Hi Message Privacy Policy
Updated on: September 30, 2024
Effective Date: September 30, 2024
Version No.: 20240930V2.0
Version update notice:
We recently updated the representations in the Hi Message Privacy Policy in accordance with the law to help you better understand how we process and protect your personal information, in particular:
(1) Updated the description of "4. Advertising and Marketing Service" by adding marketing or promotional content for you through online SMS services.
(2) Updated the description of "II. How We Store and Protect Your Personal Information" to help you better understand how the Services will store your personal information.
Please read and check that you have fully understood before using or continuing to use Hi Message products and/or services. You must first agree to the Privacy Policy before being able to use or continue using them.
SHANGHAI TRANSSION CO., LTD (hereinafter referred to as "Hi Message", "we", "us", or "our") is the provider and operator of Hi Message services (hereinafter referred to as "the Services"). We respect your privacy and are committed to ensuring the security of your personal information. As part of the services, we may collect and use your personal information with your consent or as required by applicable law. This Privacy Policy (hereinafter referred to as "the Policy") is intended to help you understand how we collect, use, disclose, process, and protect the personal information you provide when using Hi Message services, your rights with respect to that personal information, and how we safeguard those rights. The Policy applies to all Hi Message services, including applications, mini programs, and webpages for PCs and mobile intelligent terminals, software development kits (SDKs), and application programming interfaces (APIs) for third-party websites and applications, as well as those that may emerge in other forms in the future.
It shall be specially noted that the Policy is not applicable to the services offered to you by third parties. You may receive content or network links from third parties. Please be cautious about whether to access the links, content, products, and services provided by third parties. Before submitting your personal information to any third party, please carefully review its privacy policy.
To ensure that you fully understand the Policy and make your own decisions, we will explain the Policy as clearly as possible by underlying or highlighting the critical information (especially in bold, capital, underlined, and other forms). Moreover, when you use our services for the first time, prompts will pop up, reminding you to pay attention to and understand the core content of the Policy.
Please read the Policy carefully to understand our practices with respect to your personal information before using our services, submitting personal information to us, or granting us consent to collect your personal information, and please visit often to stay informed of updates to the Policy. We will post changes to the Privacy Policy through SMS products. By accessing our services after such notice, you agree to the updated privacy policy. You can view the "Update Date" at the top of the Privacy Policy page to confirm the latest update time.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via
privacy@transsion.com
You can also access the Policy via:
SMS > Settings > About > Privacy Policy
The Privacy Policy will help you understand the following:
I. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information
II. How We Store and Protect Your Personal Information
III. How We Share, Transfer and Disclose Your Personal Information
IV. How Is Your Personal Information Transferred Across Borders
V. Your Rights to Your Personal Information
VI. How We Process Children's Personal Information
VII. Third-Party Service Providers and Their Services
VIII. Supplements and Updates to the Policy
IX. Joint Controller
X. How to Contact Us
I. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information
(I) Overview
Hi Message believes that fundamental privacy rights must apply equally regardless of where you live. That's why we treat any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual as "personal information" no matter where that individual may live, particularly name, identity, location, online identifier or physical, physiological, genetic, mental, or any other related characteristics that can reasonably be used to identify the individual.
We only collect the information necessary for special, specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes and shall ensure that your information will not be further processed for any other purposes. We will request your consent again if we intend to use your personal information for any purposes not specified herein.
We will collect your personal information, including 1) the information you provide directly (such as the nickname, avatar, name, and telephone number you provide when you sign in to the account and sign up for our marketing activities); 2) the information generated during your use of the Software (such as device information and service log information), which will be automatically collected by us; and 3) the information we acquire from other sources.
