Privacy policy

Updated September 16, 2026

The short version: we ask for neither an email nor a phone number, we do not tie an IP address to your account, and we never record calls. Below is the detailed version — what is stored, for how long, and why.

What it takes to use hi:voca

Registration needs neither an email address nor a phone number. You receive a key — a string that is your way in — and pick a name. Nothing else is required, and there is no SMS to confirm.

You can skip a permanent account entirely: a temporary one is created with a single tap, lasts a day, and is deleted automatically along with everything attached to it.

The name people see

Your name on hi:voca is a pseudonym: a made-up name you choose yourself. We do not verify it or check it against anything. Whether it matches your real name is known only to you.

Do not put anything in it you would not show to strangers: the name is visible to everyone in a room.

What we store

Everything held in your profile is listed here in full:

The name you chose, and an avatar if you set one.
A hash of your key. We do not store the key itself and cannot recover it — not for you, not for anyone.
Your chosen interface language.
The date your account was created and the date you last signed in.
A list of the devices you signed in from: a short description such as “Chrome 131”, the platform, the app version, and when the session started and was last active. This exists so you can spot a sign-in that is not yours and close it.
Privacy settings: who may add you as a friend and who may invite you to a room.
Your rooms and everything describing them: members, roles, block lists, folders, and tab order.
Your friends list and friend requests, both sent and received.
A notification token, if you use the Android app and allowed notifications.
Your notes: the text you save on the Notes tab and the date of each entry. The text is encrypted on your device; the server stores ciphertext. Deleted along with your account.
Your points balance: how many you have now, how many you have earned in total, and the list of what was credited and spent. The time you spend in the app is not stored anywhere.

What we do not store

We do not hold this data, because we never collect it:

Email addresses and phone numbers — we never ask for them.
Your IP address. It is not tied to your account and does not appear in your list of sessions. What is kept from it for a day at sign-up is covered in the technical data section below.
The full browser string. On its own it identifies a person rather well, and it is useless for the question of whether a device is yours, so we keep only a short description such as “Chrome 131”.
Call recordings. Audio, video, and screen sharing are never saved: the server passes them between participants and writes nothing to disk.
Room chat on disk — there is a separate section on that below.

Technical data: address, logs, cookies

No cookies are used. There are no traffic counters, no advertising and no analytics scripts in hi:voca.

Your IP address is not stored. At sign-up a hash is computed from it — this is what stops dozens of accounts being created from one address. It is not tied to your account and is deleted after a day.

The application log holds errors and events such as “a room was created” — with none of your content in them: no notes, no messages, no names, no room or file titles.

Note encryption

Notes are encrypted on your device before they are sent. The key is derived from your sign-in key and is not transmitted to the server. The database stores ciphertext only.

Notes cannot be decrypted without your key. Only you hold it; if it is lost, access to the notes cannot be restored.

Room chat

Messages are not written to the database. They live in the server’s memory: no longer than a day, no more than two hundred messages per room, and no more than two megabytes. Anything older or beyond that is erased automatically.

When the server restarts, the conversation is gone entirely. It cannot be recovered, including by us.

Subtitles and translation

If you turn on subtitles, the recognised text is sent to our own translation service and comes back translated. It does not go to third-party companies.

So that the same phrase is not translated twice, the result is cached for one hour and then deleted.

How long we keep data

The periods are:

Your profile — for as long as the account exists.
A temporary account — one day. After that it is deleted automatically; the check runs every ten minutes.
Sessions: closed ones stay in your sign-in history for ninety days, technical renewal records for seven.
Chat messages — up to a day, and only in the server’s memory.

Who we share data with

Nobody. We do not sell data, we do not pass it to ad networks, and we use no third-party analytics: hi:voca contains no counters, no trackers, and no advertising scripts.

The single exception is a lawful request made to us through the proper channels.

What you can do with your data

Your name, avatar, and privacy settings can be changed in the app at any time. The same place lists your sessions and lets you close any of them, individually or all at once.

To delete your account, message us on Telegram. We will remove the profile and everything attached to it.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top. Significant changes will be announced in the news section.

Contact us

For any question about your data, message our Telegram: @hivoca. We answer there, same as for everything else.