-app tracking for advertising, we may request permission on iOS via Apple's tracking permission prompt. If you deny permission, we will respect that choice where required.
If ads are enabled in the future, we may share limited identifiers (such as device identifiers or ad identifiers) with ad/measurement partners to deliver and measure ads. We will update this policy when ads are introduced.
Chadak offers an optional auto-renewable subscription (Blue Check) purchased through Apple. Payment is handled entirely by Apple - we never see or store your payment card details. To activate your subscription we receive limited transaction information from Apple (such as a transaction identifier, product identifier, purchase status, and renewal status) and store it to grant and maintain your Blue Check badge. You can manage or cancel the subscription in your Apple Account settings.
To keep verified badges trustworthy, subscribing to Blue Check requires a one-time identity check. You choose one official document (passport, driver's license, or national ID) and upload a photo of it. We use it only to confirm you are a real person, and we delete the document photo immediately after the review decision - we keep only the outcome (approved or rejected) on your account. The document photo is never visible to other users and is never sold or shared.
Chadak uses third-party infrastructure providers to run the app (including Firebase services for authentication, database, storage, and notifications). These providers process data on our behalf to provide the service.
We may share information with service providers who help us operate Chadak (hosting, storage, messaging, notifications, analytics). We may also share information for safety and legal reasons, such as complying with the law, protecting users and the public, investigating abuse/fraud/security incidents, and enforcing our rules. If ads are enabled in the future, we may share limited data with ad/measurement partners as described in Section 8.
We do not "sell" personal data in the data-broker sense. If advertising is enabled later, some data may be shared for ad delivery and measurement as described above.
We keep data as long as needed to provide the service and for legitimate purposes (security, abuse prevention, legal compliance). Public chads and comments are stored until you delete them (stories stop being visible to others after 24 hours) or delete your account, subject to the account deletion notes below. Some information may remain in backups/logs for a limited period.
You can delete your account inside the app (Settings → Delete Account). After deletion, your profile and chads disappear for normal users. We may keep limited data for a period of time for security and fraud prevention, legal compliance, and backups and system logs.
You can update your profile in the app, control notifications in app settings and device settings, block users, delete your chads/comments (where the app provides this option), and delete your account (Settings → Delete Account). If ads/tracking are introduced later, we will provide relevant choices where required.
We use reasonable security measures (access controls, security rules, and server-side enforcement). No method of transmission or storage is completely secure.
Chadak is not intended for children under 13 (or the minimum age required where you live).
Your information may be processed in countries other than your own depending on where our service providers operate.
We may update this policy. If changes are important, we will update the effective date and may notify you in the app.
If you have questions or requests, contact: chadakhelp@gmail.com