Your information, explained clearly.

Who we are and what this policy covers

1Howz Inc. ("1Howz", "we", "us", or "our") provides the 1Howz applications, websites, public meeting-join pages, and related services (together, the "Service"). This policy applies when you create or use a 1Howz account, participate in a group, visit our websites, join a supported meeting as a guest, make a payment through an enabled payment provider, or contact us for support.

A group, association, cooperative, union, club, church, estate, alumni body, community, or other organization may decide which member records and content it creates in 1Howz and who in that group may access them. In those situations, contact the group administrator first if your request concerns a group-controlled record. 1Howz remains responsible for operating and securing the Service.

Information we handle

Social sign-in

If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive the account identifier and profile information that the provider makes available based on your settings, such as your name or email address. We do not receive your Google or Apple password.

AI-assisted meeting tools

If an authorized user deliberately asks 1Howz to summarize meeting minutes or suggest agenda items, the text submitted for that request is sent to Google's Gemini service to generate the response. Do not submit information to this feature unless you are authorized to do so. The AI result may be inaccurate and should be reviewed before it is saved or shared.

How we use information

We use the information described above to:

• create accounts, authenticate users, recover access, and maintain profiles;
• provide group membership, role, invitation, approval, and permission features;
• deliver chats, feeds, polls, events, documents, meetings, calls, attendance, marketplace, finance, and payment-related functionality;
• match only the contacts you selected to existing 1Howz accounts;
• send requested transactional email, SMS, push, incoming-call, reply, mention, meeting, and group notifications;
• show schedules in an appropriate local time zone and support location-based attendance when enabled;
• operate guest meeting admission, reconnection, safety, and participation logs;
• detect spam, fraud, unauthorized access, abuse, technical failures, and policy violations;
• moderate reported content, enforce group or platform rules, and preserve audit records;
• answer support requests and communicate important Service or policy changes;
• measure reliability and improve performance, accessibility, and user experience; and
• comply with law, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Depending on applicable law, these activities are based on performing the Service you requested, your consent (including device permissions), our legitimate interests in operating and protecting 1Howz, and compliance with legal obligations.

Who can see information inside 1Howz

• You and intended recipients: direct messages and private conversation content are available to conversation participants, subject to moderation and safety access.
• Group members: group posts, comments, polls, events, meetings, announcements, profiles, documents, and marketplace items may be visible to the audience selected for them.
• Authorized group roles: leaders, finance officers, meeting administrators, moderators, or other assigned roles may access member, finance, attendance, moderation, or audit records needed for their permissions.
• Public viewers: content intentionally made global or public, public member profile information, shared invitation previews, and public guest-meeting previews may be visible without an account. A guest preview does not disclose the meeting agenda, files, invited-member list, or private group details.
• Meeting participants: people in a live room can see active participant display names and live media or hand-raise state. Guests do not receive authenticated chat, polls, documents, the offline member roster, or other private group data through the guest experience.

When information is shared

We do not sell or rent personal information. We disclose information only as needed to provide the Service, at your direction, for safety and legal reasons, or as part of a business transaction. Categories of recipients include:

• Cloud hosting, storage, database, and delivery providers that run the Service and store uploaded content;
• Google Firebase and Apple Push Notification service for device notifications and incoming-call alerts;
• LiveKit and communications infrastructure providers for real-time audio, video, room events, and connectivity;
• Google services for optional Google sign-in, map or geocoding functions, and deliberately requested Gemini AI assistance;
• Apple for optional Sign in with Apple and Apple device services;
• Paystack, Stripe, and Flutterwave, where enabled, to initialize and process payments and return transaction status;
• Email and SMS delivery providers, including configured providers such as Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, Termii, or Twilio, to deliver messages you request or that are necessary to operate your account;
• Group administrators and other users as explained in the visibility section above;
• Authorities, advisers, or affected parties when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights and safety, investigate misuse, or address fraud; and
• A successor organization if 1Howz is involved in a merger, financing, reorganization, or sale, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections and notice where required.

