Privacy policy
Last updated: 2026-10-17
This policy tells you what Yada collects, why, who can see it, and how long Yada keeps it. It covers the Yada iPhone app that you install through TestFlight, and the website yada.ing.
The short version
- Yada records every voice conversation in a Journey, from start to end. You cannot use Yada if you do not agree to this.
- You and the other person can both play the recording again, and you both get the same notes.
- At the Reveal, Yada records your first reaction. The other person gets it and can share it outside Yada without asking you.
- The other person can share a keepsake of your conversation. It can show your first name. You can turn this off.
- Nobody sees where you are. Yada uses your approximate location only for distance limits. Cards show your city.
- Your yes or no answers, your private notes and your matching answers are only for you.
- Yada does not sell your data and does not use it for advertising.
- You can delete your account in the app at any time.
Who runs Yada
Joshua Katigbak runs Yada ("Yada", "we", "us") and is the controller of your personal data. To contact Yada about privacy, write to hello@yada.ing.
What Yada is
Yada is a voice-first dating app for adults. You hear a person first and see them later. You have three voice conversations with a person. After that, you can both choose the Reveal, where you see each other's portrait for the first time. If you both say yes after the Reveal, you get a shared room.
What you give Yada
Sign-in
You sign in with Apple or with Google. Yada has no passwords.
- Yada's sign-in service receives your email address from Apple or Google. If you use Apple's "Hide My Email", Yada gets the relay address only. Yada does not ask for your name or profile picture.
- The sign-in service keeps your email address, your Apple or Google account ID, the sign-in token from Apple or Google, and your session records. A session record holds your IP address and your device's user agent (a short text that names the app and system version).
- The main Yada server never receives your email address or your name from sign-in. It receives only a short-lived sign-in token that identifies your account.
- If you sign in with Apple and with Google, and both give the same verified email address, Yada links them to one account.
Birth date
You give your birth date when you sign up. Yada uses it to check that you are 18 or older, and to show your age. Other people see your age, not your birth date.
Your introduction card (other people see this)
- Your first name, your city and your age.
- One short line that you write.
- Your voice introduction: 2 to 4 short spoken answers to prompts that you choose. You can mark one favourite moment.
People see your card when Yada suggests you to them, or when you appear in their Discover deck.
Your matching answers (only you see these)
- I'm a (Woman or Man) and Show me (Women, Men or Everyone). These answers can show your sexual orientation.
- The age range you want, what you are looking for, and your dealbreakers and distance limit.
- Three facts about you: if you smoke, if you have children, and if you want children.
Yada uses these answers only to decide who you see and who sees you. They never show on your card, your introduction or your profile.
Location
- Yada asks every person for location permission. Your iPhone gives Yada an approximate location only.
- The app rounds your location to about 1 km before it sends it. The server keeps only that one rounded point and the time of the update. Yada keeps no precise location and no location history.
- The app updates the point at most once a day, when you open the app.
- Yada uses the point only for distance limits, yours and other people's. Nobody sees where you are or how far away you are.
- To find your city name, the app sends your location to Apple's reverse geocoding service. If you do not allow location, you search for your city, and the search text goes to Apple's map search.
- If you turn location off, the app clears your stored point. Your own limit then works as "any distance" in your city, and people who set a distance limit do not see you.
Portrait
- You take your portrait with the in-app front camera only. You cannot choose a photo from your library.
- When you take it, the app asks you to turn your head. Your iPhone checks this on the device. Yada does not store or send any face data, face template or liveness recording.
- Nobody sees your portrait before the Reveal.
Notices you accept
Yada keeps a record of which version of each notice you accepted and when, including the recording terms.
Purchases
If the beta offers sparks, a subscription or extra slots, Apple handles the payment. In TestFlight, purchases use Apple's test environment and cost nothing. Yada receives a record of the store transaction, never your card details.
What Yada records
Voice conversations in a Journey
- Yada records every voice conversation in a Journey, from start to end. Each person's microphone is recorded as a separate track.
- Taking part in a conversation means that you agree to the recording. You cannot turn it off for one call or for one person. If you do not agree, you cannot use Yada.
Your Reveal reaction
- When you both choose the Reveal, the app records your first reaction with the front camera and the microphone. The kept clip starts about 3 seconds before the other person's portrait shows and ends about 12 seconds after.
- The recording stays on your iPhone until the app uploads it privately to Yada.
- Yada tells you this before the Reveal: "Your reaction is recorded. [Name] can share it."
Your room
After a mutual yes, you and the other person share a room. Yada keeps what you post there: text, voice notes of up to 2 minutes, answers to the daily question, and meeting plans. Calls in a room are not recorded and not transcribed.
What Yada makes from your recordings
- Transcript and notes. A written version of the conversation, a short summary and highlighted moments. The app shows: "Written down by Yada. It can get words wrong."
- Speech timing. Yada works out who spoke when. It uses this for the keepsake drawing.
- Keepsakes. After each conversation, you each get a keepsake: a drawing shaped only by who spoke when. It never shows a portrait, a date, a time or a city.
Yada makes notes for the first 60 minutes of a call. A call shorter than 5 minutes does not count as a conversation and gets no notes.
What you write
- Your private notes and comments on moments, during and after a call.
