Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-11

This Privacy Policy explains how Hangul Hangout ("we," "us," "our") collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal information when you use our website and services (the "Service").

1. Who We Are

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information you provide directly

• Account information: email address, password (stored encrypted), nickname, role (learner/host).
• Kakao login (if you choose it): your Kakao member ID, Kakao nickname, and — only if you agree to share it and Kakao has verified it — your Kakao account email. If you don't share a verified email, we create an internal placeholder address for your account and never send email to it; you can optionally add a contact email on your profile page for notifications.
• Google login (if you choose it): your Google account email and name.
• Profile information: learning goal, Korean proficiency level (self-reported or from the AI level check).
• Content you create: text messages, voice messages, and images you post in chat rooms.
• Payment information: if you subscribe to a paid plan, our payment processor (PayPal) collects and processes your payment details directly. We never receive or store your full card number.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Usage data: which chat rooms you join, message timestamps, feature usage (e.g. level check completions, translation button use), and counts used to enforce plan-based usage limits (daily voice/image upload caps, number of chat rooms joined, rooms created, message frequency).
• Device/browser data: IP address, browser type, and similar technical data, collected for security and service-quality purposes.

2.3 Information from AI features

When you use the AI level check, your conversation responses are sent to our AI provider (currently Google Gemini via the Lovable AI Gateway) to generate a level assessment.

2.4 Automated content scanning

To protect members, message text is automatically scanned on your device, at the moment you send it, for:

• Prohibited language: a profanity/explicit-content filter. Matching messages are blocked and never sent or stored.
• Contact-information patterns: email addresses, phone numbers, messenger IDs (KakaoTalk, LINE, Discord, Telegram), and external links. These are not blocked — you see a warning and can choose to send anyway.

This scanning is automated pattern matching. No human reviews your messages because of it, and the scan itself does not create a separate record.

2.5 Reports you submit

When you report a message, we collect and store the reported message reference, the room, your account as reporter, the reason you selected, and any detail you write. Reports are reviewed by our operations team so that we can act on safety issues.

2.6 Blocks you create

When you block another member, we store your account as blocker, the blocked account, the time of the block, and — if the block was made together with a report — the report reason that triggered it. This record is required to enforce the block on our servers (hiding messages in both directions, preventing room entry, and refusing messages between blocked members). Only you can see your own block list, and you can remove a block at any time from your profile page.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information above to:

• Create and maintain your account.
• Operate core features (chat rooms, level check, notifications).
• Process payments and manage subscriptions.
• Send you service-related emails (email verification, password reset, subscription receipts).
• Maintain the safety and integrity of the Service (content filtering, review of reported messages, abuse prevention).
• Apply the usage limits attached to your plan (daily media uploads, concurrent chat rooms, rooms created, message rate, AI level-check cooldown).
• Improve the Service based on aggregated, anonymized usage patterns.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (where applicable)

Where required by law (for example, under GDPR for users in the UK/EU), we process your data on the following bases: performance of a contract (providing the Service you signed up for), legitimate interests (service improvement, security), and consent (for optional features, such as browser notifications).

5. Third Parties and International Transfers

We use the following categories of service providers, who may process your data on our behalf:

5.1 International transfer of personal information (국외이전)

You can refuse these transfers by not using the Service or by deleting your account, but the Service cannot be provided without them.

Because we serve learners internationally, your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own, including the United States and South Korea.

6. Data Retention

• Account data: retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, we aim to delete your personal information within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
• Chat messages (text): retained as part of the chat room unless deleted by you or the room is deleted by its Host.
• Voice and image files: these expire automatically based on the uploader's plan at the time of upload — 7 days on the Explorer (free) plan, 30 days on paid plans (Hangout / Founding Member). When a file expires it is deleted from file storage; the message itself remains in the room marked as expired.
• Reports: report records are retained after review so that we can recognize repeat patterns of abuse.
• Payment records: subscription and billing records are retained as required by tax and accounting law.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your account and associated data ("right to be forgotten").
• Object to or restrict certain processing.
• Request a copy of your data in a portable format.

How to exercise these rights: We do not currently offer self-service account deletion or data export inside the app. To exercise any of the rights above, email jin@hangulhangout.com with your request. We will verify your identity and respond within a reasonable timeframe, generally within 30 days.

8. Deletion

When you delete a chat message, image, or voice clip, we remove it from both our database and file storage. When a Host deletes a chat room, all associated messages, images, and voice clips in that room are deleted from both our database and file storage as well.

When you request account deletion (see Section 7), we process this manually: we remove your profile and personal information, and delete any images or voice clips you personally uploaded from file storage, within 30 days of your request, subject to legal retention requirements (e.g. payment/tax records).

9. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed at children under 14. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 14.

10. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, including encrypted password storage and access controls (Row Level Security) restricting data access to authorized contexts only. No system is 100% secure.

11. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use essential cookies/local storage to keep you logged in and remember your preferences. We also remember how you first found us (for example a link's campaign tag or the referring site) to understand which posts and ads work.

We use the Reddit Pixel to measure advertising performance (광고 성과 측정을 위해 Reddit Pixel을 사용합니다). It sends page visits, sign-ups and completed purchases (amount and currency) to Reddit Inc. It is not loaded for visitors in the EU/EEA, UK or Switzerland.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Material changes will be communicated via the Service or by email before they take effect.

13. Contact

Questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy can be sent to jin@hangulhangout.com.