Our privacy policies explain how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Products and Services. By using our Products and Services, you agree that Twynes.com can use such data in accordance with our privacy policies.

Twynes.com is collectively referred to as 'Twynes', 'we', 'us' or 'our' in this document.

The terms 'products', 'apps', 'applications', 'sites', 'websites' and 'services' and their singular and plural forms are used interchangeably in this document to refer to any and all products and services offered by Twynes.com or by the the 3rd party services integrated on our apps and services.

It is important that you read this policy document so that you are fully aware of how, why, and where your data is used, stored, and shared.WHEN THIS POLICY APPLIES This 'Privacy policy' applies to all interactions from all types of devices when you use:

Our website
Our applications and other products
Services offered directly by us
Third-party applications and services integrated into our website, applications, products or services.

WHEN THIS POLICY *DOES NOT* APPLY This 'Privacy policy' does not apply to:

The data privacy policies and information practices of other organizations that may advertise our products or services
The services offered by other organizations or individuals who may link to us from their applications and services, or maybe linked from our applications and services.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY We may change this 'Privacy policy' from time to time. This policy will not change to reduce your rights or affect your privacy without your explicit prior consent. We may also send emails to inform you about changes to our 'Privacy policy'. PRIVACY POLICIES OF THIRD PARTY INTEGRATED APPLICATIONS Whenever you use third-party applications or services integrated directly by us into our applications and services, the 'Privacy policy' applies in the following fashion:

The 'Privacy policy' of the third-party application or service being used, applies as an addendum to our 'Privacy policy'.
In case of any conflict in the 'Privacy policy' of a third-party application or service with our 'Privacy policy', the 'Privacy policy' of that third-party application or service supersedes, for the limited use of that third-party application or service.

While using Twynes applications and services, you also additionally agree to their respective 'Privacy policies'.

Below is the list of such third-party applications and services. Please read them carefully. Privacy policy - Google

INFORMATION COLLECTION Information collected by us Here are the types of personal information we collect:

We may receive and store any information you 'explicitly' provide in relation to Twynes.com Services.
In your interaction with Twynes.com content and services, we obtain certain types of information from your web browser or devices:
- Basic information around your device: OS name.
- Information around browser: User Agent, Cookies and alike.
- Users' devices' IP addresses by user-identifiers, are kept for up to 12 hours period to protect against abuse. IP addresses are always mangled to a human non-readable form before storing them temporarily.
- We may monitor traffic statistics around IP Addresses to prevent cyber attacks. These IP addresses here do not identify users.

We *do not* collect any other categories of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Information provided by you When you sign-up with us, we request and collect the below information about you from you:

Name (first/last)
Email
Unique handle
Password
Profile picture (optional)
Date of birth (optional)
Gender (optional)
City (optional)
State (optional)
Country (optional)

Your profile inputs are stored securely with us and are used for social app needs. Your password is stored in a hashed form and never in its plain-text raw password form.

Note: above is a representative list and may change moderately with time. However while signing up, users are clearly shown with labels on what information is being requested from them. Information collected by us when you 'Sign in with Google' When you use 'Sign in with Google' to sign-up or sign-in with us, we request and access *only* following data from your Google user public profile data:

Name (First/Last)
Profile picture (as a url)
Email address

This data is used to create and store your user profile with us. Some of this data stored with us may remain stale beyond your sign in stage. Please read subsequent sections to learn how this data from your Google user profile, is used and shared. Collection and storage of in-app activity data While you interact and use with our application there is some data that you generate that we collect and store. These include private 1:1 messages, messages to groups and rooms, 1:1 and group calls and some other activity logging. Here is how we collect and store such data:

1:1 messages :

The 1:1 messages are stored with us at rest in 'end-to-end encrypted' or encrypted form. For details refer to: ENCRYPTION OF PRIVATE 1:1 MESSAGES
Calls :

