1. Who we are
Blabing is a messaging app for iPhone and Android, with a website at blabing.com. In this policy, "Blabing", "we", "us" and "our" mean [registered company name], a company registered in England and Wales (company number [number]) whose registered office is at [registered address].
We are the controller of your personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you have any questions about this policy or your data, email privacy@blabing.com.
2. Data we collect
Information you give us
- Account details: your email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), display name and username.
- Profile: an optional profile photo and status.
- Support requests: anything you send us when you contact support or report a problem.
- Reports: if you report a user or message, the details you include and the reported content you choose to share with us.
Information collected when you use Blabing
- Contacts and connections: who you're connected to on Blabing and the groups you belong to. We do not upload your phone's address book.
- Usage and diagnostic data: when you use the app, crash reports, performance data, app version and device type.
- Technical data: IP address, device identifiers and push notification tokens, used to deliver messages and keep your account secure.
Information from others
- Sign in with Apple or Google: if you choose this, we receive your name and email address (or Apple's private relay address).
- Apple and Google: if you subscribe to Blabing Plus, we receive confirmation of your subscription status. We never see your card or bank details.
3. Your messages and calls
Messages, voice notes, media and calls are encrypted end to end. Only you and the people you're talking to can read or hear them. We cannot.
Encrypted messages are held on our servers only until they are delivered, or for up to [30] days if a recipient's device is offline. They are then deleted from our servers. Messages you set to disappear are removed from devices after the time you choose.
We do process limited metadata needed to run the service, such as when a message was sent and which account it was sent to. We do not use the content of your conversations for advertising, and we do not sell your personal data.
4. How we use your data and our legal basis
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Create and run your account, deliver messages and calls | Contract: we need it to provide Blabing to you |
| Manage your Blabing Plus subscription and free trial | Contract |
| Send service emails (account activation, password reset, important changes) | Contract |
| Keep Blabing safe: prevent spam, fraud and abuse, and act on reports | Legitimate interests (protecting our users and service) and legal obligation |
| Fix bugs and improve performance using diagnostic data | Legitimate interests |
| Send product news and offers | Consent: you can opt out at any time |
| Comply with the law and respond to valid legal requests | Legal obligation |
5. Who we share your data with
We only share personal data where we need to, and never sell it. We share data with:
- Service providers who host our servers, send emails and push notifications, and provide crash reporting. They act on our instructions under contracts that protect your data. [List providers, e.g. hosting, email and notification services]
- Apple and Google, who process app downloads and subscription payments under their own privacy policies.
- Law enforcement or regulators, where we are legally required to, or where it's necessary to protect someone from serious harm. Because messages are end-to-end encrypted, we cannot provide their content.
- A buyer or successor, if Blabing is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale. We'll tell you before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
6. International transfers
Some of our service providers may process data outside the UK. When that happens we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Agreement approved by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
7. How long we keep your data
- Account data: for as long as you have an account. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your data within [30] days, except where we must keep it for legal reasons.
- Undelivered encrypted messages: up to [30] days (see section 3).
- Subscription records: as long as required for tax and accounting law, usually six years.
- Safety reports: as long as needed to investigate and prevent repeat abuse.
You can delete your account at any time from Settings › Account › Delete account in the app.
8. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you
- have inaccurate data corrected
- have your data deleted
- restrict or object to how we use your data
- receive your data in a portable format
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To use any of these rights, email privacy@blabing.com. We'll respond within one month. If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we'd appreciate the chance to put things right first.
9. Children
You must be at least 13 years old to use Blabing. We don't knowingly collect data from children under that age. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.
We use the age information provided by Apple and Google to tell whether a user is under 18. Accounts belonging to users aged 13 to 17 have stricter privacy settings by default:
- only people in their contacts can message them
- their profile is hidden from search
10. Security
We protect your data with end-to-end encryption for conversations, encryption in transit and at rest for account data, hashed passwords, and restricted staff access. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password and keep your device locked.
11. Cookies
The blabing.com website uses only the cookies needed for it to work, such as keeping you signed in. If we ever add analytics or marketing cookies, we'll ask for your consent first.
12. Changes to this policy and how to contact us
If we make important changes we'll tell you in the app or by email before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy was last updated.
Questions? Email privacy@blabing.com or write to [registered company name], [registered address].