Service providers may process data only to perform their contracted functions or as otherwise permitted by law. Their own terms and privacy notices also apply when you interact directly with them, such as entering payment details or using a social sign-in account.

Device permissions and local storage

1Howz asks for device access in context, when a related feature needs it:

• Contacts: lets you choose people to add to a group. The permission is not required for manual entry.
• Camera, microphone, and speech recognition: supports profile or content capture, voice notes, calls, meetings, and optional voice entry for minutes.
• Photos and files: lets you select media, receipts, documents, and attachments to upload.
• Location: supports venue selection and location-verified attendance only when you use those features.
• Notifications and call capabilities: provides messages, meeting updates, reminders, and incoming-call alerts.

You can deny or later revoke permissions in device settings, although the related feature may not work. The apps and website also use secure device storage, local preferences, browser storage, and essential cookies or session technologies to keep you signed in, preserve drafts or meeting state, remember settings, and protect the Service. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.

Retention and deletion

We keep information for as long as needed to provide the Service, maintain group records, meet legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, prevent abuse, and enforce agreements. The period depends on the record and why it exists.

• Account information remains while the account is active. Using Delete Account removes the account and associated profile information from active systems, subject to records that must be retained for legal, security, fraud-prevention, transaction, backup, or other legitimate purposes.
• Group records and content remain until deleted by an authorized person, the relevant group is deleted, or retention is no longer necessary. Leaving a group does not automatically erase records the group needs to preserve, such as financial, attendance, audit, or conversation history.
• Edited, deleted, reported, or moderated content may leave a visible tombstone, private revision, report snapshot, or audit record so discussions remain understandable and moderation decisions can be reviewed.
• Guest meeting records, including display name and participation history, remain with the meeting until that meeting is deleted. Pending guest requests expire automatically, but their administrative record may remain with the meeting.
• Payment and finance records may be retained for accounting, audit, dispute, tax, anti-fraud, and legal requirements even after an account or group relationship changes.
• Security logs, temporary IP-based rate-limit keys, and session data are kept only as long as reasonably needed for security, diagnostics, and abuse prevention. Temporary IP-derived time-zone or rate-limit cache entries are not used as permanent guest identity records.
• Backups may retain residual copies for a limited period until they rotate out under our recovery schedule. Those copies are isolated from ordinary use.

We may de-identify information so it can no longer reasonably be linked to you. We may keep and use de-identified or aggregated information for analytics, security, and service improvement where permitted by law.

Your choices and privacy rights

You can use 1Howz controls to:

• review and update account or profile information;
• choose what you post, upload, share, or submit to an AI-assisted feature;
• manage notifications and available group or feed preferences;
• revoke camera, microphone, contacts, photos, files, location, or notification access in device settings;
• leave groups where the feature and your role permit it;
• block users and report content or conduct;
• delete eligible content; and
• delete your account from the app's account menu.

Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, portability, withdrawal of consent, or review of a decision about your personal information. You may also complain to an applicable data protection authority. We may need to verify your identity and may decline or limit a request where the law permits—for example, where disclosure would affect another person's rights or a record must be retained by law.

Security and international processing

We use technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect information, including encrypted transport, password hashing, access controls, scoped permissions, secure tokens, audit records, rate limits, and data minimization. No service can guarantee absolute security. Protect your device and login credentials, do not share one-time codes, and notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access.

1Howz and its service providers may process information in countries other than the one where you live. Where required, we use contracts or other approved safeguards for cross-border processing and apply this policy to the information regardless of where it is processed.

Children's privacy

1Howz is not directed to children under 13. A person below the minimum age required to consent to an online service in their country should use 1Howz only with the authorization and supervision required by law and by their organization. We do not knowingly create independent accounts for children in violation of applicable law. If you believe a child has provided personal information improperly, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

Changes to this policy and contact

We may update this policy as 1Howz changes or legal requirements develop. The effective date at the top identifies the current version. If a change materially affects how we use information, we will provide additional notice through the Service, by email, or by another appropriate method before the change takes effect where required.