Privacy Policy for TalkMate
Last updated: 22 October 2026
TalkMate: Practice English (“TalkMate”, “the App”, “we”, “us”) is operated by
Moonlit Studio. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we
use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. By creating an account
and using TalkMate, you agree to this policy.
1. Information we collect
Account and profile
- Account information: your email address and a password, or,
if you sign in with Google, the email address and name from your Google account.
Passwords are never stored in plain text. They are stored only as a salted
one-way hash (bcrypt).
- Profile information you provide: name, username, gender, date
of birth, country, native language, short bio and avatar colour.
- Name history: when you change your name, we keep a record of
your previous names. Other members can see this list on your profile.
Conversations
- Messages: text messages you send are delivered through our
server. A message waiting for an offline recipient is held on our server only
until it is delivered, then removed from the server. Your conversation history
is stored on your own device.
- Calls: we record that a call took place, who took part and
how long you talked (used for ratings, points and the weekly leaderboard). We do
not record or store the audio of your calls.
- Voice rooms: audio in group voice rooms is sent in real time
and is not recorded by us. Text messages in a room's chat are shown to the
people in that room.
- Ratings: the like/dislike and star ratings you give or
receive after a conversation.
Your voice and speech in AI features
- Correction summary (optional, off by default): if you turn
it on in your profile, your own microphone audio during a call (never the
other person's) is streamed to our speech-to-text provider to create a
transcript. When the call ends, the transcript is sent to our AI provider to
find mistakes, and the corrections are shown to you. We do not store this audio
or transcript on our servers.
- Speaking games and Interview Prep: what you say is recognised
on your phone. On some Android versions, a short recording of your answer is
also uploaded so it can be transcribed accurately. The text of your answer is
sent to our AI provider to score it, give feedback or create the next interview
question. Recordings are processed only to give you a result and are not stored
on our servers. An Interview Prep session is kept in our server's memory only
while it is in progress. Meteor Rush uses only your phone's speech recognition.
- Read-aloud: Interview Prep questions are read aloud by your
phone's built-in text-to-speech.
Points, safety and app use
- Points and activity: daily check-ins, points you earn or
spend, game results, talk time and your weekly leaderboard score.
- Safety records: reports you make or receive, people you block,
and any warnings or account suspensions.
- Presence: whether you are currently online, used for
matchmaking, the Online now list and buddy lists.
- Notification token: a push notification token for your
device, used to send call, message and Speak-now notifications.
- Device identifier: the App sends your phone's Android ID with
its requests. We store only a scrambled (hashed) copy of it, never the ID itself,
and use it only for safety and fraud prevention: to stop someone who has been
banned from creating new accounts on the same phone.
We do not use advertising or analytics tools, and we do not collect your
location or contacts.
2. How your calls work (audio)
Voice calls use WebRTC and are sent in real time between participants. Audio
is encrypted in transit (DTLS-SRTP). When a direct connection isn’t possible,
audio is relayed through a TURN server purely to pass it along. It is not
recorded or retained. We do not store call audio anywhere. If you turn on
Correction summary, only your own voice is transcribed as described above.
3. How we use information
- To create and secure your account and keep you signed in.
- To match you with practice partners and enable calls, voice rooms and
messaging.
- To give you AI feedback on your speaking, score speaking games and run
Interview Prep.
- To show your profile, online status, ratings and leaderboard position to other
members.
- To award points and run the weekly leaderboard.
- To send you notifications about calls, messages and people waiting to talk.
- To keep the community safe: review reports, remove harmful content and
suspend accounts, or block phones, that break our rules.
- To operate, maintain and improve the App.
4. Information shared with other members
By design, other TalkMate members can see your profile (name, username, avatar,
bio, country, language, previous names, and your ratings and stats), your
position on the weekly leaderboard, and the messages you send them. People in a
voice room can hear you when you speak and see your messages in the room chat.
Please don’t share information you wish to keep private.
5. Service providers
We use these third-party services to run the App. They process data only to
provide their service to us:
- Render (server hosting) and Neon (database).
- Deepgram (speech-to-text) for Correction summary, speaking
games and Interview Prep.
- Groq (AI language model) for corrections, game scoring,
Interview Prep and voice room quizzes. If it is unavailable, Google (Gemini) or
OpenAI may be used as a backup for corrections.
- Agora to carry audio in group voice rooms.
- Metered (TURN relay) to relay call audio when a direct
connection cannot be made.
- Google Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver push
notifications, and Google Sign-In if you choose to sign in
with Google.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share
it with third parties for their own advertising or marketing.
6. Data retention & deletion
We keep your account and content while your account is active. Voice audio and
transcripts used for AI features are not kept on our servers after you get your
result, and messages are removed from our server once they are delivered. You can
request deletion of your account and associated data at any time by emailing us at
the address below; we will delete your account data within 30 days of a verified
request, except where we must retain certain information to comply with law or to
keep the community safe (for example, records of serious rule violations).
7. Security
Connections to our servers use encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS), call audio
uses DTLS-SRTP, and passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes. No method of
transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we take reasonable measures to
protect your information.
8. Children
TalkMate is not directed to children. You must be at least 18 years old to use
the App. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18; if you
believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will remove it.
See our Child Safety Standards Policy.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will revise the “Last
updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the App.
10. Contact us
If you have questions about this policy or your data, contact us at:
Email: yrastogi90@gmail.com