Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
Welcome to VERYCHAT, a secure and convenient web3 chat platform!
VERYCHAT, including but not limited to the VERYCHAT mobile app, desktop app, or website www.verychat.io (collectively referred to as "VERYCHAT"), collects and processes specific personal information of users who use it, as defined below.
This Privacy Policy explains the timing, methods, and reasons for VERYCHAT's processing of your personal information, as well as specifying your choices and rights regarding such personal information.
Please note that the privacy policy applies only to VERYCHAT. If you use other products or services, please refer to their respective privacy policies. If you do not agree to how your personal information is handled as described in this privacy policy, please do not provide information when requested and consider ceasing the use of VERYCHAT. By using VERYCHAT, you acknowledge and agree to how we handle your personal information as described in this privacy policy.
In this privacy policy, “we” or “our” refers to the following.
Verychat Inc. 1017, 10F, 116 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (06233)
Terms written in capital letters in this Privacy Policy have the same meaning as defined in the VERYCHAT Terms of Service unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or the use of your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer via email (cs@verychat.io). The list of individuals responsible for data protection compliance is provided at the bottom of this page.
Users residing in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland have the right to lodge a complaint with their national data protection authority.
2. Scope and Application
This Privacy Policy applies only to users of VERYCHAT.
In the event that you change your phone number, you may need to convert your account to the new phone number. If you convert to a new account, this Privacy Policy will apply to you from the date our system records such conversion.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to personal information collected from third-party services accessible through the VERYCHAT platform (Wepin Wallet, Very Pay, VerySwap.io, or third-party websites visible through the in-app browser) or personal information that you choose to share with other users of the services. Please refer to the privacy policies of the relevant third-party services. For more details, refer to the clause titled “Entities we share your data with.”
If you are using VERYCHAT on behalf of a company, partnership, association, government, or other organization (“Organization”), you agree to notify the individuals within your Organization (“Affiliates”) that we collect their personal information or that you provide it to us at the time, and also to comply with this Privacy Policy and obtain the relevant Affiliates’ consent to process their personal information in accordance with applicable laws. When referring to “you” in this Privacy Policy, it includes you and all Affiliates. If you or an Affiliate wishes to have personal information deleted from our database, please proceed with the withdrawal through the in-app withdrawal feature.
3. Definition
“Location data” is information derived from public posts that include GPS coordinates, WiFi (approximate city location), IP address (country location), or location information (locations with geotags). Location data is shared in the following cases (to us and/or other users):
When using location-based features and when sharing your location with other VERYCHAT users.
When accessing VERYCHAT (we automatically extract location data from your IP address, device, or internet service for security purposes including fraud prevention in account logins)
You can disable collection and use of location data in device settings.
“Log data” is information automatically collected when you use VERYCHAT, including:
Mobile carrier and network information, device version and resettable identification number, configuration information available for VERYCHAT mobile app or on desktop or web browser, IP address
Information about content you viewed on VERYCHAT (e.g., detailed information on social media profiles you visited and other accessed or requested content)
General information about communication in VERYCHAT, such as users communicated with, communication time, communication data and duration (communication content excluded), VERYCHAT usage statistics, traffic data
Metadata related to items you provided through VERYCHAT, such as date, time, or location of shared photos or videos
“Personal information” is information related to you or a combination of information that can be used directly or indirectly to identify you, processed by us in relation to your VERYCHAT usage.
“Shared information” is information included in public VERYCHAT profiles, information available to other users through VERYCHAT (e.g., Moments and status posts), information about you available to other users through VERYCHAT usage, and location data.
4. How we use your information
This section details the types of personal information we collect from you, the purposes for processing, and the specific information on the retention periods for each type of personal information collected.
Additionally, this section outlines the legal basis for how we process your data for users residing in the relevant jurisdictions. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “relevant jurisdictions” may include the EEA, UK, Switzerland, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey.
We do not retain personal information for longer than necessary unless required by law or permitted to do so. If we need to retain your personal information beyond the specified retention period for compliance with relevant laws, we will store it separately from other types of personal information. Registration data collected for spam prevention and system security (excluding personal information) is retained. Specific details on the retention periods for holding your data can be found in the specified retention periods listed below.
