Privacy policy

Controller: the person who develops Possible Voice, an individual based in Costa Rica: bbaltodano-portafolio.vercel.app. Contact: the contact button on this website. We have not appointed a representative in the European Union or the United Kingdom for now: for any privacy question, write to us the same way.

1. What Possible Voice is

Possible Voice is a mobile app for live voice rooms used while you play games; there is also a beta web app you use from your browser (see section 3A). You can join public rooms, your friends' rooms and private groups; talk; send text messages; listen to YouTube videos together with the room ("room music"); and, on Android, share your screen live with a room.

Possible Voice uses YouTube API Services. Room music uses the YouTube Data API (search and video information, called by our servers) and the official YouTube embedded player on your device. When you use room music, the Google Privacy Policy also applies. See the Room music page.

2. Your voice and screen are not recorded

Voice is sent live to the other people in the room through our real-time media servers. Those servers run LiveKit, open-source software that we operate on servers rented from a cloud infrastructure provider. We do not record, store, transcribe or analyse voice. The microphone is only used while you are in a voice room with your microphone on and, in the web app, while you test it with "Test my microphone" in Settings > Voice & audio: only you hear that test, the room never hears it and nothing is stored.

Screen sharing (Android). When you choose to share your screen in a room, Android asks for your permission every time. The picture of your screen is sent live, through the same servers, to the people in that room who choose to watch it. We do not record, store or analyse it, and we do not capture screen, game or system audio. Everything visible on your screen while you share, including notifications that pop up, can be seen by viewers, so close private content first. You can stop sharing at any time. Nobody in the room can stop your share, but each person can close it on their own phone and report it. We can end a share by suspending the account sharing it or by closing the room.

3. Information we collect

Held by our sign-in provider (Google Firebase Authentication). Firebase stores your Firebase user ID, your email and whether it is verified; for email accounts, an irreversible hash of your password (we never see or store your password); the Google or Apple account linked to your sign-in (Google may give Firebase your name and photo, which we do not copy into your profile); the dates you created the account and last signed in; and session tokens. Firebase sends the verification and password-reset emails.

Stored on your phone. Your sign-in session, kept by the Firebase SDK and the system's secure storage; your sound settings, including volumes you set for other people; your room-music preferences (automatic playback, and the volume or mute you set for each person); and your choice about ads.

Advertising. Without the "No ads" subscription, the app shows ads from Google AdMob: a banner on the Home screen, a small banner in voice rooms and full-screen ads when you open the app or come back to it after 30 seconds or more away, when you leave a room and, at most, one more every 20 minutes of use (never during a voice call). With or without the subscription, you can ask for a rewarded ad to get frames, backgrounds or coins, also inside a room. Every ad starts muted. Before we request ads, we use Google's consent tool to ask for your choice where the law requires it. See the Advertising page.

Room music (YouTube). Anyone in a room can put a YouTube video on for the room, and several videos can play at the same time. Everyone in the room hears them together; each person can lower or mute a video only for themselves, or listen to something privately ("Only me"). Each phone plays the video with the official YouTube embedded player. We never download, record, extract or rebroadcast YouTube audio or video.

• *What our servers receive:* the link or video ID you put on; what you do with your source (start, pause, resume, skip or stop); and the text you search for. Our servers then ask YouTube for the video's public information (title, channel, thumbnail, duration and whether it can be played in a room), through the YouTube Data API or YouTube's oEmbed service. We never trust a title sent by the app.
• *What the room sees:* the video you put on, with your display name and avatar, while it plays; and a "Recent" list of what was put on in the room (link, title, channel, who put it on and when), which is kept for at most 30 days.
• *Search:* the text you search for goes from our servers to YouTube, using our own API key. It is not stored with your account. We only keep an irreversible fingerprint of the query, without your identity, to reuse YouTube's answer for a few hours, and a daily count of searches, without their text, to enforce limits. YouTube receives the search text and your device's language and region, to order results, but not your identity.
• *YouTube's player on your device:* each time the player loads (including when room music starts on its own after you accepted automatic playback), your device connects directly to YouTube. YouTube may receive information such as your IP address, your device and browser details and how you use the player, and may store or read cookies or similar data in the app's web view. YouTube may show its own ads inside the player. This is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and the YouTube Terms of Service. Nobody signs in to Google or YouTube inside Possible Voice.
• *Explore YouTube (Android and iPhone app):* from the music panel you can open YouTube's mobile website (m.youtube.com) inside the app, as a guest, to search for and choose videos. It loads only YouTube pages: it blocks sign-in, YouTube Music, other websites and links that would open another app. While you browse, your device connects directly to YouTube, which may receive the same information as with the player (such as your IP address, your device details and what you search for and watch on its website), show you its cookie notice and store cookies or similar data in the app's web view. If you watch a video there, the room's music is muted on your phone only while it plays. We do not see what you do on that website: we only receive the video you choose to put on in the room or play with "Only me", just as with a pasted link. The data YouTube stores in the app's web view is erased when you sign out.
• *Kept only on your phone:* your choice about automatic playback, and the volume or mute you set for each person's music.
• Videos that their owner does not allow to be embedded, age-restricted videos and videos YouTube marks as "made for kids" are not offered in rooms.