You have the right to decide whether to provide your personal information when using Hi Message services or when we request it. You are not required to provide personal information to Hi Message at any time. However, choosing not to provide it may prevent Hi Message from being able to provide you with certain services or respond to issues you may encounter and limit Hi Message's ability to resolve them. We will only collect and use your personal information for the purposes stated herein. The following are examples explaining why we collect your personal information:
(II) Hi Message's Main Service Functions and Information Collection and Usage Scenarios
The main purpose of the Software is to provide you with comprehensive Hi Messageservices.
1. Providing You with [Network Message Activation] Services
In order to ensure that you are able to use our services correctly with the Services and provide Hi Message services, we will automatically collect information related to your device and SIM card, including:
(1) Information about your device and SIM card: When you start using the Services, we receive and record information about the mobile device you are using (including brand, model, operating system version, unique device identifier (UDID), CPU model, settings, system language, network device hardware address, and IP address of the mobile phone, name and version number of the game application installation package that has been installed on the mobile phone, and software and hardware characteristics), the Google Advertising ID (GAID) of the hardware device, app store version number, information about the location of the mobile device (including the country or area where your mobile phone is authorized, and network access mode), and SIM card information (including ICCID) based on how you interact with the Services and the specific permissions granted when using the Services.
(2) Service log information: When you use the Services, we automatically collect information about how you use our services and save it as service logs. This includes the published information, access time, number of times you access the services, duration of use, event information (errors, crashes, restart, upgrade), and other log information generated by your devices when you are using the Services.
Please note that device information or service log information alone is not sufficient to identify a certain natural person. Any non-personal information used in combination with other information to identify a specific natural person or in combination with personal information will be regarded as personal information. In this case, with your authorization or unless otherwise provided for by laws and regulations, we will anonymize and de-identify such personal information. The above information refers to the basic data that must be collected to provide the Services. Refusing to provide such information may prevent us from being able to offer the Services.
2. Providing You withServices to Create, Send, Receive, and View Network Message
So that you can create, send, receive, or view network messages through the Services, we must first activate the Hi Message services for you. To do so, we will obtain and use your ICCID, phone number, and IMEI number . Normal use of online SMS services will require registration and activation.
To ensure normal operation when you use the Services, we will obtain your phone number and that of the recipient, the length and content of the message, and the time the message was sent and received. Please note that we will use a hash algorithm to process the content of your message. After processing with the hash algorithm, we will be completely unable to read the content of your message, and it will be stored on our server for no more than three days, after which it will be irreversibly deleted. We will not be able to provide you with the Services unless you provide the information required or the permissions mentioned above.
3. Providing Participation in Promotional Activities
From time to time, we will initiate or provide promotional activities. When you participate in these activities, we will collect information you voluntarily provide to us through the activity interface, such as your name and contact details. This information is mainly for us to get in touch with you and to award prizes. Should you refuse to provide the information required to participate in the promotional activity, we may be unable to provide you with the Services, prizes, or rewards. However, this will not affect your use of other functions of the Services.
4. Advertising and Marketing Service
When you use Hi Message services, we and our partners may collect information about how you use your device, your interaction with advertising, and your phone number, show you relevant promotional content, and send you marketing or promotional messages (which may also include more relevant personalized advertising content). We will be working throughout this process to ensure the security of your privacy. If you would like to stop receiving marketing messages,
you can do so by going to IPMessage > Settings > Add to Blacklist. The disabling path may vary depending on the marketing service provider.
Please be mindful that any information you submit on such ad pages will be collected and used by third-party advertisers or ad companies, who will be responsible for protecting your personal information if you browse the ad content of third-party partners. You will be subject to the Privacy Policies of third parties when using their services. Please read the policies carefully.
5. MessagingPushService
We may also push service notifications and other messages to you based on your device identifier, operating system version, network information, and information related to your use of the app. To unsubscribe from notifications and other messages, go to Settings > Notification Center > Notification Management to withdraw your consent. Methods of opting out may vary by version.
6. Improving Our Services
We may also collect other information needed for the reasonable improvement of our services. This includes responses when you participate in questionnaires. We may combine information from one service with that of another to provide you with better services, content, and recommendations.