Information | Purpose of Processing | Retention Period |
Registration data and login data. The data included when signing up for a VERYCHAT account, such as your name, nickname, Apple ID, Google ID, IP address, account identifier, phone number, location, current registered phone number for determining location, email address, registration date. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): Necessary to create a VERYCHAT profile and provide VERYCHAT services in order to fulfill the contract with you. Shared information - Profile data. Information entered by you that is visible to anyone on your VERYCHAT profile, including your VERYCHAT ID, name, gender, location, and photo, cryptocurrency wallet address, etc. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): Necessary to provide the VERYCHAT profile and services to fulfill the contract with you. - To set up and facilitate login to a VERYCHAT account | -To set up and facilitate login to a VERYCHAT account - To enforce our terms, conditions, and policies - To make VoIP calls using VERYCHAT - To communicate with you about changes to VERYCHAT - To provide personalized user support to you - To develop new services and tools for detecting account violations and improving account security and quality - To customize language and location preferences - To promote the rights, assets, and safety of us, our affiliates, or other VERYCHAT users - For VERYCHAT management (troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, investigations, security, fraud prevention, account maintenance, surveys, etc.) - To enable sharing of your profile data with other VERYCHAT users - To allow you to use your VERYCHAT ID for third-party services. | data is retained until the account is deleted or the connection of the VERYCHAT account from Apple or Google account is disconnected at the earliest opportunity. Login data is retained for 3 months from the date of login. Data related to account deletion requests are retained for 90 days from the date of the request. (However, data may be cached by third-party services and retained according to their own privacy policies). |
Additional account security information (optional for account security purposes). Password, emergency contact, managed devices, email address, and Very ID. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): Necessary to provide your VERYCHAT account as per the contract with you and for the security of your VERYCHAT account. | To provide additional security for your account. | Until you request for information deletion or until the account is deleted (whichever occurs earlier). |
Personal settings. This includes personal account settings that you do not share with other users but are visible to you, such as settings to customize your VERYCHAT experience, personal annotations and details you add to your account and contacts. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): Necessary to provide personalized services according to your preferences. | To provide personalized services according to your preferences. | Until you request for information deletion or until the account is deleted (whichever occurs earlier). |
Chat Data: Communication content between you and other users or user groups. We do not permanently store chat data on our servers and this data simply passes through our servers to be distributed to the intended recipient. Chat data is stored only on your device and the recipient’s device, unless bookmarked by the recipient or group chat admin adds to group notifications. Legal Basis (applicable jurisdictions only): Necessary to perform the contract with you for providing the VERYCHAT chat service. | To provide our communications services. | Chat messages are automatically and permanently deleted from our servers within 3 hours of being delivered to the recipient’s device, and in any case, messages are permanently deleted 72 hours after being sent. Chat media such as images, voice, video, and files are automatically and permanently deleted from our servers 120 hours after being sent. |
Contact and Friends List: Your device’s stored contact list and your VERYCHAT group chat and friends list. Legal Basis (applicable jurisdictions only): Necessary to provide VERYCHAT and connect you with your friends. | To connect you with other VERYCHAT users Develop and improve tools used to detect new account violations related to your group chat and friends list in order to enhance account safety and quality | We will retain this information until the earliest of the date you request deletion or modification of your personal information, or the date your account is deleted. |
Log data. Please refer to the following definitions. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): We always strive to ensure the security, registration management, and service improvement of the service. | - For troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, investigation, security, fraud prevention, and account management. | It will be permanently deleted 3 months from the collection date. |
Location Data. Please refer to the following definitions. Legal Basis (applicable jurisdiction only): We need it to provide you with VERYCHAT location-based services in order to fulfill the contract we have with you. Please note that the use of location-based services is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of third-party service providers that enhance location-based services such as the service. | To facilitate the use of location-based services such as • Sharing real-time location via chat (dependent on GPS) - For security, fraud prevention, and account management - To customize language and location preferences.
| Location data used for location-based services: - Location data shared through chat will be permanently deleted 72 hours after sharing. Location data used for all other purposes will be retained for 3 months from the date of collection. |
To comply with the Minor Protection Act, when a minor attempts to create a VERYCHAT account, the payment card information of the parent/guardian is collected to verify consent. The validity of the card information is verified through a third-party payment processing service. After the verification request is processed by the third-party payment processing service, VERYCHAT only stores the authentication date and hashed payment card number. The processing of this data is done in accordance with the legal obligations specified in the relevant jurisdiction.
