YouChat Privacy Policy

Effective Date: February 21, 2020
Updated Date: August 23, 2024

Introduction

The operator of YouChat understands the importance of personal information to users (also referred to as "you") and is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. This "YouChat Privacy Policy" (hereinafter referred to as "this Privacy Policy" or "this Policy," collectively referred to as "this Privacy Policy" with its updated versions) applies to the products and services provided by the operator of YouChat that you use. This Privacy Policy will detail the policies and measures of the operator of YouChat in acquiring, managing, and protecting your personal information.

Before using the services provided by YouChat, please read and understand this Privacy Policy carefully (especially the clauses in bold), to fully understand how we collect and use your information, and choose whether to agree to the relevant content. By choosing "Agree" or proceeding to the "Next Step" (or performing other similar operations with different names but of the same nature), you indicate that you have fully understood and agree to sign this agreement, agree to be bound by this agreement as a party to the agreement, and agree to allow the operator of YouChat to process your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with any terms of this agreement or cannot accurately understand any terms of this agreement, please do not access and/or use the YouChat application and its related services.

Minors under the age of 18 should not register for the YouChat APP.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us through the methods provided in this Privacy Policy or other contact/feedback channels provided within YouChat, and we will respond to you as soon as possible.

Part One: Definitions

Personal Information refers to all kinds of information recorded by electronic or other means that can identify a specific natural person's identity independently or in combination with other information, or reflect the activities of a specific natural person.

Sensitive Personal Information refers to personal information that, if leaked, illegally provided, or abused, may endanger personal and property safety, easily lead to damage to personal reputation, physical and mental health, or discriminatory treatment. The sensitive information mainly involved in this Privacy Policy includes: personal identity information and related identification (including ID card, passport, driver's license, household register, etc.); network identification information (including account name, account nickname, email address, and related password protection questions and answers, etc.); other information (including contacts, personal phone numbers, mobile numbers, location information, web browsing records, positioning information, bank accounts, etc.).

Part Two: Privacy Policy for Personal Information

This policy will help you understand the following:

1. How we collect and use your personal information

2. The use and management of COOKIES and similar technologies

3. How we share, transfer, and publicly disclose your personal information

4. How we protect and store your personal information

5. How you can access and control your personal information

6. Special protection for minors' personal information

7. How your personal information is transferred globally

8. How this policy is updated

9. How to contact us

I. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

(1) Information We Collect

1. We collect the information necessary to achieve product functions based on principles of legality, propriety, and necessity:

(1) Information you provide when registering an account: To complete the account creation so that we can provide services to you, the nickname and mobile phone number you provide when registering for a YouChat account, and you may choose to set or modify your avatar, nickname, gender, personal signature, etc. Your account information is only used to ensure account security and for interaction within YouChat.

(2) Information you provide through our contact/feedback channels or when participating in our events: The questionnaire you fill out when participating in our online activities may contain your name, phone number, and address information.

(3) Some of our services may require you to provide specific sensitive personal information to achieve specific functions. If you choose not to provide such information, you may not be able to use certain functions in the service normally, but it will not affect your use of other functions in the service. If you voluntarily provide your sensitive personal information, you agree that we will process your sensitive personal information for the purposes and in the manner described in this Policy.

2. Information We Obtain When You Use the Services

(1) Network logs and device information

When you use our services, we may automatically collect the following relevant information and store it

• Client hardware characteristics: device model, device ID, device hardware serial number, operating system version, battery, and signal strength information.
• Software feature information: software version number, browser type. To ensure the security of the operating environment or provide the services needed, we collect information about the mobile applications and other software you use.
• Service log information: the information you search for and view when using our services, service failure information, and other similar service log information.
• Other log and device information: In addition to the above information, other log and device-related information we may collect mainly includes IMEI, MAC, SIM card IMSI identification code, device settings, process, and software list, unique device identifier.

(2) Location Information

Only when you use services related to location, we may record the location information of your device to provide you with related services. When you use the service, we may obtain your geographic location information through IP address, GPS, WLAN, or base stations; the information provided by you or other users when using the service may contain your geographic location information, such as the location information contained in your account information or shared geographic tag information.

(3) Album and Camera Permissions

Only when you use features related to uploading or downloading pictures, we will request access to your album. You can choose to allow us to access it, or you can choose to refuse. If you refuse, we will not access your album. If you want to take new pictures in YouChat for use or use the "Scan" function to recognize QR codes, we will request access to your camera. In this case, you can choose to allow or refuse our access. The functions currently involving pictures are avatar setting, picture saving, picture sending, and "Scan". The functions involving camera permissions are image setting and "Scan".