(III) Other Situations where Your Information May Be Collected
Where permitted by laws, we may collect your personal information from other individuals, business entities, public channels, or other third parties indicated by you, other partners who help us provide our products or services or assist us in ensuring information security and preventing frauds, and other legitimate avenues. We will inform you and collect your information with your consent.
We may also collect other information about you, your device, or your use of the Services in other ways that will be described to you at the time of collection for your consent.
To offer you better services, we may carry out researches, statistical analyses, and predictions on the collected information in an anonymized manner (including machine learning or model algorithm training based on anonymized data). We will take technical measures and other necessary actions to process the collected personal information so that such information cannot identify any individual person and cannot be recovered. As permitted by applicable laws and regulations, we do not need to inform you separately for your consent for the use of such anonymized data.
II. How We Store and Protect Your Personal Information
1. How we store your personal information
We will store your personal information that we collected upon your consent in accordance with the relevant national laws and regulations concerning personal privacy and data protection. We may also store the personal information we collect in countries or regions other than the country in which we do business, provided that local laws and regulations do not prohibit such storage.
Currently, Hi Message may store your personal information in: India and/or Frankfort. Specifically:
The personal information we collect and generate in the course of our operations in India will be stored on servers located in India.
The personal information we collect and generate in the course of our operations outside India will be stored on servers located in Frankfurt.
We may use the servers in other areas or countries depending on our business development, and in such cases, we will update the Policy accordingly.
Whether personal information is stored in the country where we do business or in another country or region without violating the law, we will store it in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations regarding data storage. We will take necessary security measures considering the characteristics, scope, purposes of personal information processing, the possible risks in processing personal information, and the serious consequences in case of any damages. For example, we will encrypt and de-identify the collected personal information before storage. We will store the information only necessary for our business development within the minimum retention period unless otherwise permitted by laws or you agree to extend the retention period. We will delete or take other appropriate measures to delete data that exceeds the retention period or that you request us to delete, provided that this does not violate the relevant laws and regulations.
2. How we protect your personal information
We will also take other necessary measures to protect your personal information from misuse, unauthorized access, modification, disclosure, or destruction.
We implement security measures designed to protect your personal information and regularly monitor our systems for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we use administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect your personal information by considering the nature, processing methods, and security of the personal information. We will continuously strive to improve these measures to keep your personal data secure.
It should be noted that no measures can absolutely guarantee the avoidance of data storage security incidents. In the event of a security breach, we will report to the appropriate regulator in accordance with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, and provide the type of personal data involved in the data breach, the number of data subjects, the possible consequences of the data breach, and the remedial measures we intend to take in accordance with the requirements of the supervisory authorities. We will take all possible measures to remedy or mitigate the damages and consequences caused by a data breach. If permitted or required by laws, we will promptly inform you of the consequences or significant damage that may be caused to you as a result of a data breach, so that you can take appropriate measures to protect your rights to the greatest extent.
Since no website, Internet transmission, computer system, or wireless connection is absolutely secure, in addition to the necessary security measures we take, users need to be more aware of privacy and security risks. For example, if you are redirected to a third party's website, link, product, or service through our service, please be careful and read the terms of agreement of such website, link, product, or service carefully for the security of any data information collected by such website, link, product or service, and we will not be liable for any data security issues caused by such third party. If you find that certain content, advertisements, or features of our services may be provided by third parties and may endanger your privacy and security, please contact us promptly and we will give priority to dealing with them in accordance with the law.
III. How We Share, Transfer and Disclose Your Personal Information
We will share, transfer, and disclose your personal information to the minimum extent and only when it is necessary for operations or required by laws. We will not share, transfer, or disclose your personal information unless otherwise required or permitted by applicable laws and regulations in the following circumstances:
1. How we share your personal information
We do not sell any personal information to third parties. In order to provide you with timely services, your personal information may be shared with Hi Message affiliated companies. We will only share your information with Hi Message's affiliates for lawful purposes clearly stated and only as necessary to provide the Services subject to the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy. For any purposes not covered herein, we will make explicit statements in the privacy policy or notice for the specific product or service.
