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Privacy Policy

Version 1.0 · Updated on October 18, 2026

This policy explains what personal data we process when you use Piou (iPhone and Android apps, the web app app.piou.chat, the website piou.chat), why, with whom we share it, how long we keep it and how to exercise your rights. It is written to comply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), United Arab Emirates Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (PDPL) and Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019) (PDPA).

The essentials

  • Translations are done on your device and are never sent to our servers. No online translation service is used.
  • Your messages are stored on our servers, in their original language, so they can be delivered to your recipients and synced across your devices. They are hosted in Paris (France).
  • Your messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They are encrypted in transit (TLS) and on our host's disks, but our systems can technically access them in order to deliver them. We strictly limit that access.
  • The numbers in your address book are turned into fingerprints on your device before anything is sent; we never keep the numbers of people who do not use Piou.
  • No advertising, no sale of data. Our statistics are internal, with no cookies and no third-party tools.
  • Status updates disappear after 24 hours, and disappearing messages when they expire.

1. Data controller

The data controller is ALTRIX FZCO, a Free Zone Company registered with the International Free Zone Authority (IFZA) under license No. 66415, Building A1, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

For any question about your data or to exercise your rights: support@piou.chat (subject: "Personal data").

Representative in the European Union (Article 27 GDPR) and representative in Thailand (Section 37(5) PDPA): their contact details will be published in this section once they are designated. In the meantime, all your requests can be sent to support@piou.chat.

2. Data we process

Account and profile: display name, profile photo, "about" text, reading language and interface language, email address, password (stored only as a fingerprint, never in plain text, by our authentication provider), your Apple or Google identifier if you sign in with them, dates of creation and last sign-in, privacy settings.

Phone number: your number, its country, the verification method and date, and a fingerprint of the number (a code derived with a secret key) that lets your contacts find you.

Phone verification and fraud prevention: for each attempt, the number, the method and the provider used, the code in fingerprint form, the number of tries, the status and timestamps, a device identifier, a fingerprint of your IP address, the result of the device or browser integrity check, and the cost of the message.

Contacts: if you allow it, the numbers in your address book are turned into fingerprints (hashed) on your device before being sent. We compare them with the fingerprints of registered users and keep only the matches (the link between you and your contacts who already use Piou). The numbers of people who do not use Piou are never kept. If you invite someone by email, we use their address to send them the invitation.

Content: your messages (text, voice messages, photos, videos, documents, stickers, one-time and live locations), your reactions, replies, pinned messages, polls and votes, status updates, the transcript of a voice message when it is produced on the sender's device, information about your groups, delivery and read receipts, the "typing…" indicator, online presence and last-seen time (according to your settings).

Calls: call history (participants, audio or video, start and end times, reason for ending). Sound and video travel directly between devices, or through a relay server when the network requires it, encrypted by the call protocol (DTLS-SRTP); they are not recorded. Subtitle text travels the same way during the call and is not stored on our servers.

Devices and notifications: device type (iPhone, Android, web), app version, device language, notification tokens.

Subscriptions and payments: plan, status, trial and renewal dates, country, currency, amount, transaction identifiers provided by Stripe, Apple or Google, and, for a gifted subscription, the beneficiary and, where applicable, their email address. We never receive your full card number.

Internal statistics: usage events (for example: app opened, sign-up steps, subscription screen shown, trial started), with an account identifier or a random identifier, the platform, the app version, the country and the date. These statistics use no cookies, no advertising identifier and no third-party tools.

Support and contact form: your name, email address, message and language, plus an anti-bot check.

Reports and blocks: reports you make or that concern you (reason, details, reported message or account) and the list of accounts you block.

Technical logs: IP addresses, dates and times, information about requests and errors, kept by our hosting providers to keep the Service secure and running.

We do not intentionally collect any "sensitive" data (health, religion, opinions…). Your messages may nevertheless contain such data if you choose to write about it: it is then processed only to be delivered to your recipients.

3. Translation happens on your device

With Piou Premium, each message is translated on the recipient's device: by Apple's built-in translation on iPhone, by ML Kit on Android, and in the browser by the open-source Bergamot engine with the Firefox Translations models, or by the browser's built-in translation when available (for example Chrome on desktop). The translated text stays on your device; it is never sent to our servers.

To work, your device downloads the language models once, from Apple, from Google or from our servers (for the web app). This download reveals your IP address and the requested language to the provider, but not the content of your messages.

Piou uses your device's speech recognition first (to transcribe voice messages, display subtitles and for face-to-face mode). If your device or browser does not offer on-device recognition for a language, your system's speech recognition service (for example Apple's, Google's or your browser's) may process the audio on its publisher's servers, under its own rules. We do not receive that audio for transcription.

4. Why we use your data and on what basis

For each purpose, we indicate the legal basis under the GDPR (Article 6), the PDPL (Article 4) and the PDPA (Section 24).