This section covers for 1:1 calls as well as the group-calls in the groups and rooms. For any calls you make we only collect the call statistics (date, time and duration) which helps us show you call logs. We may request call quality feedback from you. Unless you explicitly ask for it yourself, the calls are not recorded or stored anywhere by us.
Radio broadcast calls :

For the radio calls in the rooms we may temporarily store list of participant users, which is deleted later on. We do not store any other user data(e.g. voice) from the radio calls in rooms.
File sharing :

The files you share with other users or groups are stored with us and are access-controlled for restricting access to only those users or groups that you shared these files with.
Your geo location :

During the use of certain location dependent features, the app may require your location. Such location requests from app require your consent and the app does not get access to your location until you grant the access. Such data when stored with your consent, is deleted within 30 mins of your use of that feature.
Other activity data :

Your in-app interactions and uses may produce other telemetry and metadata that we may store.

Please refer to subsequent sections on Information Use, Information Sharing and Privacy and Security Settings to learn how we use, share and secure the information. INFORMATION USE Use of your profile and in-app activity data We use all user data only for enabling respective app functionality. Below points explain those by categories:

The data explicitly provided by you during signup or during other direct inputs:

The user profile inputs are stored securely with us and are used for social app needs. E.g. to show in user-searches, user profile card, user groups, and rooms.
File sharing:

We do not use the files you share with other users or groups. They are meant for use by the users and groups those are shared with, in an access-controlled manner.
Your geo location:

During the use of certain location dependent features, the app requests permission to access your location and if granted then your location is used to enable that specific app functionality. Some of the location dependent features also store your location with our backend serviecs, again aimed at enabling the feature alone, and is deleted within 30 mins after your use of that feature.
The data collected through your in-app interactions and activities:

The data you sent to others via messages, calls etc. is for use by the parties involved only. We do not use this data for any other purpose.
The data indirectly collected by us from your devices and browsers:

This data is used for improving your experience and for securing our services. There is no other use of this data.

Uses and storage of Google user data (Sign-in with Google) When you use 'Sign in with Google' to sign-up or sign-in with us, a limited set of your Google profile public data (enumerated below) augments your user profile data with us.

Name (First/Last) and Profile picture (as a url):

Your name and profile picture from your Google user profile data, is used for our social app search and sharing needs. E.g. to show in user-searches, user profile card, user groups and rooms.
Email address:

Your email from your Google user profile data, is used to act as a login identifier.
Below are additional notes on the uses of your email address by each app:
- 'Twynes chat' app has no other use of this email address.

Uses and storage of Google Drive data (Sign-in with Google) When you sign in with Google, we use your Google drive storage, with your consent, to store and read keys needed to enable your access to your encrypted messages as well as to secure your 1:1 chats with 'end to end encryption'.

It is important to note below points:

We request access *only* to our app-specific folder and files on your Google Drive.
We neither request nor acquire permission to (nor do we intend to or try to) read, modify, delete or share any other data from your Google Drive.
Your can deny our app permission to access our app-specific folder and files on your Google Drive.
The app data is kept in an appropriately named folder clearly identifying our app, and can be deleted by user at their wish anytime.
We *do not* share (and don't have the permission to share) your Google Drive data with anyone else.

Use of data from feedback and bug/feature requests Any data provided as feedback or bug/feature requests by you on our products and/or services, may be used internally by us for improvement of our products and services. Any data derived or summarized from your direct inputs as feedback and bug/feature requests, would be kept decoupled from the user identity. We do not share any direct or derived data of these categories, with any third-party entity.
Please refer to the subsequent section on Information Sharing to learn more on how this data is used in sharing use cases.INFORMATION SHARING This section applies to sharing of all user data that:

we collect directly from you and store with us
we access from your Google user profile data when you sign-in with Google.

We do not share your personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals outside of Twynes.com except in the following cases: For legal reasons We will share personal information outside of Twynes.com to:

Protect the rights or safety of Twynes and our users as required or permitted by law.
Enforce applicable 'Terms of use' and to investigate potential violations.
Investigate or address fraud, security or technical issues.
Meet applicable law, legal process, or requests from governments.

