This Privacy Policy explains how PODI APP LLC (“Podi”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, shares, retains and protects information when you use the Podi mobile application and this website (together, the “Services”). PODI APP LLC is the controller of the personal information described here.
The same text is shown inside the app under Settings → Privacy Policy. If the two ever differ, the version on this page is the current one.
1. Information We Collect
Account information
The information used to sign you in — the email address associated with your sign-in method — and the identifiers we assign to your account, such as your Podi ID. If you choose to add a phone number, we collect that too.
Profile information
Your name, profile photo, gender, date of birth, bio and the other fields you choose to fill in. We also derive an approximate location — your country only — from your IP address, and your country is shown on your profile to other users. Your profile is visible to other users of the Services.
Content you create
Messages, posts and comments, participation in live rooms, and virtual gift activity. Messages are stored on our servers so they can be delivered and so you can read your history on a new device. Live rooms are, by their nature, audible and visible to everyone in the room.
Camera, microphone and real-time media
With your permission, the app uses your microphone for voice rooms and your camera for taking a profile photo. Voice is transmitted in real time to the other participants through our real-time media providers.
Verification selfies and liveness
Some features ask you to verify your profile photo or your gender. To do that the app asks you to take a live selfie in the app. Before it is sent, the app runs an on-device check that a real, live face is present — this runs entirely on your device, it does not create a faceprint or any biometric template, and nothing from that check leaves your phone.
The selfie itself is uploaded to us and is reviewed by a person on our team. We do not use facial recognition and we do not use the selfie to identify you anywhere else. Once the review is decided, the selfie is deleted. We keep only the outcome (verified or not) and the date.
Purchases and balances
How a purchase is processed depends on the version of the app you use, the store you obtained it from, and the payment methods actually available to you. A purchase made through an app store’s billing system is processed by that store. Where we make other payment methods available in your country, the purchase is handled by a third-party payment processor. In all cases we do not receive or store your full card number — we receive confirmation of the transaction and what is needed to deliver what you bought.
We keep your in-app balances and the history of your purchases and of the gifts you have sent and received. Where you ask us to process a transaction that needs more than your account details, we collect what is needed to carry it out and to meet our legal and anti-fraud obligations.
Device and technical information
Device model, operating system and version, app version, language, an identifier used to deliver push notifications, IP address, network type, and diagnostic data such as crash logs and performance measurements.
Usage information
Which features you use, rooms you join, accounts you follow, and your activity and progress in the app such as levels and rewards.
2. Device Permissions, and Why
The app asks for the permissions below. You can refuse or withdraw any of them in your device settings; the features that depend on them will stop working, and the rest of the app keeps working.
- Microphone — to speak in voice rooms, and to send voice messages.
- Camera — for profile photos and verification selfies.
- Photos and media — only to attach an image you pick.
- Notifications — to tell you about messages and room invitations.
- Bluetooth — so a room can use a connected headset.
- Phone state — used by our real-time audio provider so that an incoming phone call interrupts app audio correctly. We do not read your phone number or your call log with it.
- Display over other apps — optional, so a room can stay in a small floating window while you use another app.
- Foreground service and battery — so a room is not shut down by the system while it is running.
3. How We Use Information, and Our Legal Bases
Where the GDPR or a similar law applies, the legal basis for each use is given in brackets.
- To provide, operate and maintain the Services, deliver your messages and rooms, and run your balances and purchases. [performance of our contract with you]
- To keep the Services safe — enforcing our rules, reviewing reports, preventing fraud, abuse and duplicate or automated accounts, and checking eligibility for features that are not open to every account. [legitimate interests; legal obligation]
- To personalise what you see, such as which people and rooms are suggested to you. [legitimate interests]
- To understand how the Services are used, fix crashes and improve performance. [legitimate interests]
- To use your camera and microphone, and to verify you by selfie. [your consent, which you can withdraw at any time]
- To answer your support requests and tell you about changes to the Services. [performance of our contract; legitimate interests]
- To comply with tax, accounting, anti-money-laundering and other legal obligations. [legal obligation]
4. Advertising
Podi does not show advertising, does not use an advertising identifier, and does not build advertising profiles. We do not use your information for advertising or for cross-app tracking, and we do not ask for permission to track you across other companies’ apps and websites.
5. Analytics and Diagnostics
We use analytics and crash-reporting tools to see how the app performs and where it fails. They process technical and usage information on our behalf, under contract, and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
6. Cookies and Similar Technologies
This website uses only what is necessary to serve its pages and sets no advertising or tracking cookies. The app stores data locally on your device to keep you signed in and to remember your preferences.
7. How We Share Information
We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
- With other users. Your profile — including your country — and anything you post or say in a room is visible to other users. Messages are delivered to the people you send them to.
- With service providers, only so they can perform a service for us and only under contract: cloud infrastructure and file storage, real-time voice infrastructure, sign-in authentication, push-notification delivery, analytics and crash-reporting, and payment processing. They may not use your information for their own purposes.
- For legal reasons, where required by law or legal process, or to protect the rights, safety and property of our users, the public or PODI APP LLC.
- In a business transfer, if we are involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. We will give notice before your information becomes subject to a different policy.
8. International Transfers
PODI APP LLC is established in the United States and our providers operate infrastructure in several countries, so your information may be transferred to and processed outside the country you live in, including countries whose data-protection rules differ from your own. Where we transfer personal information out of the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
9. How Long We Keep Information
- Account and profile information — while your account exists.
- Messages and content — while your account exists, or until you delete them.
- Verification selfies — deleted as soon as the review is decided; only the outcome and its date are kept.
- Purchase and gift records — kept after account deletion where tax, accounting, anti-fraud or dispute-resolution law requires it.
- Diagnostic and crash data — kept for a short period, then deleted or aggregated.
When a retention period ends, information is deleted or irreversibly de-identified.
10. Deleting Your Account
You can delete your account yourself, from inside the app: Settings → Delete Account → confirm. No email and no request to us is needed.
Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone. There is no waiting period and no way to recover the account afterwards. It removes your profile, your content, your balances and any unused virtual items, and your access to the account. Virtual items and balances are lost and are not refundable. We keep only the records described in section 9 that we are legally required to keep.
If you cannot open the app, you can ask us to delete the account by writing to info@podi.click. The full process is described on the Delete Account page.
11. Security
We use administrative, technical and organisational measures designed to protect information, including encrypted connections, access controls, and limiting staff access to what a person needs for their job. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
12. Your Rights and Choices
Depending on where you live, you have some or all of these rights: to know what we hold and to get a copy of it, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, to withdraw a consent you gave, to receive your information in a portable form, and not to be subject to a decision made solely by automated means. Withdrawing consent does not affect what we did lawfully before you withdrew it.
You can edit your profile and delete your account in the app at any time. For anything else, write to info@podi.click and we will answer within the time the applicable law allows. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.
We will ask you to verify your identity first. We may decline a request where the law permits — for example where answering it would reveal another person’s information, where we cannot verify who you are, or where we are legally required to keep the information.
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to complain to your local data-protection authority.
13. Children
The Services are for adults. They are not directed to children and you must be 18 or older to use them. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 is using the Services, contact us at info@podi.click and we will close the account and delete the information.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date above, and for significant changes we will give additional notice through the Services before they take effect.
15. Contact Us
PODI APP LLC, Delaware Limited Liability Company, United States — info@podi.click, or via the contact page. Write to the same address for any privacy request or any question about this policy.