Profile photo (optional). If you set a profile photo, you choose it from your photos or take it with the camera, and crop it on your phone. To choose it, the app uses the system photo picker (on Android 13 or later), without access to your whole gallery; the camera is used only while you take the photo. Only that photo is uploaded, cropped and reduced (at most 512 x 512 pixels and 100 KB), and our servers store it again as a JPEG without metadata, such as location or camera details. It is kept while you use it and erased when you remove it or delete your account. If someone reports you, a copy is kept with the report (see retention).

We do not collect precise location, contacts or any photo other than the profile photo you choose, and we do not use analytics or crash-reporting SDKs.

Statistics for this website. This website (not the app) uses anonymous statistics from Vercel Web Analytics, without cookies or personal identifiers, to count visits and page views. Each page view sends the page address (without parameters or invite codes), the site you came from, your country and your device type, operating system and browser. We only see aggregated data.

3A. Web app (beta)

Possible Voice can also be used from your browser with a beta web app, which you can add to your Home Screen. We serve it over HTTPS at the address shown on the Beta page of our website. It uses the same Possible Voice accounts and our same servers, and handles the same data described in section 3, with these differences:

• Sign-in: with email and password, through Firebase Authentication. Signing in with Google or Apple is not available yet: an account created with them cannot be used in the web app yet.
• Stored in your browser: instead of on your phone, your sign-in session (kept by the Firebase SDK in the browser's storage for that site) and your preferences, such as sound and room-music settings. Signing out removes the session; clearing that site's data in your browser removes everything.
• Permissions: asked for and remembered by your browser, not by the system: the microphone, to speak in a room or to test it in Settings > Voice & audio (the room does not hear the test), and, if you set a profile photo, the camera or your photos, depending on what your browser offers. You can change them in your browser's site settings.
• No ads and no purchases: the web app shows no ads, does not use Google AdMob or its consent tool, and does not sell the subscription, coins or frames.
• Files from Google: when you open it, your browser may download files the web app needs to run, such as its graphics engine, from Google's servers (gstatic.com); Google then receives your IP address and your browser's usual data.
• Room music: not in the web app yet. The YouTube player does not load in your browser, so YouTube receives no data from you through room music while you use the web app; to listen along, join the room from the Android or iPhone app.
• Screen sharing: your screen can only be shared from the Android app.

4. How we use information

We use information to: create and protect your account; run rooms, friendships, messages, screen sharing and the subscription; enforce our guidelines and handle reports; prevent abuse and keep the service safe; respond to support requests; and, where relevant, meet legal obligations, such as tax records for purchases.

We process your data under Costa Rica's Law No. 8968 on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of their Personal Data. If you live in another country, you also have the rights your local law gives you, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, or the CCPA in California. Where the law requires a legal basis, we rely on:

• The contract (the Terms of use): creating your account and running rooms, friendships, messages, room music, screen sharing and the subscription.
• Our legitimate interests: keeping the service safe, preventing abuse, handling reports, fixing technical problems and defending against claims.
• Your consent: personalised advertising, where the law requires it. You can withdraw it at any time, as explained below.
• Legal obligations: for example, tax records of purchases or answering valid requests from authorities.

We do not sell your personal information for money. On Android, if your consent choice allows personalised ads, Google may use the data described in section 3 to personalise them. Some US state laws call this "sharing" or "targeted advertising". You can change your choice at any time in Settings > Ad privacy choices (where shown) or in your device's ad settings. On iPhone and iPad we do not use your data for targeted advertising.

If you live in a US state with privacy laws (such as California): you can ask us to know what personal information we hold about you, to correct it or to delete it, and you can opt out of targeted advertising by choosing non-personalised ads as described above. We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you, and we will not treat you differently for exercising these rights. To exercise them, follow the steps in section 9.

5. Who can see what

• Other people can see your display name, username, Possible Voice ID, profile photo, bio and status when they look you up by exact ID or username, and your name and profile photo in the rooms you join.
• Your profile photo also shows in messages and in friend and friend request lists. The photo's link is public: anyone who has it can open the photo without signing in.
• People in a room's call see everyone in it. From outside, for example in the room list on Home, you see how many people are inside, but only your friends, the people in groups you belong to and people who do not hide their presence are shown (see the privacy choices in section 3).
• People in a room can watch your screen while you share it.
• People in a room see the YouTube video you put on, with your name, and the room's "Recent" list (up to 30 days).
• Messages are visible to the participants in the conversation or room.
• Nobody in a room can act on another person in the room: people can only mute or block someone for themselves, report them or leave.
• Possible Voice administrators can see reports and moderation records, including the room, the people involved and the copy of the profile photo kept with the report, when they review a report.

