Privacy

Huddle is run by Xend, the data controller for the personal data described here under the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 (Act No. 11 of 2022) and its regulations. For anything about your data, write to privacy@huddle.us.

What you give us:

• Your mobile number, to sign you in and keep your account secure.
• Your profile: name, username, photo, place and bio, and the interests you pick.
• What you post and do: drops, replies, photos, lounge messages, waves, likes, reposts, huddles you join or start, and pull-ups.
• Reports you make and messages you send our support team.

What we collect as you use Huddle:

• Device and app information such as device model, operating system, app version and language.
• Technical records such as IP address, times of requests and errors, which help us keep Huddle working and secure.
• Your location, only if you allow it, to suggest places and huddles near you. We never show your location to anyone else.

What others share: when someone mentions you, reports you, or a host approves or removes you in their huddle.

• To provide Huddle: create your account, show your drops to the right people, deliver messages and notifications. This is needed to perform our agreement with you.
• To keep Huddle safe: confirm phone numbers, limit spam, review reports, enforce our rules and protect people meeting at pull-ups. This is our legitimate interest and, where the law requires it, a legal obligation.
• To improve Huddle: understand which features are used and fix problems, using records tied to account IDs rather than your name or number.
• To show promoted posts: chosen by place and interest only, never by anything personal about you.
• To follow the law: respond to lawful requests from competent authorities and keep records the law requires.
• Where we rely on your consent, such as for location or notifications, you can withdraw it at any time in your device settings.

• Anyone, even without an account: your profile and drops in Open huddles.
• A huddle's members: drops in Request huddles, and that huddle's lounge.
• Only the people involved: waves, and a pull-up's exact spot and who's going.
• Nobody else: your mobile number. Our staff see only its last three digits.
• Our staff see waves, lounge messages and members-only drops only as counts. They see the text only when someone reports it, and opening it is recorded.

We don't sell your personal data. We share it only in these cases:

• Service providers that run parts of Huddle for us, such as hosting and storage, the SMS service that sends your codes, push notification services from Google and Apple, and crash and usage reporting. They may use your data only to provide their service to us, under contract.
• Authorities, when the law requires it: for example the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, the Personal Data Protection Commission, the police or a court acting under a lawful order.
• A new owner, if Huddle is sold or merged, under the same protections described here, and we'll tell you first.

Promoted posts are aimed at places and interests, never at you personally. We count how many people saw or tapped them using account IDs only. Businesses see only totals, never who you are.

Your data may be stored and processed in Tanzania or abroad by our service providers. When it leaves Tanzania, we transfer it only as Part V of the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 allows: to places with adequate protection or under appropriate safeguards such as contracts, and with any approval the Personal Data Protection Commission requires.

• While your account is open, we keep your profile and what you post so Huddle works.
• When you delete your account, there's a 7-day wait. Then we remove your drops, memberships, pull-ups and photos, and your lounge and wave messages show as "deleted message".
• We keep moderation records, such as reports and the actions our staff took, for as long as the law requires, tied to your account ID and not your name or number.
• Backups are encrypted and replaced within 14 days, so deleted data leaves them by then.
• Technical records are kept only as long as needed for security and fixing problems.

• Data is encrypted when it travels between your device and Huddle, and our backups are encrypted and kept off our main servers.
• Staff access is limited by role, and every staff action is recorded.
• Our records never contain your mobile number, sign-in codes, message text or session tokens.
• We remove hidden details from photos when you upload them, including where they were taken.
• On the web, your session is kept in a cookie that the page itself can't read.
• If a breach puts your data at risk, we'll tell the Personal Data Protection Commission and, where required, you, as the law requires.

Under the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 you have the right to:

• Know what personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it.
• Have wrong or incomplete data corrected.
• Have your data deleted.
• Object to us using your data, including for direct marketing.
• Withdraw consent you've given, such as for location.
• Complain to the Personal Data Protection Commission.

You can download your profile, drops, huddles, pull-ups, lounge messages, waves and photos in one file from Settings in the app, and delete your account there too. For anything else, write to privacy@huddle.us. We may ask you to confirm it's you, and we'll answer within the time the law sets.

Huddle is only for people aged 18 and over. If we learn that an account belongs to someone younger, we suspend it and delete its data.

The Huddle website uses one essential cookie to keep you signed in, and stores small preferences on your device. We don't use advertising cookies.

In the future you may be able to take your identity and public drops to the open social network. That will only happen if you choose it, and only drops from Open huddles can ever go there. Members-only drops, lounges and waves never leave Huddle.

If we make an important change to this policy, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when it last changed.

• Privacy questions and requests: privacy@huddle.us
• Help with your account: support@huddle.us
• If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Personal Data Protection Commission.