Sharing with your consent We will take your consent before we share your personal information outside of Twynes.com. Some of your interactions may require integration with other third-party applications where we may have to share your personal information. However we will ask for your explicit consent before we share any personal information. General sharing of user data except above scenarios Excluding above scenarios, below points explain how your data of various categories with us, is treated when it comes to sharing :

The data explicitly provided by you during sign-up or during other direct inputs:

You have control over sharing of your user profile data. Only the data you provide and choose to make public is shared with other users. We provide settings to configure what parts of your user data is shared with other users on our applications.
The subsequent section on Privacy and Security Settings provides more details on this topic.

Your email address from your user profile is used in the following fashion:
- In 'Twynes chat' app:
  Your email address is always kept private and never shared with anyone.
The data collected through your in-app interactions and activities:

This category of data is involved in the specific feature you are using and is only shared with parties you agreed to share such data with.
Examples: (not a complete list)
- 1:1 messages
- 1:1 calls
- group calls in groups and rooms
- files shared by you
- your location if you granted access (only applicable during use of location dependent features)
We do not share any data in this category with any third party. We allow any such sharing only when it's initiated by you and we make sure that the access controls are in place to prevent unintended access.
The data indirectly collected by us from your devices and browsers:

We do not share any data in this category with anyone. This data is either shared directly with you or is used to indirectly power and improve the functionalities we offer you.

Sharing of data from your Google user profile (Sign in with Google) The below information is the data from your Google user profile that augments your user profile data with us.

Name (First/Last)
Profile picture (as a url)
Email address

Our policy in the previous sections apply equally to the sharing of user data collected from your Google user profile. Sharing of your Google Drive data (Sign-in with Google) Below points describe how our app-specific data stored on your Google Drive, is treated when it comes to sharing:

It's meant for our internal use only. We *do not* share (and don't have the permission to share) your Google Drive data with any external individual, third-party application or service.
We request and after your consent get access to use your Google Drive for storing *only* the app-specific data.
We neither request nor acquire permission to (nor do we intend to or try to) read, modify, delete or share any other data from your Google Drive.

COOKIE POLICY This section describes how we use cookies on our website. When you visit any of our websites, we may store or access certain information on your browser which are mostly in the form of cookies. All these cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
You can opt-out of some of these cookie categories. While opting out please do note the uses of the cookie category and the impact of such a choice. Also note that even the absence of an explicit cookie consent from you, could still lead to some functionalities not working properly.

The types of cookies in use by category, are described below. Essential cookies These are strictly necessary cookies without which the website would not work. You cannot opt-out of these cookies if you wish to use our services.

A few examples of how the these cookies are used:

For your sign-in experience (authentication and authorization).
For enabling other core app functionalities provided by us to you while you use our applications and services.

Functional cookies These cookies enable some enhanced functionality and personalization on our website. These cookies may be set by us or by third party providers on our website. If you opt-out of these cookies then some or all of the services may not function properly.

An example use of functional cookie is cookies set by Tenor.com when you search or use GIFs. Performance cookies These cookies enable aggregated statistics on visit counts along with traffic sources which help us measure and improve the performance of our site. They also help us learn the popularilty of pages and sections on our site which further helps us optimize your experience. If you opt-out of these cookies we will not be able to use and benefit from your data in this fashion.

