Privacy policy
Last updated 8 November 2026
This policy explains what Talkeven collects, why, and the choices you have. Talkeven is run by Lachlan Irving, an individual developer based in Australia ("we"). Contact: [email protected].
What we collect
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Email address and password (the password is handled by our sign in provider; we never see it) | To create and secure your account, and to email you a link that confirms the address is yours | Only you |
| First name, neighbourhood, bio, interests, languages and levels, times you can meet | To show your profile to people whose exchange works with yours | Members you match with |
| Profile photos (up to 3) | So language partners can recognise you when you meet. Each photo is checked automatically for explicit or violent content before anyone else can see it. The check also counts faces, because your main photo needs to show just you, with your face clearly visible. We keep a short fingerprint of each photo so the same picture used on more than one account can be spotted; a photo like that is flagged to our moderation team, and may stay hidden until they have looked at it | Signed in members, except anyone you have blocked or who has blocked you. Our moderation team if a photo is reported or flagged as a possible duplicate. When they review a possible duplicate, they also see the photos on the other accounts it matched, which may include yours |
| Whether Talkeven has verified you, how and when | To show a Verified badge, so members can see who has been checked | The badge: signed in members. The details: our moderation team |
| If you choose to verify with a selfie: your main profile photo and a selfie with a short liveness check, both sent to our verification provider Didit, which compares them and estimates your age from your face. We never receive the selfie. We keep only the result, the check scores, an estimated age band (such as 25 to 34) and the times of the check | To check you're a real person who matches your profile photo, and that you appear to be 18 or over, before showing a Verified badge | Didit processes your main photo and the selfie for us. If the check needs a closer look, a reviewer at Didit or one of our moderators. The result, scores and age band: our moderation team |
| Date of birth | Only to confirm you're 18 or over | Only you. It is never shown to other members |
| Meetup invitations (place, date, time, note) and chat messages | So you and your partner can plan and talk | You and that partner |
| Meetup check-ins: the morning after an accepted meetup we privately ask whether it happened and, if you like, whether you felt safe and whether you would meet again (yes or no to each), and anything you choose to add if you didn't feel safe | To know whether meetups are really happening and are safe, and later to show you and your partner how evenly your exchange time is balanced. If you say you didn't feel safe, it goes to our moderation team as a report | Only you. Your answers are never shown to your partner. Our moderation team sees a "no" to feeling safe and anything you add to it |
| A confirmed meetup record, made only when both people say a meetup happened | The same as check-ins | Only our systems |
| Blocks and reports | To keep members safe and review concerns | Blocks: only you. Reports: our moderation team |
| A push notification token, if you turn notifications on | To tell you about new messages and invitations, and to send meetup check-ins | Only our systems |
We do not collect your location, contacts or device diagnostics, and the app never uses your camera itself. If you choose to verify with a selfie, Didit's page asks to use your camera, and the selfie goes to Didit, not to us. Profile photos are only the ones you choose to add from your library; the app re-sizes them on your phone before upload, which drops location data embedded in the original. The neighbourhood on your profile is whatever you type. We do not use advertising or analytics tools, we do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not sell or share your data.
Waitlist
If you join the waitlist on this website, we keep your first name, email, the languages you speak and are learning, your city (optional) and your phone type, so we can tell you when Talkeven is ready for you. We don't share the list. Email [email protected] to be removed at any time.
Service providers
We use Google Firebase to run the app: Firebase Authentication for sign in and for the email that confirms your address, and a database, photo storage and server functions hosted in Sydney, Australia. Profile photos are screened automatically by Google Cloud Vision, which checks each new photo for explicit, violent or racy content and counts the faces in it (this check may be processed outside Australia); a photo that fails is deleted straight away and never shown. Counting faces is all it does: it does not recognise who anyone is. Nobody on our team looks at your photos unless someone reports them, or our automatic check flags one because the same picture is on another account. To review a possible duplicate, a moderator looks at the flagged photo and at the matching photos on the other accounts, so they may see your photos when someone else's photo matches one of yours. Push notifications are delivered through Expo's push service, Apple and Google. They process data on our behalf under their own security and privacy terms, and only to provide these services.
Selfie verification. Verifying with a selfie is optional. It is done by Didit, a verification company that processes the data for us in the European Union (Ireland). We send Didit your main profile photo, and you take a selfie on Didit's page with a short liveness check (to tell a real person from a photo or a screen). Didit compares the selfie with your main photo and estimates your age from your face. Before the selfie, the app explains the check, and Didit asks for your consent again on its own page. If the check needs a closer look, a person may review it: a reviewer at Didit, or one of our moderators, who can see the check in Didit's system. We keep the result, the check scores and an age band, never your selfie or the exact age estimate, and Talkeven never receives your selfie. We ask Didit to delete the selfie, the check and the face template made from it as soon as the check is decided, which is usually straight away. A check waiting for review is kept at Didit until a person decides it; if nobody has within 7 days, we close it as not verified, ask Didit to delete it, and you can try again. Didit never keeps a check longer than one month.
How long we keep it
We keep your data while your account exists. You can change a check-in answer for 7 days after it arrives. Your verification record (including a selfie check's outcome, scores and age band) is kept while your account exists, and replaced if you verify again. When you delete your account we ask Didit to delete every selfie check of yours it still holds (we keep a list of them until Didit confirms, and try again daily if it does not), and we delete your profile, profile photos and their screening records (including their fingerprints), your verification record, date of birth, invitations, conversations and messages (for both people in a conversation), meetup check-ins (yours, and your partners' check-ins about meetups with you), confirmed meetup records, blocks and notification tokens. Removing a photo from your profile deletes it too. Exception: safety reports made by you or about you are kept after deletion so we can act on patterns of abuse; they are only accessible to moderators.
Accounts under review. If you delete your account while it is suspended, or while someone has an open report about you, we still delete everything listed above. But for two years we keep a small record so the same person can't simply start again: why it was kept, the reports and moderation actions about the account, a scrambled copy of your sign in email (salted and hashed, so it can't be turned back into the address), and short fingerprints of your profile photos, never the photos themselves. For those two years that email can't be used for a new profile, and a new photo matching one of those fingerprints is shown to our moderation team, who decide what to do. Only our systems and moderation team can access the record, and we delete it when the two years are up. Deleting an account that isn't suspended or reported leaves no such record.
Your choices
- Edit your profile at any time in the app.
- Turn notifications off in your phone's settings.
- Skip any check-in, or answer "no" to "would you meet again?" to stop check-ins for that plan. That only applies to you, and your partner is not told.
- Block anyone, which hides you from each other and cancels open plans.
- Verify with a selfie, or don't. Without it you can still browse and chat; if Talkeven asks members to verify before meeting, you'll need it to make plans. Changing your main photo removes the Verified badge until you verify again.
- Delete your account in the app (Profile → Delete account) or as described on the account deletion page.
- Ask us for a copy of your data or a correction by emailing [email protected].
Adults only
Talkeven is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you believe a child is using Talkeven, please report it in the app or email us and we will remove the account.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Access to member data is enforced on our servers, so the app cannot read another member's private details. No system is perfectly secure; tell us at once if you suspect a problem with your account.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date above, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.