  • Providing the messaging service (account, profile, messages, calls, status updates, groups, notifications, syncing across devices) — performance of our contract with you (GDPR 6(1)(b); PDPL Art. 4, item 9; PDPA s. 24(3)).
  • Verifying your number and preventing fraud (sending limits, device integrity checks, spending caps, blocking premium-rate or virtual numbers) — performance of the contract and our legitimate interest in securing the Service and controlling its costs (GDPR 6(1)(b) and (f); PDPL Art. 4, item 9; PDPA s. 24(3) and (5)).
  • Showing you which contacts use Piou — performance of the contract, for the feature you request; for the fingerprints of numbers of non-registered people, processed briefly and then discarded, legitimate interest (GDPR 6(1)(b) and (f); PDPL Art. 4, item 9; PDPA s. 24(3) and (5)).
  • Managing subscriptions, trials, gifts and billing — performance of the contract and compliance with our accounting and tax obligations (GDPR 6(1)(b) and (c); PDPL Art. 4, items 9 and 10; PDPA s. 24(3) and (6)).
  • Sending you service messages (sign-in codes, confirmations, receipts, information about your account or subscription) and answering support requests — performance of the contract (GDPR 6(1)(b); PDPL Art. 4, item 9; PDPA s. 24(3)).
  • Handling reports, ensuring security, complying with the law and defending our rights — legitimate interest, legal obligations, and the establishment or defense of legal claims (GDPR 6(1)(c) and (f); PDPL Art. 4, items 3 and 10; PDPA s. 24(5) and (6)).
  • Producing our internal statistics (understanding usage, improving Piou, measuring sign-ups and subscriptions), without cookies or third-party tools — legitimate interest (GDPR 6(1)(f)); statistical studies (PDPL Art. 4, item 6); legitimate interest (PDPA s. 24(5)). You can object at any time (see section 10).

We do not make any decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal effects concerning you. Automatic anti-fraud checks may delay or block a phone number verification; you can then ask for a person to review it at support@piou.chat.

Device permissions. Piou asks for access to your contacts, microphone, camera, location or notifications only when you use the corresponding feature. You can withdraw these permissions at any time in your phone's or browser's settings.

5. Who can see your data

Other users. Your messages are visible to the participants in the conversation. Your display name, photo, "about" text and language are visible to your contacts and to the members of your groups; your last-seen time and read receipts are visible according to your settings. Your status updates are visible for 24 hours to your mutual contacts (people you have in your contacts and who have you in theirs). Someone who has your number in their address book or who knows your email address can find out that you use Piou and see your display name and photo; the same applies to people who receive your invite link.

Our team, only when necessary (support, security, reviewing a report), with limited access.

Our processors, who act on our instructions:

  • Supabase Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) — database, authentication, file storage, server functions and real-time features; data hosted on Amazon Web Services infrastructure, eu-west-3 region (Paris, France);
  • Vercel Inc. (United States) — hosting of the website and the web app;
  • Cloudflare, Inc. (United States) — anti-bot check (Turnstile) on the website's contact form and on phone number verification in the web app; for this, Cloudflare receives technical signals (IP address, browser) and also uses them, as a separate controller, to improve bot detection;
  • Sendinblue SAS, doing business as Brevo (France) — sending service emails, receiving emails sent to support and, as a last resort, sending verification text messages;
  • Stripe Payments Europe, Limited (Ireland) — payments made on the website;
  • RevenueCat, Inc. (United States) — unified management of subscriptions bought in the apps;
  • Google (Gmail) — our team's mailbox, which receives a copy of emails sent to support;
  • telecommunications providers that, depending on your country, receive the verification text message you send, place the verification missed call or send a text message; Telegram or WhatsApp, only if you choose to receive your code there;
  • a call relay server (TURN), only when a direct connection between devices is impossible;
  • OpenFreeMap, which provides map tiles on Android and in the web app (requesting a map reveals your IP address and the area displayed to it).

The up-to-date list of telecommunications providers and of the call relay is available on request at support@piou.chat.

Apple and Google act as providers of your operating systems and their services: App Store and Google Play (purchases), notifications (Apple Push Notification service, Firebase Cloud Messaging), device integrity checks (App Attest, Play Integrity), language models and speech recognition, maps on iPhone (MapKit), and Sign in with Apple or with Google. For these services, they act under their own privacy policies. In the web app, notifications go through your browser's push service.

Authorities, when the law requires us to, upon a lawful request, or when necessary to protect a person's life or safety.

In the event of a corporate transaction (merger, acquisition, transfer of business), your data may be transferred to the entity concerned, which will be bound by this policy; we will inform you.

We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it for advertising purposes.

6. International transfers

Your data is mainly hosted in the European Union (Paris, France). Some providers, as well as ALTRIX FZCO itself, are located in other countries (in particular the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Singapore and Ireland).