| When a child attempts to create a VERYCHAT account to confirm parent/guardian consent. | Until the parent/guardian or user requests deletion of the payment card information, and until the user reaches the legal age according to local laws. |
Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): It is necessary to perform the contract with you. | To provide the translation of the text requested by you. | The text to be translated and the translated text will be hashed and cached for 24 hours from the time the translation request is made. |
Customer support information communication content and any information provided by you or other users to our customer support team. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): necessary to provide and support VERYCHAT in order to perform the contract with you. | - To investigate your issues and provide personalized customer support - To develop new services and improve existing services and app experience - For security, fraud prevention, and account management To mitigate content or actions that violate applicable laws and regulations, or that contravene VERYCHAT’s terms of service or other rules applying to VERYCHAT users. | until your account is deleted, unless required by law. |
Access Token. An access token that facilitates the connection between your VERYCHAT account and third-party social media accounts. Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction): Necessary to perform the contract with you for providing VERYCHAT services. | When you link a third-party social media account to your VERYCHAT account, we process the access token to facilitate login and content sharing between those accounts. | Until you unlink the connection between the third-party social media account and your VERYCHAT account. |
Survey. If you participate in a survey, we may ask for specific personal information from you. Before completing the survey, we will inform you of the purpose of the survey and the identity of the service provider conducting the survey (if we have partnered with a service provider). Legal basis (applicable jurisdiction only): We collect this information with your consent. | - To better understand your access and usage of VERYCHAT - To develop new services and improve existing services and app experiences - To enhance VERYCHAT and respond to customer requests and preferences - For all purposes enumerated within the survey itself. | Account deletion or until the date specified in the survey itself (whichever comes first between these two dates) |
We may also anonymize or aggregate personal information for analysis purposes. This helps us develop new services, improve existing services, analyze trends, prevent fraud and ensure account security, and provide basic statistical information to third-party service providers about how services provided by third-party service providers are being used by VERYCHAT users.
Sensitive Personal Information
In some jurisdictions, specific types of personal information such as your religion, political views, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, health status, etc., are classified as sensitive information, and they are subject to stricter regulations than other types of personal information.
VERYCHAT does not request sensitive personal information for the provision of its services. If you choose to post or transmit sensitive personal information within VERYCHAT, you are consenting to provide such information within your chosen privacy controls.
Shared Information
Through VERYCHAT's privacy settings, you can manage what information you share with other users of VERYCHAT. After you delete shared information, it may still remain cached, copied, stored, or disclosed separately by other users or third parties not under our control. Please consider carefully what content you post and transmit through VERYCHAT.
Personal Information Included in Content
If any of your personal information constitutes your content (as specified in the VERYCHAT Terms of Service), we and our affiliates may use such personal information in accordance with the "Your Content" provision of the VERYCHAT Terms of Service, while adhering to this Privacy Policy. Your content will be handled in compliance with the VERYCHAT Terms of Service and acceptable use policies.
5. Recipients with whom We Share Your Data
We do not share your personal information with third parties except in the cases specified below or where you have consented to the sharing.
We share your information with selected recipients only when necessary, including but not limited to the following.
Related Affiliates. We may share your personal information with our affiliates, and these related affiliates can only use your personal information if they comply with this Privacy Policy. Such related affiliates include VERYLABS PTE. LTD. (based in Singapore), which provides VERYCHAT to users. These companies assist us in fulfilling the purposes outlined in the "How We Use Your Information" section, performing our obligations, and exercising our rights under the VERYCHAT Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy.
Service Providers. We engage service providers to support or enhance VERYCHAT. These service providers may include SMS, VOIP, payment card processing and authentication, translation, location and mapping, customer service, account data display, and security (where applicable), content delivery service providers, and others. These service providers must protect user data at the same level as or equivalent to what is specified in this Privacy Policy and cannot retain, use, or disclose your information except as necessary to provide services to us.
Chat Platform. VERYCHAT, developed by our company, manages messages using the chat platform provided by Neptune Co., Ltd., which developed and distributed Talkplus. It is used to fulfill the purposes outlined in the "How We Use Your Information" section, perform our obligations, and exercise our rights under the VERYCHAT Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy.
Cryptocurrency Wallet. The wallet menu within VERYCHAT, developed by our company, operates using the Wepin (Non-Custodial Wallets) developed and distributed by IoTrust Co., Ltd. It is used to fulfill the purposes outlined in the "How We Use Your Information" section, perform our obligations, and exercise our rights under the VERYCHAT Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy.
