How Your Profile Data Is Used
This page covers the information on the Personal Information screen of the Vavo Chat app: your name, photo, status, email address and phone number. It says who can see each one and what we use it for. Your messages are a separate matter: they are end-to-end encrypted and nobody else, including us, can read them. The full picture is in our Privacy Policy.
Your Profile: Name, Photo and Status
Your name, photo and status are how other people recognise you. Someone has to be able to see them before you have ever exchanged a message, for example when deciding whether to accept your contact request. For that reason they are stored on our servers and are not end-to-end encrypted. Don't put anything in them that you wouldn't want the people below to see.
Who can see them
- Your contacts see your name, photo and status.
- Anyone signed in to Vavo Chat who has your 8-digit PIN can look up your name, photo and status, for example by scanning your QR code. Someone you have blocked, or who has blocked you, cannot.
- People you send a contact request to, and people who send one to you, see your name, photo and status.
- Members of groups you belong to see your name and photo, but not your status.
- Notifications: when you message someone, your name can appear in the notification on their device, unless they have turned off message previews. The notification is delivered through Apple's or Google's push service.
Your photo stays inside the app
Your photo is not published on the web. It can only be fetched by someone signed in to Vavo Chat, and each fetch uses a link that expires after five minutes.
When you change them
People you are already connected with receive the new name, photo or status straight away, so their copy of your profile stays current.
Your Email Address and Phone Number
Your email address and phone number are never shown to other Vavo Chat users. They are not included when someone looks up your PIN, sees you in their contacts, receives a contact request from you or shares a group with you. People connect with you by PIN, not by email address or phone number.
What we use them for
- Signing in: with your password, or with a one-time code sent to your email address or phone.
- Verification codes: changing your email address or phone number only takes effect after you enter a code sent to the new one. That way nobody can attach an address or number they don't control.
- Account emails: a welcome email when you sign up. If your email address is changed, a notice goes to the old address, so you would find out if someone else changed it.
Emails are sent through our email provider, Mailgun, and text messages through our SMS provider. They receive only what they need to deliver a message. We never use your email address or phone number for advertising, and we never sell or share them for marketing.
Changing or Erasing Your Information
- Name, photo and status: edit them at any time in the app under Settings → Personal Information.
- Email address and phone number: change them under Settings → Sign-In & Security.
- Deleting your account erases your email address, phone number, photo and status, and replaces your name with "Deleted Account". Your PIN stays reserved so it can never be given to someone else, who would otherwise receive messages meant for you. The reserved PIN is not linked to any personal data. Delete your account under Settings → Personal Information → Delete account.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, contact us at [email protected] or visit our Support page.