Privacy Notice
What Gistme stores, what stays on your phone, and how your data is handled in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA 2023).
1. No accounts or personal profiles
Gistme does not ask for your name, email address or phone number. Room owners get a secret inbox link, and feed visitors use a 6-character code.
2. What we store
When you create a room or send a message, we store the room handle, display name, prompt, message text, comments, likes and media files (photos, short videos and voice notes). Your browser also saves a list of rooms you have opened on your own phone using localStorage.
3. Device cookie and IP hashing
To stop spam, enforce rate limits, support blocking and assign consistent comment nicknames within a feed, our server sets an httpOnly device cookie (did) and reads the request IP address. We never store raw device IDs or raw IP addresses in the database. We store only one-way cryptographic hashes (HMAC-SHA256) that room owners never see.
4. Photos, videos and voice notes
Photos are resized and redrawn in your browser before upload, which removes hidden camera and GPS location data. When you record a voice note with a voice disguise selected, the audio is irreversibly scrambled on your phone before upload. Your original voice never leaves your device, and no one, not even us, can ever hear or reverse it. If you pick "My real voice", your actual recording is uploaded as shown in the notice on the recorder.
5. 7-day media expiry
Uploaded photos, videos and voice notes automatically expire from rooms after 7 days so old files do not pile up. When a room owner deletes a message, it disappears from their inbox and feed right away. If someone reports a message for bullying, threats or illegal content, we can review and remove the reported post to keep Gistme safe.
6. Advertising (Google AdSense)
We may display sponsored ads through Google AdSense to keep this service free. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. You can opt out of personalized advertising at any time by visiting Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com).
7. How to delete your data
Room owners can delete individual messages at any time from their inbox, or delete their entire room from the Settings tab. If you lost your inbox link or want a room, message or comment removed, use the Report option on the feed or contact us on WhatsApp or email and we will take it down.