The I Love You App — Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026-10-27
The I Love You App is operated by an independent developer. This policy explains what The I Love You App collects, why, how long it is kept, and what you can and cannot ask us to do about it.
We have tried to write this so that it describes what the app actually does rather than what a privacy policy usually says. Where there are limits on what we can currently do — requests we cannot verify from outside the app, bans without a formal appeal process — it says so.
1. What The I Love You App is
You hold a button, record up to three seconds of your voice, and The I Love You App delivers that recording to another user. In exchange you receive one other user's recording. If nobody is waiting to be matched, you receive one of our own pre-recorded default clips instead.
There are no profiles, no usernames, no friend lists, and no way to choose who you are matched with or to reply to a specific person.
2. We do not ask who you are
The I Love You App signs you in anonymously. We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, contacts, photos, precise location, or advertising identifier. There is no sign-up form, and there is nothing to log into.
One qualification, stated here rather than buried later: our analytics provider derives an approximate, city-level location from your IP address, the way any web request reveals one. We do not ask for the location permission, the app never calls a location API, and we cannot see where you are more precisely than that. Section 3.8 explains what else analytics records.
Your account is a random identifier generated by Firebase Authentication on first launch. We cannot connect it to you as a person, and — as section 8 explains — that cuts both ways.
3. What we collect, and why
3.1 Voice recordings
What: Audio you record by holding the record button, up to three seconds per recording.
Why: It is the entire product. Your recording is placed in a queue and delivered to one other user.
Where it goes: The audio file is uploaded to Firebase Storage. Before it can be delivered to anyone, it is moved to a randomly named file that contains no account identifier. When you are matched, the other user receives a temporary link to that file that expires after 15 minutes. Nothing they receive identifies your account.
Who recorded it: Our servers keep a separate record linking that file to your anonymous account, so that if the recording is reported, the report can be acted on. Other users cannot read it, and it is deleted after 3 days. If you delete your data, your account identifier is removed from it but your device hash (section 3.3) stays until those 3 days are up, so a report about a recording you had already sent still counts against the device.
Who hears it: Exactly one other The I Love You App user, chosen automatically by matching order within your selected language. We do not listen to recordings routinely and we do not use them to train anything.
How long we keep it: See section 4.
3.2 Your selected language
What: A language code (one of English, Spanish, French, German, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese). It is initialised from your device locale on first launch and you can change it in the app.
Why: Matching is per-language, so that you receive a recording you have some chance of understanding.
3.3 A device identifier, used for bans, the free-connection limit, support and your credits
What: On Android, Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID, a per-device value
provided by the operating system. On iOS, an identifier the app takes from
identifierForVendor the first time it runs and keeps in the device's
keychain, so that it stays the same if you reinstall the app. It does not move
to another iPhone, and erasing the iPhone removes it. Neither is your
advertising ID, and neither is used for advertising.
Why: To make a ban stick, and to make the free-connection limit apply to a device rather than an account. Because accounts are anonymous and free, a ban or a limit attached only to an account is undone by reinstalling the app or deleting your data. The device identifier is what makes enforcement meaningful for users who record abusive content, and what keeps free connections limited.
How it is handled — precisely: The raw identifier is transmitted to our servers, in the request your app makes each time you send a recording, when it asks for your device's support code, and once per account to bring your credits across after a reinstall (both below). On receipt, the server immediately combines it with a secret value and stores only an irreversible SHA-256 hash. We do not store the raw identifier, and it is not written to our database in a readable form. It is transmitted over an encrypted connection.
Where the hash is kept: On your account record, updated each time you send a recording, so that if one of your recordings leads to a ban we know which device to ban. If a device is banned, its hash is also added to a ban list that the app cannot read, together with the anonymous account identifier of the account that caused the ban, so that the ban can be reviewed and lifted. Deleting your account does not remove that entry. Moderation strikes (section 3.5) are also recorded against the hash, so that deleting an account does not reset them. How many free connections the device has used, and the hour that count last changed, are kept against the hash too, so that a new account on the same device does not start with a new set of free connections (section 3.4). A recording waiting to be matched is stored with the hash as well, so that you are never matched with a recording your own device sent from an earlier account; it is deleted with that entry.