(4) Microphone Permissions

Only when you use features related to recording or audio editing, we will request access to your microphone. You can choose to allow us to access it, or you can choose to refuse. If you refuse, we will not access your microphone. The functions currently involving microphone permissions are calling and sending voice messages.

(5) Other Related Information

To help you better use our products or services, we will collect relevant information other than those listed above. We may collect relevant information for research and statistical analysis to improve products and make business decisions. Meanwhile, when you contact us, we will record your conversation and collect other necessary information to resolve the issue to verify your identity.

In any case, we will still adhere to the principles of "minimal extent" and "necessity" when collecting the above information and will take relevant data protection measures in accordance with regulations.

3. Exceptions to Consent

Please be fully aware that in the following circumstances, we may collect and use personal information without (again) obtaining your authorization and consent:

(1) Related to national security and national defense security;

(2) Related to public safety, public health, and major public interests;

(3) Related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial, and execution of judgments;

(4) Necessary for safeguarding the life, property, and other major legitimate rights and interests of the personal information subject or other individuals when it is difficult to obtain their consent;

(5) The personal information collected is information that the personal information subject has disclosed to the public by themselves;

(6) Collecting your personal information from legally disclosed information, such as legal news reports, government information disclosure, etc.;

(7) Necessary for signing and performing the contract at your request;

(8) Necessary for maintaining the safe and stable operation of the services provided, such as detecting and dealing with service failures;

(9) Other circumstances stipulated by laws and regulations.

(2) How We Use the Collected Information

1. We strictly abide by the provisions of laws and regulations and agreements with users, and use the collected information for the following purposes. If we use your information beyond the following purposes, we will explain it to you again and obtain your consent:

(1) To provide services to you

(2) To meet your personalized needs: language settings, location settings, personalized help services.

(3) Product development and service optimization: When our system fails, we will record and analyze the information generated during the system failure to optimize our services.

(4) Security assurance: We will use your information for identity verification, security prevention, anti-fraud monitoring, archiving, backup, customer security services, etc. This includes detecting malicious programs or viruses in the security software you download or install or identifying fraudulent information for you.

2. To provide you with a better experience, improve our services, or for other purposes with your consent, we may use the information collected through certain services in our other services under the premise of complying with relevant laws and regulations. This includes using the information you provide while using a particular service to display personalized content or advertisements in another service or for user research analysis and statistical services.
3. To ensure the security of the service and help us better understand the operation of our applications, we may record relevant information. This includes how frequently you use the application, fault information, overall usage, performance data, and the source of the application. We will not combine the information stored in the analytics software with the personally identifiable information you provide in the application.

II. Use and Management of COOKIES and Similar Technologies

(1) Cookies

Cookies are a neutral technology that allows a website server to store data on the client or read data from the client. Cookies files store some information related to a user's visit to a website. The content of Cookies is usually encrypted, and secure Cookies technology will provide more convenient services to users when they are online.

(2) Use of Cookies

To ensure the normal operation of the website, we or our third-party partners may place secure Cookies and related technologies on your computer or mobile device to collect your information to provide you with a more personalized user experience and service. Cookies typically contain an identifier, site name, and some numbers and characters. We strictly require third-party partners to comply with the relevant provisions of this policy.

Using such technology can help you avoid repeating the steps and processes of filling in personal information and entering search content. Through this technology, we can provide you with a "one-click login" function and help you record search history.

We will not use Cookies for any purpose other than those described in this policy. You can manage Cookies through your browser settings, including whether to enable them and choose to disable them. However, if you disable Cookies, you may not be able to use some services. For detailed information on how to change browser settings, please visit the relevant settings page of your browser.

(3) Do Not Track

Some web browsers have a Do Not Track feature, which can send Do Not Track requests to websites. Currently, major internet standards organizations have not established relevant policies on how websites should respond to such requests. However, if your browser has enabled Do Not Track, we will respect your choice.

III. How We Share, Transfer, and Disclose Your Personal Information

We will only share, transfer, and disclose the necessary personal information and be bound by the purposes stated in this policy when conducting related sharing, transfer, and public disclosure actions.

