HiFriends Privacy Policy

Last Updated: December 10, 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to HiFriends! This Privacy Policy explains how HiFriends Inc. ("we," "us") handles your information when you use our app.

By using HiFriends, you agree to this policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the app.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information

• Name, email, username, password

Face Recognition Data

How it works:

• During setup, we capture photos of your face
• We convert these into mathematical data (face encodings)
• We only keep the encodings to recognize you
• Original face photos captured during enrollment are not retained after encoding extraction

Illinois residents: If you live in Illinois, you have special rights under BIPA law. We need your consent to collect face data, we'll never sell it, and you can delete it anytime.

Face Recognition Technology

Accuracy Notice:

• Face recognition is not 100% accurate
• Sometimes photos may be delivered to wrong people (false positives)
• Sometimes photos may not be delivered to right people (false negatives)
• Accuracy improves as you use the app

Photos

• Photos you take
• Photos you receive
• Photos you publish to your profile
• You can save photos you're in to your device
• HiFriends does not prevent or notify you of screenshots. Photos shared on any platform can be captured this way. Our cascade delete removes photos from HiFriends but cannot affect screenshots already taken.

Basic Usage Info

• How you use the app
• Performance data
• Device type and app version

3. How We Use Your Information

Core Features

• Recognize you in photos and deliver them to you
• Let you delete photos of yourself from everywhere
• Manage your account and keep it secure

Improvements

• Make face recognition more accurate
• Fix bugs and improve performance
• Understand how people use HiFriends

Communication

• Push notifications about new photos delivered to you (you can disable these in your settings)
• Email you about account issues
• Update you on important changes

4. Who We Share With

We never sell your data. We only share information with:

Technology Partners

We use trusted third-party services for:

• Cloud infrastructure and hosting
• Facial recognition processing
• Analytics and performance monitoring

These partners only process your data to provide services to us and cannot use it for their own purposes.

Service Providers

• Cloud hosting (stores photos and data)
• Communication services (emails, notifications)

Legal Requirements

We may share data if legally required by:

• Court orders
• Government requests
• Safety emergencies

Business Changes

If there are significant changes to HiFriends' business structure or ownership, we'll notify you before your data is affected by any different privacy practices.

5. Your Control & Rights

Delete Any Photo of Yourself

Cascade Delete: Remove a photo from everywhere on HiFriends:

• Your feed
• The photographer's camera roll
• Everyone else who received it
• Your profile page
• Anyone else's profile page where it was published

How to delete: From your Me Feed, select the photo and confirm deletion. Deletion propagates across the platform within 48 hours. No notifications are sent to the photographer.

Delete Your Account

Deletes everything:

• All your face data
• All your photos
• Your account info

"Not Me" Feedback

If you get a photo that's not you, mark it "Not Me" to:

• Remove it from your Me Feed
• Help improve recognition accuracy

Request Your Data

To request a copy of your data, email support@hifriends.ai with subject "Data Request" from your registered email address. We'll respond within 30 days.

6. Data Security

We use industry-standard security:

• Encryption in transit and at rest
• Secure cloud infrastructure
• Limited access controls

Important: No system is 100% secure. If there's a breach, we'll notify you as required by law.

7. Data Retention

• Face data: Kept while your account is active. Face encodings are permanently destroyed within 30 days of account deletion or when you exercise your deletion rights.
• Photos: Kept until you delete them
• Account info: Kept while your account is active
• Deleted data: Removed from our systems within 30 days

8. Children's Privacy

You must be 13 or older to use HiFriends. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you are at least 13 years old. If we learn someone under 13 created an account, we'll delete it immediately along with all associated data including biometric information.

Parents: Email us at support@hifriends.ai if your child under 13 has an account.

9. Location Information

We don't currently collect location data. In the future, we may add optional location features to improve your experience. If we do, we'll:

• Update this policy
• Ask your permission first
• Make it completely optional
• Let you control location sharing in your settings

10. Data Processing Location

Your data is processed and stored in the United States. By using HiFriends, you consent to your information being transferred to and processed in the US.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. We'll notify you of major changes through:

• In-app notifications
• Email
• Requiring you to review and accept

12. Contact Us

Questions about privacy or your data?

13. Consent

By creating an account, you consent to:

• Collection and use of face recognition data
• This Privacy Policy
• Receiving photos of yourself taken by other HiFriends users (this may include users you don't know)

Remember: You can always delete photos of yourself or your entire account.

Block Users (Coming Soon): You will be able to block other users to prevent them from delivering photos to you.

14. Beta Notice

HiFriends is currently in beta testing. Features may change as we improve the service. By participating in beta testing, you acknowledge that the app may have bugs, errors, or interruptions.