Privacy & Security Policy

Last updated: November 11, 2026

This policy explains what information Ntchinda collects, why, who it is shared with, how it is protected, and the choices you have. Ntchinda is provided by [COMPANY LEGAL NAME] [ADDRESS] (“we”, “us”).

The short version: your messages, photos, voice notes, files and calls are end-to-end encrypted, so we cannot read, see or hear them. Our servers do see some information needed to deliver them, such as who is in a chat and when messages are sent. Shops and products are public on purpose. We do not sell your information and we do not show you ads.

1. What is end-to-end encrypted

These are encrypted on your phone before they are sent, and can only be decrypted on the phones of the people in the chat. We store only scrambled data we cannot read:

• Message text, photo captions, reactions and pinned notes
• Photos, voice notes, files and videos sent in chats
• Shared locations (including “Get home safe”) and shared contacts
• Voice and video calls (audio and video)
• Stories (photo and text), for your contacts’ phones
• Sketches, time capsules, and the text of to-dos, rota jobs and bills

Translation, voice-note transcripts, message search, recaps and “Your week” run on your phone. Nothing is sent to us to do them.

2. Information we collect

To run the service we collect and store:

• Account details: your email address or phone number (used to sign in, never shown to others), your name, @handle, profile photo and status.
• Contacts you add in Ntchinda, people you block, and the shops you follow.
• Phone details: a public encryption key for each of your phones, the platform (iPhone or Android), when it was added and last used, and a push-notification token.
• Chat information (metadata): which chats you are in, chat names and members, when messages are sent and by whom, roughly how large they are, whether a message contains a photo, and who was @mentioned.
• Call information: when calls happen, how long they last and who joined.
• Features that need the server to coordinate: shared free times, soft knocks and their answers, chat moods, season dates, who paid in a bill, who a to-do is assigned to and its due date, who viewed your story, and message counts per chat for “Your week”.
• Shops (if you open one): shop name, category, description, city, opening hours, website, phone number, an approximate location rounded to about 1 km, products, prices and product photos, followers and likes. This is public — see section 4.
• Reports you send about people or content.
• Basic technical logs kept by our hosting providers for security and reliability (for example IP addresses and error logs).

3. Information on your phone

• Your private encryption keys are created on your phone and kept in the iPhone Keychain or Android Keystore. They are never uploaded and never leave your phone.
• Decrypted copies of your messages and media are stored on your phone so you can read and search them. They are deleted when you log out.
• Encrypted backups you create are protected with a password you choose. We cannot open them or recover the password.

4. Public information

Shops, products, prices, product photos, shop follower counts and product like counts can be seen by anyone signed in to Ntchinda. Your @handle, name, profile photo and status can be seen by people who find you. Do not put anything in a shop you want to keep private.

Who liked a product is not shown to anyone; only the total is.

5. Permissions we ask for

• Contacts (optional): to find friends who use Ntchinda. Phone numbers are checked against our service and not stored. You can turn off “Let people find me by my phone number” in Settings → Privacy.
• Location (optional): only when you share a location, use “Get home safe”, search for shops “Near me”, or set a shop’s location. A “Near me” search location is used for that search only and is not saved.
• Camera, photos and microphone: only to take or send photos, videos and voice notes, and for calls.
• Notifications: to tell you about new messages and calls. Notification text never contains your message content; by default it includes the sender’s name, which you can turn off.

6. How we use information

• To create your account, deliver messages and calls, and keep your phones’ encryption keys in step.
• To show you shops and products in Discover. Shops your contacts follow come first. We never read your messages to suggest anything.
• To keep Ntchinda safe: preventing spam and abuse, reviewing reports, and enforcing our Terms.
• To fix problems and keep the service running.
• To meet legal obligations.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell or rent it to anyone.