Support code: When you open Settings, or contact us from a suspension or warning screen, the app asks for your device's support code: three ordinary words, such as maple-otter-sunny. It is shown in Settings and added to emails you send us from the app, so we can find your account without asking for anything else, including accounts you had on the same device before reinstalling or deleting your data. It is stored with the hash and on your account record. Deleting your data does not remove it from the hash, so the same device gets the same code back. It is not a password: anyone who sees it can quote it, so we never treat it as proof that an account is yours.
Credits after a reinstall: Reinstalling the app gives you a new account. When it first starts, we move the credit balance of your earlier accounts on the same device to it, including any amount owed after a refund, and keep a record of which account each balance moved to, so that refunds and purchases made on an earlier account are settled where the credits are now. Credits do not move to a different device, and credits removed by deleting your data are not brought back.
What that means for you: The hash lets us recognise a banned device again, and count free connections per device. We cannot turn that hash back into your device identifier, and we cannot use it to identify you, contact you, or track you across other apps.
3.4 Usage counters and purchases
What: How many of your free connections are in use, the hour that count last changed, your balance of purchased credits, and how many connections we have given back to you today. We also keep, on your account, the date it was created, the date of your first and most recent connection, how many connections you have made in total, and — if you have bought credits — how many purchases you have made and when the first one was. How many free connections are in use is also counted against your device hash (section 3.3), not your account. We also count how many playback links your account has requested in the last ten minutes. If you give a message you heard a thumbs up or a thumbs down, we record that on the message, and on the sender's account we count how many times their recordings were played and how many thumbs up and down they received. Votes on our own default clips are counted against the clip, not anyone's account.
Why: The I Love You App gives one free connection back every hour, up to three held at once; further connections require purchased credits. Connections are sometimes returned to you after a report, which is capped per day and therefore counted. The playback link count is a limit that stops the service from being flooded with requests. The thumbs counts show us how well each account's recordings, and each default clip, are received.
Purchases: The I Love You App sells consumable credit packs through Google Play Billing and the Apple App Store. We never see your payment details. Your card, billing address and store account are handled entirely by Google or Apple. What reaches us is a purchase receipt, which we verify with Google or Apple and then record as: the store transaction identifier, the product purchased, the number of credits granted, the platform, and a timestamp. We keep that record to prevent the same receipt being redeemed twice.
On Android, when you start a purchase, The I Love You App also gives Google Play a one-way hash of your anonymous account ID. Google returns it with the receipt, and we use it only to check that the credits go to the account that made the purchase. The hash cannot be turned back into your account ID. It contains nothing about you.
3.5 Moderation data
What: When you report a recording you received, you tell us what was wrong with it. We store, on the copy of that message in your inbox, the fact that you reported it and the reason you chose. We may download the recording, convert its speech to text using Google Cloud Speech-to-Text, and test the resulting text against a list of blocked words and against the phrase you were asked to say. We may also record technical measurements of the audio file itself, such as its size.
Why: So that a report leads to a consequence. The I Love You App delivers unreviewed audio from strangers; without this, reporting would do nothing.
Important: This runs only when someone reports a specific recording. We do not transcribe recordings routinely, in bulk, or in the background.
Strikes and bans: A reported recording whose transcript matches a blocked word, or does not contain the phrase you were asked to say, is recorded against whoever recorded it, counted both on their account and against their device hash. A word on the list of abuse is a strike, and two strikes is a permanent ban. Anything else is counted as a lesser breach, which can lead to a temporary ban of increasing length but never a permanent one; we record when a temporary ban ends, on the account and against the device hash, so that deleting the account does not end it early. So that a temporary ban can be reviewed, we also keep on the account the reason each counted breach was upheld and when, but not the transcript. When a lesser breach is upheld, the app shows you a notice with the automatic transcription of the recording, so you can see what was heard; that transcript is kept on your account, visible only to you, until you dismiss the notice, and for no more than 30 days. When a ban is applied we store, on the banned account: the time, the reason, and the transcript of the recording that caused it.