We may share necessary personal information with authorized third-party partners (including technical service providers, data storage service providers, after-sales service providers, marketing service providers, and third-party SDK providers, among others) to perform certain functions or to provide you with better services and user experience. Specifically, our technical service providers will help us process your personal information to activate and provide online SMS services. (We will conduct strict security checks to protect data security). We will share that information to the minimum extent and only when it is necessary for operations or required by law. Before sharing, we will sign stringent confidentiality agreements with our authorized partners, requiring them to take relevant confidentiality and security measures to process personal information in accordance with the Policy and the applicable laws of your jurisdiction. Moreover, we will require them to provide data security functions and information security qualifications (such as classified protection assessment, information security management system, etc.). When embedding SDKs or any other similar applications of our authorized partners in the Software, we will do our due diligence to request the SDKs that obtain the information to protect the security of your data.
We may also share your non-personal information with third parties to provide evaluation, analysis, or other business services. For example, we may use the aggregated information to help our partners (such as advertising service providers) understand the effectiveness, feedback, and usage trends of their services.
In the event of a merger, acquisition or bankruptcy and liquidation, transfer of assets, or other related transactions involving the transfer of personal information, we will require by agreement or other appropriate measures that the company or organization newly holding your personal information continues to be bound by the Policy and that such subject takes confidentiality and security measures no less stringent than those required by the Policy to handle personal information.
2. How we transfer your personal information
Hi Message will not transfer your information to any other parties, except in the following circumstances:
(1) your express consent is obtained.
(2) providing notice via email and/or our website or by means of another appropriate method to inform you of any changes in your ownership of, rights to, and choices regarding your personal information when Hi Message is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or part of its assets that may affect your personal information.
(3) the transfer has been stated in the Privacy Policy or otherwise notified to you.
3. How we disclose your personal information
According to the legal requirements, legal procedures, litigation, and/or requests from government departments and authorities, Hi Message may be required to disclose your personal information. We may also disclose your personal information if the disclosure is necessary or appropriate for national security, law enforcement, or other matters of public importance.
In addition, we may share your personal information with the following people:
(1) our lawyers, accountants, auditors, or similar consultants, when we request them to provide professional advice.
(2) investors and other related third parties, if actual or potential sales or other transactions with another company occur and are related to entities within the TECNO group.
(3) other third parties, for example, when specific information is disclosed to them under your authorization.
IV. How Is Your Personal Information Transferred Across Borders
For the purposes described in the Privacy Policy, we may transfer your personal information to the resources or servers mentioned in Section III of the Policy for storage or processing, and we may also transfer your personal information to third-party service providers and business partners, and therefore your data may be transferred to other countries or regions, subject to compliance with applicable laws and regulations in your region and with your authorized consent. The privacy laws in these countries or regions may differ, and the jurisdictions in which these servers are located may or may not protect personal information to the same extent as those in your jurisdiction. However, we will still strive to protect your personal information based on our Privacy Policy and carry out the cross-border transfer and other processing of corresponding information as required by the laws of the country or region where the personal information is located.
If we transfer personal information outside of your jurisdiction, whether to our affiliates or to a third-party service provider, we will comply with the relevant applicable laws. We will take appropriate security and protection measures to ensure that all such transfers are subject to the requirements of applicable local data protection laws.