Third-Party Services. If you do any of the following:
Logging into VERYCHAT using third-party authentication services
Sharing content from VERYCHAT to third-party services
Sharing content from third-party services to VERYCHAT
Accessing content from third-party services within VERYCHAT
Linking your VERYCHAT contacts list with your list on third-party services
We may receive information about you from these third-party services or share your information with them.
Third-party services may collect information (including personal information and log data) and may set cookies on your device. This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by us and does not apply to information collected by third parties.
In jurisdictions where applicable, you may access Very Pay through the VERYCHAT platform. Due to regulatory requirements, Very Pay is operated by various institutions licensed in different jurisdictions. When you use the Very Pay payment service, your information will be collected, stored, shared, and/or retained by the relevant Very Pay institution and/or its affiliates in accordance with their respective privacy policies, not this Privacy Policy. We provide your information to these companies to facilitate the use of their services.
You have control over third parties accessing your information, and you can withdraw consent for information sharing according to the instructions provided in this document. Please note that if you request us not to share your information with certain third parties, you may no longer be able to use their third-party services.
In the event of mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, or asset sales involving third parties or related affiliates, or in the event of legal effectiveness or other circumstances, To ensure that you can continue to use the service, we will transfer your information to such entities. In such situations, we will require third parties or related affiliates to comply with this Privacy Policy.
Government, public, regulatory, judicial, and law enforcement agencies or authorities. There are situations where we may be legally required to disclose your information if the entity requesting the information has valid jurisdiction to obtain your personal information, including (i) to comply with legal obligations or requests such as court orders, subpoenas, or other legal processes, (ii) to enforce our terms of service, (iii) to address security or fraud-related issues, or (iv) in situations where there is an imminent emergency posing a risk of death, serious bodily harm to a person, or harm to a child. Our law enforcement data request guidelines can be found here.
Upon your request, to third parties (for example, in accordance with your data portability request).
6. Locations Where We Process Your Data
VERYCHAT is a global platform. Our engineering, technical support, and other support teams work from our offices in South Korea and globally (Singapore) or remotely, and these teams may inadvertently access your specific information, for example, to address technical issues you have reported. Personal information collected by us is encrypted and stored or processed on AWS servers.
7. Security of Your Personal Information
We make every effort to protect the privacy and integrity of your personal information regardless of where it is stored or accessed. We employ technical safeguards such as information security and access policies to restrict unauthorized access to our systems, as well as encryption to ensure the confidentiality of your personal information during transmission and storage.
We do not permanently retain chat data between you and other users on our servers. Chat data only passes through our servers to be securely distributed to the intended recipient. Chat data is stored only on your device and the device of the user to whom you have sent the conversation, except when: you or your recipient choose to share the conversation externally, add it to favorites, or report it as chat abuse; or when a group chat administrator adds a group notification (in which case the group notification will be retained for future access by group members).
Please note that while we take reasonable measures to protect your personal information, transmission of information over the internet is never completely secure.
8. Advertising
VERYCHAT may display advertisements through platforms such as Google AdMob and other advertising platforms at the time of harvesting fruit. We do not provide your information separately to advertising companies.
9. Contact Information for Communication with Us
We may send service-related notices via VERYCHAT, email, or SMS when necessary, such as when temporarily suspending VERYCHAT for maintenance, security, or privacy reasons. Service-related notices of this nature, which are not promotional in nature, cannot be opted out of.
10. Age Restriction and Parental/Guardian Supervision
Children under the age of 13 (or the applicable adult age according to the user's relevant local law) ("Children") may not use VERYCHAT for any purpose without parental/guardian verification and consent (both the consent of the parent/guardian themselves and the consent on behalf of their child). While certain jurisdictions may require the provision of birthdate information, we only process year and month of birth information. We do not intentionally collect personal information from children without such consent and approval. If we believe that we have obtained personal information from a child without such parental/guardian consent, please contact our data protection officer immediately so that we can investigate (and delete) such information.
11. Your Rights
This clause, specifically clause 11 (Your Rights), applies only to users in the relevant jurisdictions unless otherwise specified.
Users residing in Australia, Brazil, California, Canada, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam are subject to terms specified under their jurisdiction's name on this page, in addition to the terms outlined in our Privacy Policy.
