1. Who we are
Hey Hala is built and run by MetaEmpires. We decide how the personal data described here is used, and we’re responsible for it. If you have a question about this policy or your data, email us at hello@heyhala.me.
2. What we collect
We collect only what we need to run Hala for you:
- Your WhatsApp number and profile name. When you message Hala, WhatsApp shares your number and the name on your WhatsApp profile with us. Your number is how we recognise you, and your account is created from it.
- Your conversation with Hala. The messages you send and Hala’s replies, with their times and delivery status. If you send a voice note, photo, file, location or contact, we receive it with your message.
- What you ask Hala to keep. Reminders, tasks, lists, notes and details you ask her to remember, and the files you send her or ask her to keep.
- Your subscription and payments. Your plan, when it starts and ends, and the payments you make: amount, date and how you paid. We don’t store card numbers.
- Early access sign-ups. Your email address and, if you answer them, your answers to our short survey about what you’d use Hala for.
- Your dashboard account. If you sign in at app.heyhala.me, your email address and name. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with us.
- Your Google data. Only if you connect a Google account: the calendar events, emails and Drive files Hala needs to do what you ask. See Google accounts you connect.
- Technical data. Our servers and hosting providers record technical details, like IP addresses, browser type and errors, to keep the service running and secure.
3. How we use it
- To reply to you and do what you ask.
- To remind you when you asked her to, and, if you connect a calendar, before your events and in your summary of the day.
- To recognise you, run your account and subscription, and record your payments.
- To send you service messages on WhatsApp, like your welcome message or a note that your subscription has ended.
- To email you about early access, if you joined it.
- To keep Hey Hala secure, prevent abuse and fix problems.
- To meet our legal obligations.
Where the law asks us for a legal basis, we rely on providing the service you asked for, our legitimate interest in keeping it secure and working well, your consent where we ask for it, and our legal obligations.
4. What we don’t do
- We don’t sell your personal data or share it for advertising.
- We don’t show you ads.
- We don’t use your conversations to train AI models, and our AI provider doesn’t either.
- Our team doesn’t read your conversations, except when you ask us to help with a problem, to investigate abuse or a security issue, or when the law requires it.
5. How Hala’s AI works
Hala’s replies are written by an AI model from our AI provider. To reply to you, we send it your message, the recent messages in your conversation (including captions, locations and contacts you shared) and a few details that help her answer well: your name and your time zone.
When your request needs it, we also send what Hala looked up for you: for example your tasks and reminders, your calendar events, an email you asked her to read or passages from one of your files. We never send our AI provider your passwords or the keys to your connected accounts.
Our AI provider processes this on our behalf and doesn’t use it to train its models. We ask it not to store our requests; it may keep them for a limited time to detect abuse, under its own policies.
AI can make mistakes. Check anything important before you rely on it. Our Terms say more about this.
7. Google accounts you connect
Nothing is connected by default. You can connect one or more Google accounts from your dashboard or from a link Hala sends you, and Google shows you what you’re allowing before you agree. You can allow some parts and not others.
What Hala can access, and why
- Google Calendar (your calendars and their events): to tell you what’s on, remind you before events, include them in your summary of the day, and add or change events when you ask. Events with no guests are added straight away. Hala shows you the details and waits for your OK before anything that invites or notifies other people.
- Gmail, reading (your emails and their attachments): to find and read an email, or fetch an attachment, when you ask. If you turn on email alerts, Hala also checks for new mail every few minutes and tells you on WhatsApp who it’s from and its subject, only for the senders you chose (or every email, if you chose that). Hala doesn’t go through your mail for anything else.
- Gmail, sending (send email as you): to send an email Hala drafted for you. You see the exact email first, and it’s sent only when you tap Send.
- Google Drive (finding and downloading your files): to find a file when you ask and send it to you on WhatsApp. Hala never changes or deletes anything in your Drive.
- Your Google account’s email address and ID: to show which account is connected and keep your accounts apart.
What we store
- The access keys Google gives us, encrypted. They’re never sent to our AI provider.
- A copy of the events on the calendars you connect (title, time, place, whether it repeats, its alert times and how many guests), kept up to date so Hala can remind you on time.
- What Hala read for you, like an email or a list of results, kept with your conversation so she can follow up on it.
- Files you ask Hala to get from Gmail or Drive, as a private, encrypted copy in Memories, in your dashboard.
- Emails Hala drafted for you, and whether they were sent.
- For email alerts, the senders you chose and, for each alert Hala sent you, the email’s sender and subject.
Who it’s shared with
To answer you, Hala sends our AI provider the Google data your request needs, like the email you asked about or your events for the day. It processes it only to write Hala’s reply and doesn’t use it to train its models. Our hosting provider stores it for us. What Hala sends you on WhatsApp, like a reminder for an event or an email alert, is carried by WhatsApp. We don’t share your Google data with anyone else, unless the law requires it.
Disconnecting and deleting
You can disconnect a Google account at any time from Connections in your dashboard, or remove Hey Hala’s access in your Google account settings. When you disconnect in Hey Hala, we revoke our access with Google, delete our access keys and stop calendar updates, and Hala stops using anything from that account. Nothing in your Google account is deleted. Files you saved stay in Memories until you delete them. Everything else we kept from your Google account is deleted when your account is deleted, or sooner if you email hello@heyhala.me to ask.
Google API Services User Data Policy
Hey Hala’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use Google data only to provide the features you use, we don’t sell it or use it for advertising, we don’t use it, or let anyone else use it, to develop, improve or train AI models, and people on our team can’t read it unless you ask us to, it’s needed for security, or the law requires it.
8. How long we keep it
- Your account and conversations: for as long as your account is open.
- When you ask us to delete your account: we delete it, with your conversations and everything Hala kept for you, within 30 days.
- Files you saved: until you delete them, or your account.
- Payment records: for as long as the law requires us to keep accounting records.
- Early access sign-ups: until you ask us to remove yours, or we no longer need it.
- Backups and logs: deleted data can remain in backups and logs for a short time until they’re replaced.
9. Security
Data travels over encrypted connections between you, WhatsApp and our servers. Each account’s data is kept separate from everyone else’s, and only the people on our team who need it to run the service can access it. The keys to your connected accounts and the files you save are encrypted when we store them. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we’ll tell you as the law requires.
10. Your choices and rights
You can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your data;
- correct data that’s wrong;
- delete your account and your data;
- remove you from early access emails;
- stop or limit some uses of your data, or withdraw consent you gave, where the law gives you that right.
Email hello@heyhala.me and include the WhatsApp number on your account. We may need to confirm it’s you, for example with a message to that number. We reply within 30 days. You can stop using Hala at any time, and if you’re unhappy with how we handled your request, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live.
11. Children
Hey Hala is for people 18 and older. We don’t knowingly collect data from children. If you think a child has used Hey Hala, contact us and we’ll delete their data.
12. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll tell you on WhatsApp or by email before it takes effect.
13. Contact us
Questions, requests or concerns about your privacy: hello@heyhala.me.