V. Your Rights to Your Personal Information
As a data subject, you have a number of rights with respect to personal information such as confirmation, access, correction, deletion, withdrawal of consent, complaints (hereinafter referred to as "requests"), etc. We fully understand and respect these rights, which are also subject to specific exclusions and exceptions in accordance with applicable law. We will also take active steps to ensure that your rights are effectively guaranteed. However, please understand and note that for security reasons, we may need to verify your identity before processing your request. In principle, we charge no fees for your legitimate requests. However, for repeated requests exceeding reasonable limits, we will charge a reasonable fee to the extent permitted by applicable laws based on actual administrative costs as appropriate. We may deny requests that are unwarrantedly repetitive, require excessive technical means (for example, requiring the development of new systems or fundamental changes in current practices), pose a risk to the legal rights of others or are highly impractical, or violate mandatory legal requirements.
6.1 Right to confirm and access: We inform you of how we collect and process your personal information via this Privacy Policy or through privacy policies or notices for specific service scenarios. You have the right to confirm or reject such collection and processing by checking the box or via other methods. However, if you reject the service, some functions that require your express authorized consent before use may no longer be available. The personal information you have provided to us can be accessed directly from the interface of our services. In case of a failure to access information, email us at [privacy@transsion.com], and we will deal with your request promptly.
6.2 Right to correct and delete: When your personal information is changed, or when you find that your personal information collected and processed by us is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to make corrections or additions. For some of your personal information, you can correct and amend it directly on the relevant function page of the service. You have the right to request us to delete your personal information when we have achieved the purpose of collecting your personal information or it is no longer necessary, or when you find that we have collected or processed your personal information in violation of the provisions of laws and regulations or the terms of the Privacy Policy. For any information you cannot access to correct or delete, email us at [privacy@transsion.com] to request a correction or deletion.
However, we may not grant your deleting request in some situations, for example, if you ask us to delete your transaction data when Hi Message is legally obligated to keep a record of that transaction to comply with the applicable local laws. Please also note that if you request the deletion of your information from our services, due to certain applicable local laws and technical limitations, we may not immediately delete the corresponding information from our backup systems, but we will securely store your personal information and prevent its further processing until the backup systems are updated and your information can be deleted or anonymized.
6.3 Right to withdraw consent: For our different services to perform the corresponding functions, we will require the necessary personal information in accordance with the applicable local laws. This is described in "How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information" of the Privacy Policy. You may withdraw consent previously granted to us for specific purposes, including the collection, use, and/or disclosure of your personal information in our possession or control, by deleting the information, disabling the functionality of the device, or withdrawing the consent request. Email us at [privacy@transsion.com] for relevant operations. We will process your request within a reasonable time after you send it, and then will not collect, use, and/or disclose your personal information according to your request.
Withdrawing your consent may result in an inability to continue to access certain and/or all Hi Message product and service functions. The withdrawal of your consent or authorization will not affect the validity of our previous processing activities based on your consent.
6.4 Right to complain:You have the right to lodge a complaint by sending us an email via [privacy@transsion.com] We will respond promptly to your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our response, especially if our personal information processing practices have harmed your legitimate rights and interests, you may also file a complaint or report to the local statutory personal data protection authority, or file a lawsuit with a court of competent jurisdiction.
6.5 Right to control your privacy settings
You have the right to control your privacy settings, which allow you to restrict our collection, use, disclosure, or processing of your personal information. For example, you can choose to turn on or off the functions and permissions of Location Access, Camera, and SMS. You can also get more detailed information about the security status of your device in Settings . If you have previously agreed to enable the corresponding permissions or agreed to our use of your personal information based on the aforementioned business scenario and would like to change that, go to Settings > App Management > Permission Manager or contact us at [privacy@transsion.com].
6.6 Right to cancel a service
Request cancellation of your service via the cancellation path provided in the Services or by contacting us at [privacy@transsion.com]. Please be sure you would like to cancel the service before doing so and confirm that you understand that after you have canceled the service, we will stop providing it. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws in your region, we will delete the corresponding personal data under the service at the same time.
6.7 Right in some jurisdictions
Please pay attention that you may have the following data subject rights under applicable laws in certain jurisdictions:
(1) Right to restriction of processing. You have the right to request our restriction on your personal information processing. We will review the reasons for your request. If the reasons are in accordance with applicable data protection laws, we will process your personal information only to the extent permitted by such laws and will notify you before lifting the restriction on processing.
