Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10. Halltips is operated by [company name and address to be added].

What we collect

• Account: email address (or the private relay address from Sign in with Apple), your first name, and that you are 18 or older and accepted our Terms.
• Profile: your school, what you study, your country, the languages you speak and your preferred language. If you choose to, a profile picture: a small image that every signed-in Halltips member can see.
• Chats: the messages you send and receive, and when. Tips you write.
• Phone number: only if you choose “Yes” in a chat. It is shown to the other person only when both of you said yes.
• Guides: the school email address used to verify that you are a student.
• Safety: reports you send, people you block, and messages removed by our filters.
• Notifications: if you turn them on, a token that identifies your phone for Apple or Google push messages. A notification shows the sender’s first name and one fixed sentence, never the message. You can turn it off in Profile, and it is removed when you log out or delete your account.
• Usage and crashes: which help links are tapped (not who tapped them), and crash reports, to improve the app.

We do not collect your location, contacts or payment details. We only receive a photo if you pick one as your profile picture, and you can remove it at any time in Edit profile. We do not read your photo library.

How we use it

To run the app: match you with students, deliver and translate messages, keep people safe (filtering, reports, suspending accounts), and understand how the service is used. We do not sell your data and we do not show ads.

Translation

To translate a message, its text is sent to a machine translation provider (Alibaba Cloud Machine Translation, or Google Cloud Translation as a backup). Translations are saved so they are not repeated. Translations can be wrong.

Encryption: please read

Chats are encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest on our servers. They are not end-to-end encrypted: our servers must read messages to translate them and to find abuse, and our moderators can read reported chats. Do not share anything in a chat that you would not want these systems or people to see.

Who sees what

Other students see your first name, profile picture (if you added one), school, program, and what you write. Guides are verified students of your school. School administrators of Halltips see reports and statistics for their school. We use service providers (Google Firebase for hosting, database, sign-in and notifications; the translation providers above) who process data for us.

Keeping and deleting data

You can delete your account in the app (Profile, Delete account). This removes your profile and sign-in. Messages you wrote may remain in the other person’s chat history for safety reasons unless you ask us to remove them. You can also write to us to access, correct or delete your data. Some records (reports, security logs) may be kept for as long as needed for safety and legal reasons.

Age

Halltips is for people aged 18 or older. If we learn that someone younger uses it, we close the account.

Contact

support@halltips.com