7. Who we share information with

We use trusted service providers to run Ntchinda. They process information only on our instructions:

• Supabase — database, sign-in, file storage and server functions. [HOSTING REGION, e.g. EU (Frankfurt)]
• LiveKit — relays calls. It sees who is in a call and connection details, but not the audio or video, which are end-to-end encrypted.
• Expo, Apple (APNs) and Google (FCM) — deliver push notifications.
• [SMS PROVIDER, e.g. Twilio] — sends sign-in codes if you sign in with a phone number.

We may disclose information if the law requires it, for example a valid court order. Because of end-to-end encryption we cannot provide the content of messages, photos or calls. We may also share information to protect people from serious harm, or as part of a merger or sale of the business, in which case this policy will continue to apply.

8. How we protect information

• End-to-end encryption built from widely used, audited building blocks: X25519 key agreement, HKDF-SHA256 and XChaCha20-Poly1305. Each chat has its own key, wrapped separately for each member’s phone.
• Chat keys change whenever someone joins or leaves a chat, adds or removes a phone, and at least once a week.
• Our database refuses unencrypted messages, and every table is protected by access rules so people can only reach their own data.
• Security codes: you can compare a 60-digit code with a contact to confirm nobody is intercepting your chat. Ntchinda warns you if a contact’s keys change.
• Connections to our servers are encrypted in transit (TLS).
• Optional app lock with Face ID, Touch ID or your phone’s passcode.
• You can remove a lost or sold phone from your account in Settings → Privacy.

9. Security limits we want you to know about

• Our servers can see the information in section 2, such as who you talk to and when, even though they cannot read what you say.
• Ntchinda changes keys weekly and when chat members change, rather than with every message. If someone gets your unlocked phone and copies its keys, they could read recent messages from that period.
• Until you compare security codes with a contact, you are trusting our server to give you their correct keys.
• A new phone cannot read messages sent before it was added to your account.
• Our encryption design uses audited components but has not yet been independently audited as a whole. [UPDATE AFTER AN AUDIT]
• No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a security breach affecting your information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

10. How long we keep information

• Encrypted messages and media are kept until they are deleted or vanish (if you use vanishing messages). Stories expire after 24 hours.
• Files no longer used by any message are removed by our nightly clean-up.
• When you delete your account, your profile, contacts, phones, shop and products are deleted straight away, and your files are removed by the nightly clean-up. Messages you sent remain readable to the people who received them, without being linked to you.
• Our hosting provider keeps database backups for up to [7] days, after which deleted information is gone from backups too.
• Reports and safety records may be kept for up to [12 months] to protect users.

11. Your choices and rights

• Download your data: Settings → Privacy → Download my data.
• Correct your name and @handle: Settings → Account.
• Delete your account: Settings → Account → Delete account.
• Control read receipts, names in notifications and being found by phone number in Settings → Privacy.
• Block people, hide your stories from someone, and report people or content.

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in Europe, the UK GDPR, or laws in California, Brazil, Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere), you may also have the right to object to or restrict how we use your information, to data portability, and to complain to your local data-protection authority. To make a request, contact us at privacy@ntchinda.com. We will reply within 30 days.

Where the GDPR applies, we rely on: performing our contract with you (running the service), our legitimate interests (keeping Ntchinda safe and working), your consent (optional permissions such as contacts and location, which you can withdraw at any time), and legal obligations.

12. International transfers

Your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including where our providers operate. When we transfer information from regions with data-protection laws, we use safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

13. Children

Ntchinda is not for children under 13, or under the minimum age required in your country (for example 16 in some EU countries). We do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child is using Ntchinda, contact us and we will delete the account.

14. Changes to this policy

If we make important changes, we will tell you in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy was last updated.

15. Contact us

[COMPANY LEGAL NAME], [ADDRESS]. Email: privacy@ntchinda.com. Website: www.ntchinda.com. [If required: our EU/UK representative or Data Protection Officer — NAME AND CONTACT.]

To report a security vulnerability, email security@ntchinda.com. Please give us a reasonable chance to fix it before sharing it publicly.