(1) Use and Provision of Personal Information

Without your consent, the operator of YouChat will not share your personal information with any company, organization, or individual outside of itself, except in the following circumstances:

1. Sharing with explicit authorization and consent: with your or your guardian's authorization or consent. This includes processing your disputes with others or providing in accordance with the agreement you signed or other legal documents;
2. Sharing under statutory circumstances: As required by relevant laws and regulations, for litigation activities, or to meet the requirements of judicial or administrative organs based on legal procedures. This includes providing necessary protection for the interests, property, and safety of YouChat or its partners, you, other YouChat users, or the general public within the limits permitted by laws and regulations;
3. Sharing with affiliates of the operator of YouChat: To provide services to you, recommend information that may be of interest to you, or protect the personal and property safety of you, the operator of YouChat's affiliates, or other users from harm, the operator of YouChat may share your personal information with its affiliates;
4. Sharing with authorized partners of the operator of YouChat: We will entrust authorized partners to provide certain services to you or perform certain functions on our behalf. To protect your personal information, before sharing your personal information with partners, we will sign a corresponding personal information use or confidentiality agreement with them, requiring them to process personal information following our instructions, this policy, and any other related confidentiality and security measures.

Currently, our authorized partners include the following types:

(1) Authorized partners in advertising and analysis services. Unless permitted by you or following regulations to de-identify or anonymize data, we will not share your personally identifiable information with partners providing advertising and analysis services. We may provide these partners with information about the coverage and effectiveness of their reports but will not provide your personally identifiable information, or we will aggregate this information after anonymization to ensure it does not identify you personally. These partners may combine the above information with other data they legally obtain for advertising or decision-making advice.

(2) Suppliers and service providers. Based on business needs, we may send information to suppliers and service providers that support our business. These supports include providing technical infrastructure services, analyzing the usage of our services, measuring the effectiveness of advertisements and services, providing customer service, facilitating payments, or conducting academic research and surveys. In particular, when storage services are involved, we will take strict confidentiality measures for the content of storage services in accordance with regulations. If third-party storage space is leased, we will strictly require the third party to have minimal access to the data and maintain strict confidentiality.

(3) Other partners. As our business continues to develop, when a certain cooperation or transaction requires us to share your personal information with a third party, we will notify you of the relevant situation through push notifications, announcements, etc., and continue to protect or require new managers to continue to protect your personal information in accordance with the laws and regulations and no less than the standards required by this policy.

YouChat Third-Party SDK List:

To ensure the realization of application functions and stable and safe operation, some functions will access and be provided by third-party software development kits (SDKs) to achieve related purposes. We will strictly monitor the security of the software development kits (SDKs) that partners obtain information from to protect data security.

Reminder: Due to version upgrades, policy adjustments, and other reasons, the type of data processed by third-party SDKs may change. Please refer to their official announcements for the official description.

SDKs included in the Android version

(2) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any company, organization, or individual, except in the following circumstances:

1. With your explicit consent;
2. In case of mergers, acquisitions, or bankruptcy liquidation, if personal information transfer is involved, we will require the new company or organization holding your personal information to continue to be bound by this policy; otherwise, we will require the company or organization to seek authorization and consent from you again;
3. To provide as agreed in relevant agreements signed with you (including electronically signed agreements) or other legal documents;
4. To provide as required by applicable laws, regulations, legal procedures, or mandatory administrative or judicial requirements.

(3) Public Disclosure

We will only publicly disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

1. With your explicit consent or based on your voluntary choice;
2. Disclosure as required by laws and regulations: in circumstances where disclosure is necessary due to laws, legal procedures, lawsuits, or mandatory requirements by competent government authorities, we may publicly disclose your personal information.

(4) Sharing, Transfer, and Public Disclosure Without Prior Authorization and Consent

Based on the provisions of relevant laws and regulations, sharing, transfer, and public disclosure of your personal information in the following situations do not require your prior authorization and consent:

1. Related to national security and national defense security;
2. Related to public safety, public health, and major public interests;
3. Related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial, and execution of judgments;
4. Necessary for safeguarding the life, property, and other major legitimate rights and interests of the personal information subject or other individuals when it is difficult to obtain their consent;
5. Your personal information disclosed to the public by yourself;
6. Collecting personal information from legally disclosed information, such as legal news reports, government information disclosure, etc.

According to the provisions of laws and regulations, sharing and transferring de-identified personal information and ensuring that the data recipient cannot restore and re-identify the personal information subject are not considered as external sharing, transfer, and public disclosure of personal information. The storage and processing of such data do not require additional notification and consent from you.

