Privacy Policy

• Account credentials. Your phone number or email address, used for sign-in verification codes and so people can find you.
• Profile details. Your name, @username and profile photo, if you add one. You control who can see your photo.
• Activity records. Who a message was sent to and from, when, and whether it was delivered or read. This is how we deliver messages and decide whether two people have been introduced. We see that a message was sent, never what it says.
• Usage counts. The days you open the app and the app version you use, so we can count how many people use NIDEA, tell when an old version needs an update, and find faults. These are counts and dates, not what you do inside your chats.
• Device information. Identifiers for the phones you are signed in on, so you can review and sign out your devices.
• Push notification tokens. Keys supplied by Google and Expo, so we can alert your device to new activity.
• Call records. The time, length and type (voice or video) of a call and whether it was answered, to show your call history and run the service. Calls are never recorded or listened to.
• Encrypted media. Photos, files and voice notes are encrypted on your device before they are uploaded. We cannot open or view them. How long we hold them is under “Keeping and deleting your data”.
• Chat backup (Premium). If you switch on backup, an encrypted copy of your text and images, locked on your phone with a key only you hold. We cannot read it and cannot recover it if you lose your backup password. Hush chats are never included.
• How you joined. If someone invited you with a link, NIDEA keeps which link, so we can count invitations. The person who invited you is not told who joined from their link, and you are not told who invited you.
• Safety records. Reports and lists of blocked accounts, used to keep NIDEA safe. A report includes any message excerpts the person reporting chooses to share for review.
• Hush records. Hush messages are removed from our servers as soon as they are delivered, and Hush calls are not logged. We keep one small record that your free Hush try-out was used: a one-way scrambled code made from your phone number or email, so a try-out cannot be claimed twice. It cannot be turned back into your number or email.

Your messages, photos, files, voice notes and status updates are protected by end-to-end encryption. Content is locked on your device and can only be opened by the person it is sent to. Because we do not hold the decryption keys, neither Netgrawl nor anyone else without your recipient’s device can read it.

Voice and video calls are encrypted in transit. Unlike messages, they are not end-to-end encrypted: they connect through our servers. They are never recorded.

Encrypted status posts are delivered only to the audience you choose. A status expires automatically after 12, 24 or 48 hours. When it expires, or when you delete it, a request to remove it is sent to your recipients’ devices and to our servers.

A verified name is optional. If you ask for one, we check that you are the person on a Nigerian National Identification Number (NIN) record. Dojah Technologies Limited (Dojah) carries out the check for us as our identity verification provider. We do this only if you agree, and only for that purpose.

• Why. To make sure the person behind a verified tick is a real person who matches the name on their record, so fake and look-alike accounts cannot copy someone else.
• What we send to Dojah. Your NIN and a selfie you take in the app. Dojah compares the selfie to the photo on the NIN record held by the national database and tells us the name on the record, how closely the selfie matches, and whether a live person was present.
• What we keep. The result only: the outcome, the match score, the legal name Dojah returned, the last 4 digits of your NIN, Dojah’s reference, and who on our team decided and when. We do not keep your full NIN, your selfie or the photo on the record. They are used for the one check and then dropped.
• Who decides. Every pass is checked by a member of our team before a verified tick is shown. A failed check never decides anything by itself.
• Your choice. Your NIN and selfie are sensitive personal data, and a face match is biometric. You can say no and keep using NIDEA exactly as before. If you agree and change your mind, ask us to remove your verification at any time.
• Dojah’s own policy. Dojah handles the information it receives under its own privacy policy at dojah.io/privacy-policy.

• How you pay. Premium is bought on this website. Payments are handled by Paystack, our payment provider. You enter your card details with Paystack, not with NIDEA, and we never see or store your card number.
• What we keep. Your plan and renewal dates, the amounts charged, any offer you used (so it is not used twice), and a reference from Paystack that lets us charge the card you saved when your plan renews. We email you 2 days before each renewal.
• Paystack’s own policy. Paystack keeps its own records of your payments under its own privacy policy, at paystack.com.
• Later. If we add billing through an app store, that store will handle those payments and we will update this page first.

• To run NIDEA for you (the agreement between us): signing you in, delivering messages and calls, keeping your backup, taking payment for Premium.
• With your consent: the identity check for a verified name, and the permissions you allow on your phone. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• To keep people safe and meet legal duties: handling reports, stopping abuse and fraud, and answering lawful requests from the authorities.
• To run and improve a service people rely on: counting how many people use NIDEA, finding faults and telling old app versions to update.

These companies process information for us, only to do the job described, and not for their own advertising:

• SMS and email providers send sign-in verification codes and the reminder before a Premium charge.
• Google and Expo deliver push notifications without exposing the content of any message.
• Dojah carries out the optional identity check (see above).
• Paystack takes payment for Premium (see above).
• Our hosting provider runs the servers that hold the information described on this page.
• An error-reporting service receives crash and error reports from the app and our servers, with message content removed, so we can fix faults.

Some of these providers handle information outside Nigeria. Where they do, we ask them to protect it to the standard the NDPA requires. We also share information with the police or a court when the law requires it, and we will tell you when we are allowed to.

Only a small number of Netgrawl staff can use our admin console, and each signs in with a second step. They can see account details (such as your username and the state of your account), reports, and identity check results. They cannot read your messages, photos, files, calls or backup.

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act you can ask to access, correct or delete your personal data, ask us to restrict how we use it, object to how it is used, withdraw consent, and ask for a copy you can move elsewhere. You can do much of this in the app, or write to dpo@netgrawl.com. We answer formal requests within 30 days. You may also complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC).

You can download your data in the app: go to Profile, then Privacy & Security, then Download my data. You receive your chats, groups, calls and settings as a file. Photos and files are listed in it, not copied.

• Microphone and camera. Only when you make a call, record a voice note, take a photo or take the selfie for an identity check.
• Notifications. To alert you to new messages and calls.
• Photos and files. Only when you choose something to send.
• Bluetooth. To connect wireless headsets during calls.

NIDEA is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone younger. We close accounts that we find belong to someone under 18.

If we change how we use your information we will update this page, change the date at the top and tell you in the app before the change takes effect.