We keep that transcript indefinitely, so that a ban can be reviewed and reversed rather than being permanent and unexaminable. It is the only text derived from user speech that we retain without a time limit, and it is deleted when the account is unbanned or you delete your data. We are telling you this explicitly because it is the least obvious thing in this policy. See section 8 for how to request a review of a ban.
Child safety concerns: If you tell us about a child safety concern, we keep a copy of the recordings delivered to you that are still in the app, together with which account and device sent each one, your account, and when. These copies are kept apart from the normal deletion schedule, and only we can access them. We keep them until we have reviewed them, and for longer where the law requires, for example after a report to the authorities. Deleting your data does not delete them.
3.6 Crash reports and diagnostics
What: Firebase Crashlytics collects crash reports and a small number of non-fatal errors we record deliberately. A crash report includes the stack trace, your device model, operating system version, and app version, plus an installation identifier generated by Crashlytics.
Why: To find and fix crashes. It is not linked to your recordings.
3.7 App integrity checks
What: The I Love You App uses Firebase App Check — Play Integrity on Android, App Attest or DeviceCheck on iOS. This asks the operating system to vouch that the app is a genuine, unmodified copy of The I Love You App.
Why: To keep automated abuse and modified clients out of the matching queue. This process involves your device and Google or Apple; we receive only a pass/fail token, not the underlying device signals.
3.8 Usage analytics
What: We measure how the app is being used, in two places.
On our servers, we record that a connection happened and how it turned out: whether you were matched with another person or received one of our default clips, how long the message waited to be matched, whether the message delivered to you was played, whether it was reported, and whether a purchase completed. Each of these is stored against your anonymous account identifier.
In the app, we use Google Analytics for Firebase to record which screens you open and a small number of specific moments: microphone permission being denied, how long a recording ran, an upload or playback failing, a clip being listened to all the way through, a purchase being started or cancelled, and a language change. It also records session and device information, and derives approximate location from your IP address as described in section 2.
These in-app events are associated with your anonymous account identifier and your selected language, so that they can be analysed alongside the server-side records above. That identifier does not reveal who you are.
Why: The I Love You App's core promise is that you get a real person's voice back. Without this we cannot tell how often that actually happens, whether people are waiting too long, which languages have nobody to match with, or which parts of the app are failing. Nothing here is for advertising.
What it is not: No recording content and no transcript is involved. These are counts and timings, not the audio. We do not build advertising profiles, and The I Love You App contains no advertising SDK — see section 5. Our analytics is configured so that no advertising identifier is collected on either platform.
4. How long we keep things
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Your recording | Deleted automatically about two days after it was recorded, whether or not it was delivered or played — usually about 4 hours after it is played. The exception is a recording kept because of a child safety concern (next row) |
| A copy of a recording kept because someone told us about a child safety concern, with which account and device sent it, the account it was delivered to, and when | Until we have reviewed it, and longer where the law requires. It is not deleted on the normal schedule or when either account deletes its data |
| The record that a queue entry was matched | Deleted after 24 hours |
| The server-only record of which account recorded a file | Deleted after 3 days |
| That you reported or rated a message, the reason you gave, and anything we measured about it | Deleted with the message record, on the same schedule as the rows above |
| Temporary playback link | Expires 15 minutes after it is issued |
| Individual usage records (that a connection happened and how it turned out, including the outcome of any report) | Deleted after 90 days |
| Analytics collected in the app by Google Analytics for Firebase | Per that service's retention setting, currently 14 months |
| Aggregate totals, which identify nobody (daily and hourly usage, and how often each default clip was played and rated) | Indefinitely |
| Your account record (language, credits, free-connection counter, strike and breach counts, when any temporary ban ends and why, usage, purchase and rating counters, device hash, support code) | Until you delete your data — see below |
| Purchase records | Indefinitely — if you delete your data, they are kept without your account identifier |
| Credits we add when you contact us (the amount, when, and our reference for your request) | Indefinitely — if you delete your data, they are kept without your account identifier |
| Ban transcript, on a banned account | Until the account is unbanned or deleted |
| Transcript shown in a notice after a lesser breach, on your account | Until you dismiss the notice or delete your data, and at most 30 days |
| Device hash and the anonymous account identifier that caused the ban, on the ban list | Indefinitely, until the ban is lifted |
| Free connections used, recorded against a device hash | Deleted about 2 hours after it last changed, once every free connection has come back |
| Strike and breach counts, and when any temporary ban ends, recorded against a device hash | Indefinitely — they are not linked to an account, and are kept so deleting an account cannot reset them |
| Your device's support code, recorded against a device hash | Indefinitely — it is not linked to an account, and is kept so the device gets the same code back |
| Crash reports | Per Firebase Crashlytics' retention, currently 90 days |
Cleanup of recordings runs hourly and deletes both the audio file and its database record.