(2) Right not to be subject to automated decision-making. You have the right to refuse automated processing of your information, including performance analysis and other automated processing that may have a legal or similar impact on you.
(3) Right to data portability. You have the right to request the transfer of your personal information to another data controller in a structured and commonly used format.
While we also have the right to refuse to process your request, we may reject some of your requests where an exemption applies or where we comply with applicable laws. For example, some requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive or require disclosure of third-party information.
VI. How We Process Children's Personal Information
Hi Message recognizes the importance of protecting children's personal information. Therefore, children under the age of 14 or an equivalent age as stipulated by the laws of your jurisdiction (the definition of a child's age varies according to the laws of different countries or regions; we will define a child based on the regulations of the specific country or region of our business operations) must use our products or services under the permission and guidance of their legal guardians and as permitted by applicable laws and regulations. In principle, we do not provide services directly to children, nor proactively collect their personal data, or use their personal information for marketing purposes. Only with the explicit permission and consent of a child's guardian, and when the law permits and the collection of such information is deemed necessary, will we collect, use, and disclose a child's personal information. Should a legal guardian need to access, modify, or delete personal information related to a child at any time, please contact us in the manner described in the Policy, and we will respond promptly. If you find that you have transferred information about children to us, email us at [privacy@transsion.com], and we will remove the information as soon as possible. Should we discover that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child without the prior verifiable consent of a guardian, we will take steps to promptly delete the related content.
VII. Third-Party Service Providers and Their Services
When using Hi Message services (such as life service and online customer service), you may receive links to third-party websites or content and services provided by third parties other than us, and some products or services may be provided in the form of SDKs or other means. You can choose whether to access or accept websites, products, and services provided by third parties based on your judgment. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to products and services provided by any third party. Since we do not have substantial control over a third party, we cannot be responsible for the collection and processing of your personal information by that third party. When you submit any information to that third party, please be aware of that third party's privacy policy and take care to protect your personal information.
VIII. Supplements and Updates to the Policy
We reserve the right to update or modify the Policy from time to time as our business, technology, applicable laws, and operations change. In the event the Policy is modified, we will publish the latest version here (on this page) or notify you separately through other means. Please regularly check this page or the notifications we send you to stay informed of updates to the Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy is subject to change, but we will not diminish your rights under the Policy without your express consent.
We will seek your express consent as required by applicable laws before we collect other information from you or use or disclose your information for a new purpose. If you continue to use products and services on the website, mobile device, and/or any other devices, you will be bound by the updated Privacy Policy.
The content of Hi Message services stated in the Policy may change depending on the type of product and system version you are using, or the requirements of local laws and regulations.
IX. Joint Controller
SHANGHAI TRANSSION CO., LTD and CHONGQING TRANSSION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED are joint controllers responsible for processing your personal information together with us. SHANGHAI TRANSSION CO., LTD and CHONGQING TRANSSION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED have clarified their responsibilities for joint processing under the law, including the GDPR. For more information about joint control, please see Section X How to Contact Us.
X. How to Contact Us
If you have any suggestions, questions, or concerns about our Privacy Policy or practices regarding the protection of personal information, contact us at:
Email: [privacy@transsion.com] (Note: The email is used for receiving emails related to our Privacy Policy or information protection only).
We will review your request regarding privacy or personal information as soon as possible and reply to you within 15–30 days after verifying your user identity. If your request involves complex or significant issues, we may ask you for further information.
If you are not satisfied with our response, especially if your legitimate interests have been violated by us, you can seek a solution from the relevant data protection supervisory authority in your jurisdiction. If you make the above inquiry to us, we will provide you with information on the relevant complaint channels that may apply to your case.
Thank you for your time to read our Privacy Policy!