hey around

Privacy Policy

Last updated 1 November 2026

This policy explains what personal data Hey Around collects, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have. Anant Pathak ("we" or "us") runs Hey Around and is responsible for your data. We follow India's Information Technology Act, 2000 and its rules, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

The short version

  • We don't record or store your voice or video in chats. Songs you pin on the song wall are kept for an hour, then deleted.
  • The nudity check runs on your own device. No video is sent to us for it.
  • We don't store your location. We use it, rounded to about 1 km, only while you're connected, to find people near you.
  • Nobody on Hey Around sees your name, email, date of birth or gender.
  • We don't sell your data, and Hey Around has no ads.

What we collect and why

  • Your Google or Apple account details. When you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, profile picture and Google account ID. When you sign in with Apple, we receive your email address (which can be a private relay address from Apple) and your Apple account ID. We use your email to sign you in and to contact you about your account, and we keep your account tied to it so bans can't be dodged. We don't show your name or email to anyone on Hey Around.
  • Your date of birth. To make sure you're 18 or older.
  • Your gender. To understand who uses Hey Around, for example whether it works as well for women as for men, and to plan features such as choosing who you're matched with. You can choose Prefer not to say. Nobody else sees it, and it isn't used for matching. If we want to use it for something new, we'll tell you first and ask you again where the law requires it.
  • Your agreement to our terms. Which version of the Terms and this policy you agreed to, and when.
  • Your approximate location. Your phone's or browser's location rounded to about 1 km or, if you don't allow that, a rough location worked out from your IP address. We use it while you're connected to match you with people within 100 km and to show distances like "under 25 km away". We don't store it.
  • Your voice and video during chats. They go encrypted straight to the person you're talking to or, when a direct connection isn't possible, through Cloudflare's relay, still encrypted. We never record, store, watch or listen to them. Video is sent only while you both have faces on.
  • Songs you pin on the song wall. If you record a song on the song wall at heyaround.in/wall and pin it, we store the recording, the name you give it and how long it is. Anyone who visits the song wall, signed in or not, can play it while it's up, without seeing who pinned it. It comes down after an hour, or sooner if you take it down, if three different people report it, or if you delete your account, and we delete the recording then. We keep a record of which account pinned which song, when, and its name, but not the recording, for 180 days after it comes down, so we can deal with complaints and do what Indian law requires. We count how many times each song is played, without noting who played it.
  • Reports. When someone reports you, or you report someone, we keep who reported whom, the reason and the time. We use reports to suspend accounts and to make sure the two people are never matched again. Reports the nudity check makes automatically are marked as such. Anyone can report a song on the song wall. We keep the reason and, if they're signed in, who reported it. To tell apart reports from people who aren't signed in, we use a scrambled form of their IP address that changes every day and can't be turned back into the address.
  • Skip the queue payments. Razorpay handles your payment and its details, such as your card, UPI ID or bank, under its own privacy policy. We keep the payment's ID, amount, status and time, and never see your card number, UPI PIN or bank login. Skip the queue isn't sold in the iOS app.
  • Technical data. To connect a call, your device shares network details such as your IP address with the other person's device and with our servers. Our servers and hosting providers keep logs, which include IP addresses, for security and to fix problems.
  • On your device. Hey Around keeps your sign-in, the link that brought you here, a random ID for counting visits and the songs you've reported on the song wall, so they stay hidden for you, in your phone's or browser's storage. We don't use advertising cookies.
  • Visit counts. We count visits, first matches, faces turned on, chats over two minutes, invites sent, and songs played and pinned on the song wall. Each count carries that random ID and the link that brought you here, and never your name, email or account.

Why we're allowed to use it

We use your data with your consent, which you give at sign-up by ticking the box that agrees to this policy, and for purposes the law allows without consent, such as meeting legal obligations, answering lawful requests from authorities, and protecting people's safety. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account. Withdrawing doesn't affect anything we did before.

Who we share it with

We don't sell your data. We share it only with:

  • Our service providers, who process it for us: Supabase (accounts and database, stored in Mumbai, India), Cloudflare (the website, connecting calls and relaying them, and storing songs while they're on the song wall), Google and Apple (sign-in), Razorpay (payments) and PostHog (visit counts).
  • The person you're talking to, who gets your voice and, if you both turn faces on, your video, along with the network details their device needs to reach yours.
  • Anyone who visits the song wall, who can play the songs pinned there and see their names while they're up, but not who pinned them.
  • Authorities, when Indian law requires it, such as a court order or a lawful request from a government agency, or when we must report a crime such as child sexual abuse.

Some of these providers, such as Cloudflare, Google, Apple and PostHog, may process data outside India. Indian law allows this, except to countries the Government of India restricts.

How long we keep it

  • Your account, date of birth, gender and agreement to our terms: while your account exists. After you delete it, we keep the details that identify it for one year, which covers what Indian law requires (180 days under the IT Rules, and one year under the data protection rules from 13 May 2027), and then delete them. If you sign up again in that time with the same Google or Apple account, or the same email, your date of birth and any suspension still apply.
  • Reports: while both accounts involved exist, and for one year after either is deleted.
  • Payment records: as long as tax and accounting laws require, which can be up to 8 years.
  • Logs: for one year, which covers what Indian law requires for security and investigations (180 days under CERT-In's directions, and one year under the data protection rules from 13 May 2027), and then deleted.
  • Songs on the song wall: the recording until the song comes down, an hour at most. The record of who pinned it, and any reports of it, for 180 days after that.
  • Location, and voice and video in chats: never stored.

Keeping it safe

Everything travels encrypted: the app and the website over HTTPS, and calls with DTLS-SRTP. Each person can read only their own profile, and only our servers can see reports and payments. Our secret keys never reach your phone or browser. No system is perfectly secure. If there's ever a breach of your personal data, we'll tell you without delay what happened, what it could mean for you and what you can do, and report it to CERT-In and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

  • tell you what personal data we hold about you and who we've shared it with;
  • correct or update it, such as a wrong date of birth or gender;
  • delete your account and your data, except what the law requires us to keep;
  • stop using your data, by withdrawing your consent; and
  • let someone you nominate use these rights for you if you die or can't act yourself.

You can delete your account yourself in the iOS app, in Settings > Delete account. For everything else, or to ask us to delete it, write to [email protected] from the email address you sign in with. If you hid your email with Sign in with Apple, write from any address and include the one Apple made for Hey Around, which you'll find under Sign in with Apple in your Apple Account settings. We aim to answer within 7 days, and always within 90 days. If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

Children

Hey Around is only for adults 18 and over. If someone's date of birth shows they're under 18, we keep only their sign-in details from Google or Apple and that date of birth, so they can't sign up again with a different date, and nothing else. If you think someone under 18 is using Hey Around, report them or write to [email protected].

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change matters to you, Hey Around asks you to agree again before your next chat.

Contact

Anant Pathak, F-369, Sector 37, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201310. For questions about this policy or your data, write to our Grievance Officer, Anant Pathak, at [email protected].