Be aware of the second half of that table. Audio has a short life; the account record around it does not. It stays until you delete it using Delete my data in the app (section 8). Uninstalling the app does not delete it: a reinstall creates a new anonymous account, and the old record remains in our database, unreachable from the app. Its recordings still age out on the schedule above.
5. Who we share data with
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. The I Love You App contains no advertising SDK.
We do use an analytics service, and we would rather say so plainly than hide it in a list of providers: app usage is measured using Google Analytics for Firebase, which is Google acting as our service provider on our instructions. It is configured not to collect any advertising identifier, and the data is not used to build advertising profiles or shared with anyone for their own purposes. Section 3.8 sets out exactly what is recorded.
Two categories of sharing do happen:
Other The I Love You App users. Your recording is delivered to one other user. That is the purpose of the app. Recordings are delivered without any name or profile attached, but please treat anything you record as something a stranger will hear — including anything audible in the background.
Service providers, acting on our instructions. The I Love You App runs on Google Cloud and Firebase (authentication, database, file storage, crash reporting, app integrity, analytics, and — only when a recording is reported — Speech-to-Text). Purchases are processed by Google Play Billing and the Apple App Store, and we verify receipts with them. These providers process data on our behalf under their own terms; they are not permitted to use your recordings for their own purposes.
We may also disclose data if we are legally required to.
6. Security
Data is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) and stored encrypted at rest by Google Cloud. Playback links are short-lived and signed rather than public. Device identifiers are hashed with a secret value before storage. The ban list and the device hash table cannot be read by the app at all — only by our servers.
No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot promise that one is.
7. Children
The I Love You App delivers unreviewed audio recorded by strangers and is not intended for children. You must be at least 18 years old to use The I Love You App, and the app asks you to confirm that before your first recording. We do not knowingly collect data from children below that age. If you believe a child has been using The I Love You App, contact us at support@theiloveyouapp.com.
8. Your choices, and the limits we currently have
What you can do in the app today:
- Change your language.
- Choose not to record. The I Love You App sends nothing unless you hold the button.
- Deny microphone permission, which disables recording entirely.
- Report a recording you received, and say what was wrong with it.
- Delete your data: Settings → Privacy → Delete my data. This deletes your account record, the recordings you sent that have not yet been delivered, the messages delivered to you, your usage records and your sign-in account, and the app starts again with a new, empty account. Purchased credits are lost. We keep only what is needed to stop deletion being used to get around a ban or redeem a purchase twice: your device hash, and the anonymous account identifier that caused the ban, on the ban list if your device is banned, the strike count against your device hash, your device's support code, purchase records and credits we added for you without your account identifier, and — for at most 3 days — the link between a recording you had already sent and your device hash. Recordings already delivered to someone else stay until that message is deleted on the normal schedule, about two days at most. A recording kept because of a child safety concern is kept as section 3.5 describes. The full list is at Delete Your Data.
- Uninstall The I Love You App, which stops all further collection.
What we currently cannot do, stated plainly:
- We cannot reliably act on requests made outside the app. Because sign-in is anonymous, there is no email address, username or password that would let you prove which anonymous account is yours. The in-app button above proves it automatically; an email cannot. This is the direct cost of not asking who you are.
- We cannot export your data on request, for the same reason.
- There is no self-service way to appeal a ban. A banned user sees only "Account suspended". Bans are triggered by an automatic word-list test over an automatic transcription, so mistakes are possible, and we currently rely on you emailing support@theiloveyouapp.com to have one reviewed. We intend to add a formal appeal process.