IV. How We Protect and Store Your Personal Information

(1) Protection of Personal Information

1. The operator of YouChat will conduct level evaluation and security assessment of YouChat in accordance with relevant regulations;
2. We will take reasonable and feasible measures to avoid collecting irrelevant personal information as much as possible. Personal information collected and generated within the territory of the People's Republic of China will be stored within the territory of the People's Republic of China;
3. The operator of YouChat has strict data protection and management measures. We will take security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification, damage, or loss and other forms of illegal processing;

4. In case of unfortunate circumstances where the data obtained and stored by the operator of YouChat is compromised, or external actions (such as hacker attacks) cause the non-public information of users to be disclosed to unrelated third parties, the operator of YouChat will initiate an emergency response plan, form an emergency response team, start procedures, conduct internal investigations, report and notify regulatory authorities, cooperate with regulatory authorities, and reduce the impact of the incident on users. At the same time, relevant users will be informed through push notifications, emails, announcements, etc.;

5. If our products or services cease to operate, we will promptly cease activities to collect your personal information and notify you of the cessation of operations through push notifications, announcements, etc. In any case, we will delete or anonymize your personal information in our possession after terminating the service or operation.

(2) Storage of Personal Information

The operator of YouChat will take appropriate security measures and technical means to store and protect your personal information to prevent loss, misuse, unauthorized access or leakage, alteration, or destruction. We will store personal information for the storage period corresponding to the different levels of personal information in strict accordance with the law and relevant regulations only for the period necessary to achieve the purposes of this Privacy Policy. We only allow employees and third parties who need to know this information to access personal information and require them to fulfill corresponding confidentiality obligations.

V. How You Can Access and Control Your Personal Information

You can access, update/correct, delete your personal information, or change the scope of your authorization and consent through relevant channels.

1. Viewing and Modifying Personal Information

After you complete account registration and conduct reasonable and necessary identity verification, you can view, modify, or delete the personal information you have submitted. Generally, you can browse and modify the information you have submitted at any time. Still, for security and identity verification (such as number appeal services), you may not be able to modify some initial registration information and verification information provided during registration.

2. Updating and Correcting Personal Information

You have the right to update or authorize the operator of YouChat to update and correct your personal information. Based on the need for personal information protection, we may require you to perform identity verification before updating/correcting certain important information.

3. Deleting Personal Information

(1) You can delete the personal information you submitted when registering an account or posting a status;

(2) In the following situations, you can request us to delete your personal information:

• We collect and use your personal information without obtaining your explicit consent;
• Our processing of personal information seriously violates our agreement with you;
• Our processing of personal information violates laws and regulations;
• You have voluntarily canceled your account;

After you or we assist you in deleting the relevant information, due to applicable laws and security technologies, we may not be able to delete the corresponding information from the backup system immediately. We will securely store your personal information and further isolate it, keeping it from being retrieved or accessed within the product until the backup can be cleared or anonymized.

4. Withdraw or Change Authorization

You can set and modify the device permissions allowed to be accessed by the YouChat client through the device's own permission settings. After the relevant settings and modifications take effect, the operator of YouChat will no longer be able to provide you with the corresponding services. Withdrawing or changing your authorization will not affect the personal information collection and use behavior conducted previously based on your authorization.

5. Cancel Account

You can cancel your YouChat account through the corresponding process/path of the client, find the path as follows: "My - General - Cancel User". The operator of YouChat promises not to set unreasonable obstacles in the user cancellation process and not to make additional requirements for users who request cancellation. After receiving a user cancellation request, the review and processing will be completed within 15 working days. After the user account is canceled, personal information will be promptly deleted or anonymized. Personal information that needs to be retained by law will not be used in daily business activities again.

Canceling your account is irreversible. Once your account is canceled, the operator of YouChat will no longer display your personal information and deleted information on the platform interface, and you will not be able to obtain related services of YouChat through the canceled account. For your canceled account and associated information, we will keep the information in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations until the legal retention period expires, after which it will be deleted or de-identified as soon as possible.

VI. How We Handle Minors' Personal Information

If you are a minor under the age of 18, please do not register for YouChat.

VII. How Your Personal Information Is Transferred Globally

The operator of YouChat will store personal information collected and generated within the People's Republic of China during its operations in China, except in the following circumstances:

1. Explicitly stipulated by applicable laws;
2. With your explicit authorization;
3. Your voluntary actions through the internet.

In the above circumstances, the operator of YouChat will ensure that your personal information is adequately protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

VIII. How This Policy Is Updated

Due to changes in product form, legal revisions, and other factors, we may revise this policy from time to time. When this policy changes, we will inform you of the changes through pop-up windows, system notifications, etc., and provide the full text of the privacy policy. Please read it carefully. At the same time, we will synchronize the latest version of the privacy policy on this page for your reference at any time.

If you have objections to the revised privacy policy, you should promptly stop using our related services. If you agree to the newly revised policy or continue to use our services, it means that you have fully read, understood, and agreed to our policy.

IX. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, you can send the relevant content to: [email protected]

After receiving your question, we will verify your identity and promptly process your feedback and respond to you.