  • For people covered by the GDPR, transfers outside the European Economic Area rely on an adequacy decision of the European Commission where one exists (for example the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for certified companies) or on the standard contractual clauses adopted by the Commission.
  • For people covered by the PDPL, transfers outside the United Arab Emirates rely on Article 22 (countries with an adequate level of protection) or, failing that, on Article 23 (in particular a contract imposing the safeguards of the PDPL, or the need to perform our contract with you).
  • For people covered by the PDPA, transfers outside Thailand rely on Section 28 (countries with adequate protection standards, or the need to perform our contract with you) or on appropriate safeguards within the meaning of Section 29.

You can obtain information about these safeguards at support@piou.chat.

7. How long we keep your data

  • Account, profile, number and contacts: as long as your account exists. When the account is deleted, they are erased from our databases.
  • Messages and files: kept so they can be delivered and synced, until they are deleted — by the sender with "delete for everyone" (possible for 48 hours), when disappearing messages expire, or when the sender's account is deleted. Copies already received or saved on your contacts' devices remain under their control.
  • Disappearing messages: deleted from our servers, with their files, within the hour after the chosen period expires (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days).
  • Status updates: deleted automatically, with their files, 24 hours after they are posted.
  • Live location: shared only for the duration you choose.
  • Call history: kept in the conversation, like a message.
  • Phone verification and anti-fraud: the number entered, the device identifier, the IP fingerprint and the code are erased 30 days after the attempt; only statistical data remains (country, method, result, cost), linked to your account for as long as it exists.
  • Subscriptions and billing: for the entire duration of the subscription, then for the period required by our accounting and tax obligations.
  • Internal statistics: 25 months at most, then deleted or anonymized.
  • Reports: while they are being handled, then 12 months, or longer if proceedings require it.
  • Support: 3 years after our last exchange.
  • Technical logs: 90 days at most.
  • Backups: technical backups are continuously replaced and are not kept for more than 30 days.

Data stored on your device (cached translations, language models, local history) stays there until you delete it, sign out or delete the app.

8. Security

We protect your data with appropriate technical and organizational measures: encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest at our host, access rules applied to every table of the database, passwords never stored in plain text, number fingerprints computed with a secret key kept separately, limited and logged internal access, device integrity checks and anti-abuse limits.

As stated above, Piou does not offer end-to-end encryption: your messages are readable by our systems so they can be delivered. No system is infallible; in the event of a data breach, we notify the competent authority and, where the law requires, the people concerned, within the required time limits (in principle no later than 72 hours for the authority under the GDPR and the PDPA).

9. Cookies and statistics

The website and the web app use no advertising cookies and no third-party analytics tools. We only use the storage strictly necessary for them to work: keeping you signed in, your preferences (such as language), the web app's offline mode and the cache of language models. The website's contact form and phone number verification in the web app are protected against bots by Cloudflare Turnstile, which only analyzes technical signals strictly necessary for that protection. On the website, we count anonymous events (for example a click on "Download") without cookies or persistent identifiers. That is why no consent banner is shown to you.

10. Your rights

Depending on the law that applies to you, you can:

  • access your data and obtain a copy;
  • have it corrected or completed;
  • have it erased (you can also delete your account yourself: Settings → Delete my account);
  • restrict its processing;
  • receive it in a structured format and have it transmitted to another service (portability);
  • object to processing based on our legitimate interest, in particular our internal statistics;
  • withdraw your consent where processing is based on it, without affecting past processing;
  • ask for a person to review an automated decision;
  • obtain information about the safeguards for international transfers.

How to do it: write to support@piou.chat from your account's email address, or give the phone number associated with your account. We may ask you to confirm your identity. The request is free of charge. We reply within one month; under the GDPR, this period may be extended by two months if the request is complex, in which case we will let you know. For requests under the PDPA, we reply within 30 days.

Complaints: you can contact the competent data protection authority — in the European Union, the authority of your country of residence (in France, the CNIL); in the United Arab Emirates, the UAE Data Office; in Thailand, the Office of the Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC).

If you live in another country with a data protection law (for example the LGPD in Brazil), you have the rights provided by that law; write to us at the same address.

11. Minors

Piou is intended for people aged 13 and over. In the European Union and the European Economic Area, you must be 16, or, between 13 and 16, have the consent of the holder of parental responsibility. If the law of your country sets a higher age or requires the consent of a parent or guardian (for example, in Thailand, for processing based on a minor's consent), that rule applies.

We do not knowingly collect data about children under 13. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, or to a minor without the required consent, we delete it. A parent or guardian can write to us at support@piou.chat.

12. Changes

We may change this policy. In the event of a significant change, we will notify you in the app or by email before it takes effect. The date of the latest update appears at the top of the page.

13. Contact

ALTRIX FZCO — Building A1, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates — support@piou.chat