You may have certain rights regarding your personal information held by us. Some of these rights apply only in specific circumstances (as detailed below). Please note that to exercise your rights, including making Data Subject Rights (DSR) requests, to which we must respond to protect your information, we need to verify your identity. To exercise your rights, please fill out the request form here.
Access and Modification
This clause also applies to users residing in Argentina, Canada, and Russia.
You have the right to request access to your personal information held by us, as well as information about how we use and share that information. However, if providing such information to you could potentially infringe upon the rights of other users (for example, if providing you with personal information we hold about you would also disclose information about third parties), we may not be able to provide such information to you.
You also have the right to modify such information if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
You may access and modify your personal information at any time by logging into your VERYCHAT account. For example, you can delete specific location data through your device settings or the "Clear Location" option within VERYCHAT.
If there is personal information about you that you cannot modify using your account and you wish for us to modify it, please fill out the request form here.
If we agree to modify your personal information, we will notify relevant third parties who are recipients of the disclosed personal information through appropriate procedures. This is to ensure that third parties can also modify your personal information.
Deletion
This clause also applies to users residing in Argentina, Canada, and Russia.
After logging into your VERYCHAT account, you can delete your account or specific personal information by going to Friends > Settings > Deactivate Account. After deleting your account, aggregated registration data will be retained for 90 days for spam prevention and system security purposes, and re-registration will be prohibited.
Please note that you cannot delete your account if there is a balance remaining in your Very Pay account or if you are an administrator of an official account or mini-program.
You may request deletion of your personal information held by us in the following circumstances:
If we determine that we no longer need to retain your personal information,
If you have consented to our processing of your personal information but subsequently withdraw your consent (also, if we have no other valid legal basis for processing your personal information),
If we determine that we are unlawfully processing your personal information,
If at the time of collection or currently, you are under the age of 13 (or the age of majority as per relevant local law) and we can verify your age,
You have the right to restrict our processing of your personal information while we review your request for deletion of your data (see below for details).
If there is a valid legal basis under the law (e.g., defense in a lawsuit, freedom of expression, or other legal obligations), we may retain personal information, and in such cases, we will notify you.
If you request deletion of your personal information that we have disclosed and there is a valid basis for it, we will take reasonable steps to notify third parties who are recipients of the disclosed personal information of this fact. This is to ensure that third parties can also delete your personal information.
Limited Processing for Storage Purposes
This clause also applies to users residing in Russia.
You have the right to request that we discontinue processing your personal information for purposes other than storage in certain circumstances. However, we may continue to process your personal information if there are other valid legal grounds for doing so (e.g., for legal claims defense or for the protection of others).
If we agree to discontinue processing your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to notify third parties who are recipients of the disclosed personal information of this fact. This is to ensure that third parties can also discontinue their processing of that personal information.
You may request that we discontinue processing your personal information held by us and retain it only in the following circumstances:
If the personal information is considered inaccurate (for the period during which we verify its accuracy),
If our processing is currently unlawful, so you wish us to continue retaining the personal information (in case you wish for us to continue retaining it for legal rights establishment, exercise, or defense),
If we no longer need the personal information, and you wish for us to delete it (in case you wish for us to continue storing it for legal rights establishment, exercise, or defense).
Portability
You have the right to receive a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable copy of your specific personal information. This includes personal information processed with your consent (e.g., shared information and content stored in bookmarks) or personal information processed based on a contract between you and us (e.g., profile data), as explained in the "How We Use Your Information" clause. Additionally, you have the right to request that we transfer such personal information to a third party. If you wish for us to transfer your personal information to a third party, please provide us with the details of that third party. Please note that we can only transfer personal information if it is technically feasible. We are not responsible for the security of the personal information once it has been received by a third party or for the processing of that information by such third party.
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will update the modified version with the "Last Updated" date, and the changes will be communicated to you appropriately via VERYCHAT or other means before they take effect.
13. Language
While we provide translations of this Privacy Policy, in the event of any discrepancy between the translated versions and the English version, the English version shall prevail unless otherwise required by applicable law.
14. Personal Information Protection Manager
The information regarding the domestic representative pursuant to Article 32-5 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection is as follows:
Company : Verychat Inc.
1017, 10F, 116 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (06233)
Manager : Kwang Hyun, Ko
E-mail : cs@verychat.io
Last updated