6. Service providers

We run the service from Costa Rica, and some of these providers process data in other countries, such as the United States, so your data may be processed outside your country. Where the law requires it, these transfers rely on the safeguards the providers themselves offer, such as the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

7. How long we keep it

• Voice and screen sharing: never stored.
• Room chat: deleted automatically when everyone has left the call or the room closes.
• Room music: what is playing is temporary. It is deleted when the room closes or empties, and at most 12 hours after the last change. The "Recent" list is kept for at most 30 days, and is deleted earlier when a public or friends' room closes. Cached YouTube information is kept for at most 24 hours (search results for at most six hours). Search text is not stored.
• Direct messages: no automatic deletion period. When you delete your account, the text of the messages you sent is erased; messages other people sent you are not erased by your deletion.
• Account, profile and anonymised account record: for as long as your account exists. After deletion, the anonymised record, including the record of the versions of these documents you accepted, is kept for as long as needed to keep moderation and audit records consistent, and for no more than 24 months. This deletion is not automatic yet: we do it when we review the records.
• Profile photo: while you use it; erased when you remove it or delete your account. The copy kept with a report is kept like the safety records.
• Safety records (reports, moderation actions and audit records): kept for as long as needed and for no more than 24 months after the report is closed, unless the law or an ongoing claim requires us to keep them longer. This deletion is not automatic yet: we do it when we review the records.
• Server logs: they have a maximum size; when it is reached, the oldest entries are deleted automatically. There is no fixed period in days.
• Coins, frames, backgrounds, rewarded ads and talk time: for as long as your account exists; erased when you delete it. Only the coin movements of the packs you bought and of their refunds are kept, as purchase records.
• Purchase and subscription records: kept for as long as applicable tax and accounting obligations require. They are not deleted automatically yet.
• Backups: we make a daily copy of the database. The copy kept on the server is deleted automatically after 14 days and the encrypted copy we keep off the server after 30, so deleted data can remain in backups for up to 30 days. If we ever download a separate copy, we delete it within the same period.

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app (Profile > Settings > tap your name, "Account, ID and sign-in" > Delete account), or by following the account deletion page. We erase your email, your profile details (including your profile photo), your friendships, the blocks you made, the text of your messages, the music you put on in rooms (including the "Recent" list), your coins, your frames and backgrounds, the record of your rewarded ads and your talk time. If you created a room, it closes only when nobody else is left in it; groups stay open for their other members.

We ask Firebase Authentication to delete your sign-in identity, automatically and on a best-effort basis. If you signed in with Apple, we also ask Apple to revoke Possible Voice's access to your account. If one of these requests fails, the rest of the deletion still goes ahead. Some records are kept as described on the account deletion page.

Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription. Cancel it in the store.

9. Your rights

Depending on the law that applies to you, you can ask us to access, correct or delete your personal data, to receive it in a portable format, to object to or restrict its processing, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. You can do many of these things directly in the app: edit your profile, change your privacy and ad choices, or delete your account.

To exercise your rights, write to us through the contact button on this website, preferably from the email address linked to your account. To protect your account, we may ask you to confirm details about it before we act. We reply as soon as possible and within the period set by the applicable law (for example, one month under the GDPR). Exercising your rights is free.

You can also complain to a data protection authority: in Costa Rica, the Agencia de Protección de Datos de los Habitantes (PRODHAB); in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the authority in your country.

10. Children

Possible Voice is not for children. You must be at least 13 years old. If the law of your country sets a higher age to consent to the processing of your data (in the European Economic Area, up to 16 depending on the country), you need to be that age or have permission from your parent or legal guardian. If we find that an account belongs to a person below the minimum age, we close it. Reports about child safety have their own category and are prioritised. Advertising is limited to content suitable for teenagers.

11. Security

Connections to our servers are encrypted in transit. The app talks to our API and to the voice signalling over HTTPS and TLS, and voice and screen sharing travel with WebRTC's own encryption (DTLS-SRTP). This encryption is not end-to-end: our real-time servers relay voice and video without recording them. Invite links are stored only as one-way hashes. Sign-in sessions on your phone are kept by the Firebase SDK and the system's secure storage (in the web app, in the browser's storage). No method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

12. Changes

We will post updates on this page and, for material changes, ask you to accept the new version in the app. We will tell you about material changes in the app or on our website with reasonable notice, normally at least 15 days before they apply, unless we must apply them sooner for legal or security reasons.