An example use of such cookies:

Google analytics cookies
Google analytics cookies are used on some pages on this website. Google analytics cookies help collect data that allows services to understand how users interact with a particular service. These insights allow services both to improve content and to build better features that improve the user's experience.
Reference: How Google uses Cookies

LOGIN METHODS Using Twynes password Use this option if you have an account with password. New users need to sign up to use this login option. The end-to-end encyption of private 1:1 messages is enabled for this login method. Sign in with Google No sign up needed for new users. Sign in with Google using your gmail account. Works for existing users as well. The end-to-end encyption of private 1:1 messages is enabled for this login method. Using OTP sent to email No sign up needed for new users. Simply login with an OTP sent to your email address. Existing users too can login using OTP.
Best suited to new users who don't want to go through sign up form. It can also be useful for existing users who forgot their password (or Google account credentials) and want to get the access back to their old account. You can however also choose 'Forgot password' option.
The end-to-end encyption of private 1:1 messages is NOT enabled for this login method, but they are still highly secured using encryption at rest.
It is recommended that users logging in with OTP, move to sign-in with Twynes password, or sign-in the Google at a later time, for enabling end-to-end-encryption on their private 1:1 messages. Guest login Quickly login in as a guest with just a nick. No sign up needed. Your temporary account thus created is valid for 28 days past last activity.
The end-to-end encyption of private 1:1 messages is NOT enabled for this login method, but they are still highly secured using encryption at rest.
Consider signing up with Twynes (using Twynes password), or using sign in with Google at a later stage. ENCRYPTION OF PRIVATE 1:1 MESSAGES End-to-end encryption of private 1:1 messages The private 1:1 messages are end-to-end encrypted for following sign in methods:

Using password
Sign in with Google

No one other than the sender and the recipient of these messages can ever access the sent/recieved private 1:1 messages. Exceptions to end-to-end encryption of private 1:1 messages The private 1:1 messages are not end-to-end encrypted when:

you send messages to certain bots like AI-Bots. (applies to all login methods)

you use temporary login methods discussed below:
- Using OTP sent to email
- Guest login
For these login methods, the private 1:1 messages are encrypted at rest (when stored) but not end-to-end encrypted. For OTP based login unique keys are used for each user. Your private messages are still secured from any unauthorized access. However in theory Twynes has the keys to access them. If this bothers you, switch the login method (more on this below).
There is a technical reason for this limitation/exception. Essentially for these temporary login methods there is no way to ensure end-to-end encryption so Twynes uses the next best way to secure your private 1:1 messages when stored at rest. If you want true end-to-end encryption, you should switch to sign-in using Twynes password or using Google sign-in.

PRIVACY AND SECURITY SETTINGS This section describes the privacy and security settings we have in place, some of which are configurable.
You can use 'Edit profile' and 'Settings' options available to your account, to configure some parts of your user data, to turn the sharing on or off.

All communication and information(including profile edits) are transport-level secure (via encryption).

Your messages in groups and in 1:1 chats are kept encrypted in Twynes.com store.

The 1:1 messages are end-to-end encrypted. No one other than participants themselves can access it. View exceptions
The group messages are encrypted for group access.

Your password and similar sensitive information are kept hashed/encrypted in Twynes.com store.

Your name, gender, and country are always publicly visible.

Your profile picture is publicly visible to all users.

You can edit your profile and mark other profile fields individually, as publicly visible or private(visible to none).

Below sections describe the application-specific Privacy and Security settings. Twynes Chat: Privacy and Security settings

Your email address is kept private, and is not shared with other users on any profile search.

Your online presence (availability status) is only known to those users whom you have explicitly added or approved as contacts.

DATA SUBJECT REQUESTS Twynes.com provides explicit options for its users to view or delete their personal data e.g. profile, messages, posts, call log data etc.

Users have an option to update their user profile data anytime.
Users can delete user profile data from their user account anytime. The required fields in the profile can be edited to make it non-personal.
In general, there are options for users to delete all user generated contents. These options are usually available along with the respective features.
Users have an option to delete their account anytime. Logged in users can delete their account using Settings ->Account. Unsigned users can visit page at Manage account link to request account deletion. When you delete your account all data associated with your user account is deleted within 30 days.

For further help with any data subject requests users and organizations can reach out to privacy@twynes.com. QUESTIONS AROUND OUR PRIVACY POLICY For any further questions or clarifications around our 'Privacy policy', please reach out to privacy@twynes.com.