If you contact us at support@theiloveyouapp.com we will do what we can, but you should know before you use The I Love You App that anonymity limits what we are able to do for you individually. If you have deliberately identifying information in a recording and want it removed, contact us quickly — recordings age out within hours, and after that there is nothing left to delete.
9. Your legal rights
Depending on where you live, data protection law gives you rights over your personal data. This section explains the legal grounds we rely on and how to exercise those rights. It applies alongside section 8: the rights below are yours regardless, but because we do not know who you are, we can only act on a request if we can locate the data it concerns.
9.1 Why we are allowed to process your data (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
| Data | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Voice recordings, selected language, usage counters, credit balance | Performance of a contract — they are needed to provide the service you asked for |
| Purchase records | Performance of a contract, legal obligation (tax and accounting records), and our legitimate interest in preventing a receipt from being redeemed twice |
| Credits we add when you contact us | Our legitimate interest in resolving your request, and in not adding the same credits twice |
| Device hash, device strike counts, moderation data, ban transcripts, the record of who recorded a file, app integrity checks | Our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe for other users and enforcing our Acceptable Use Policy |
| Free connections used, counted against a device hash | Our legitimate interest in keeping free connections limited, so that the service can be offered for free at all |
| Your device's support code | Our legitimate interest in finding your account when you contact us |
| Crash reports and usage analytics | Our legitimate interest in finding faults and understanding whether the service works |
| Disclosures required by law | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed them against your interests and kept the data to what those purposes need. You can object at any time — see below.
We do not use your recordings to identify you by your voice.
9.2 Automated decisions
Bans are applied automatically: a reported recording is transcribed and the text is checked against a list of blocked words and against the phrase. A second match against a word on the list of abuse results in a ban, and repeated lesser breaches, including not saying the phrase, result in temporary bans (section 3.5). You can contest a ban and explain your point of view by emailing support@theiloveyouapp.com. Where the law where you live gives you the right to have an automated decision reviewed by a person (for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, section 9.3), you can ask for that too.
9.3 Your rights in the EEA, UK and Switzerland
You have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy.
- Correct data that is inaccurate.
- Erase your data.
- Restrict how we process it.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Portability — receive data you provided in a machine-readable format.
- Complain to your local data protection authority, or in the UK to the Information Commissioner's Office. We would appreciate the chance to address your concern first.
9.4 Your rights in California and other US states
Residents of California and several other US states have the right to:
- Know what personal information we collect, use and disclose, and to receive a copy.
- Delete personal information we hold about you.
- Correct inaccurate personal information.
- Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose that would require offering a right to limit it.
In the past 12 months we have collected these categories of personal information, from you and your device, for the purposes described in section 3:
| Category | What it covers in The I Love You App |
|---|---|
| Identifiers | Anonymous account identifier, device identifier (stored only as a hash), analytics and crash-report installation identifiers |
| Audio information | Voice recordings |
| Commercial information | Records of credit packs purchased |
| Internet or other electronic network activity | Usage records and in-app analytics (section 3.8) |
| Geolocation data | Approximate, city-level location derived from IP address — never precise location |
Each category is disclosed for business purposes only to the service providers listed in section 5. Retention periods are in section 4.
9.5 How to make a request
To delete your data, use Delete my data in the app (section 8) — it takes effect immediately. For any other request, or if you no longer have the app, email support@theiloveyouapp.com. You may also make a request through an authorised agent, who must show that you authorised them.
Because accounts are anonymous, we will ask for details that let us find the data your request concerns — for example, roughly when you used the app, your selected language, and your device model. If we cannot match a request to any data with reasonable confidence, we will tell you rather than risk acting on someone else's data. We will respond within 30 days, and tell you if we need longer and why.
10. Where data is processed
The I Love You App's infrastructure runs on Google Cloud. Data may be processed in countries other than yours, including the United States. Where data from the EEA, UK or Switzerland is transferred, Google provides the safeguards the law requires, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect or how long we keep it, we will update this policy
and change the date at the top. The current version is always at https://theiloveyouapp.com/privacy.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy, and any privacy request: support@theiloveyouapp.com.