- Your reports of a mistake in the notes.
- Your private check-in answer after each call, and your yes or no after the Reveal.
- Your Discover choices (yes, skip, save, not for me). Yada stores these entries encrypted.
AI processing
During the beta today, Yada sends nothing to AI services. The beta server makes placeholder notes on the server itself. Before Yada turns on AI notes, it updates this page and tells you in the app.
When AI notes are on, this is how they work:
- Yada sends the AI services only the parts of each recording that contain speech, from the first 60 minutes of the call.
- Yada sends the transcript text with neutral labels such as "Speaker 1", and no names, account IDs or storage references.
- Yada never sends your private notes, check-in answers, portrait, matching answers, Reveal reaction or reports.
- Every request goes through OpenRouter with two settings: the provider must not collect the data, and the provider must keep no data after the request (zero data retention).
- Yada does not start notes after a block between the two people.
| Service | What it does | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | Passes each request to the model below | The audio clips and transcript text below |
| ElevenLabs Scribe v2 (through OpenRouter) | Turns speech into text | Speech-only audio clips from the call |
| ScaleDown models (through OpenRouter) | Find moments, sort them, write the summary | The transcript text with neutral speaker labels |
Yada does not use notes to decide who you meet, whether you can continue, safety actions, or whether a person said yes.
Who sees what
| What | Who sees it |
|---|---|
| Your first name, age, city, line and voice introduction | People Yada suggests to you, and people who see you in Discover |
| Your birth date, matching answers and location point | Only you. Yada uses them for matching |
| Your portrait | Nobody before the Reveal. After the Reveal, the other person in that Journey |
| Call recordings, transcripts and notes | You and the other person in that conversation |
| Your private notes, comments and check-in answers | Only you |
| Your yes or no after the Reveal | Only you, until you both have answered. Then you each see the outcome |
| Your Reveal reaction | You. The other person gets it only after you both lock your yes or no |
| Room posts | You and the other person in the room |
| Your reports | Yada's operator. The person you report is never told |
Only the operator, Joshua Katigbak, can open recordings and media on the server, and only to review a report or fix a problem that you or the other person reported.
Sharing outside Yada
Keepsakes
- The other person can share their keepsake of your conversation outside Yada. They choose whether it shows your first names, for example "Sam & Alex". They do not need your approval.
- A keepsake never shows a portrait, a date, a time or a city. The exported image carries no hidden data that names you or gives a date or time.
- You have a setting, on by default, in You > Settings. If you turn it off, the people you talk to cannot share keepsakes of your conversations.
Your Reveal reaction
The person who receives your Reveal reaction can share it outside Yada without your approval. Yada tells you this in onboarding and before the Reveal.
Copies cannot be recalled
When someone saves, screen-records or shares something outside Yada, Yada cannot get it back. A block or account deletion stops new access in Yada only.
Other services that process your data
| Service | What it does | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, TestFlight, city lookup and search, App Store payments | Your sign-in, your approximate location or city search text, TestFlight data |
| Sign in with Google, if you choose it. Web fonts on yada.ing | Your sign-in. For the fonts, your browser's IP address and user agent | |
| Cloudflare | Runs the sign-in service and its database, stores media files, serves yada.ing and passes traffic to the Yada server | Your sign-in data, your media files, and the network traffic between the app or your browser and Yada |
| Hetzner | Hosts the Yada server in Helsinki, Finland | Everything the Yada server stores |
Yada runs its own copy of LiveKit (open-source call software) on its own server, so the company LiveKit does not receive your calls. The app contains no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting software. The website yada.ing sets no cookies and has no analytics.
Where Yada stores your data
- Sign-in data: Cloudflare Workers and Cloudflare D1.
- Account, profile, matching answers, location point, transcripts, notes and records: a PostgreSQL database on a Hetzner server in Helsinki, Finland. The same server runs the call software.
- Media files: a private Cloudflare R2 storage bucket. Nobody can open a file without permission from the Yada server.
- On your iPhone: your session token in the iPhone Keychain, and a recording until its upload is complete.
Cloudflare can process data outside the European Union. Where it does, it uses the safeguards in its data processing terms. Traffic between the app and Yada is encrypted (HTTPS).
During the beta, the server database has no backup copy. If the server fails, beta data can be lost.
Why Yada uses your data
| Use | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|
| Your account, introductions, Journeys, call recording and replay, the Reveal, rooms and keepsakes | Performance of a contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Your matching answers about who you are and who you want to see | Your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a)), which you give when you answer them |
| Your approximate location | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) through the iPhone location permission |
| Safety: blocks, reports, held evidence, the age check | Legitimate interest in keeping people safe (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Security and sign-in records | Legitimate interest in protecting the service (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Records that the law requires | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) |
You can withdraw consent at any time: change your answers in You, or turn off location in your iPhone settings. Withdrawal does not affect what Yada did before.
How long Yada keeps your data
The beta has no fixed retention periods yet and no automatic deletion schedule. Yada keeps your data while your account is open. Call recordings, transcripts and notes stay as shared history for both people, also after a Journey ends. When Yada sets retention periods, it updates this page.
Blocks, reports and leaving
Block
- On every screen with another person, a shield at the top right lets you report, block or leave.
- When you block a person, they cannot contact you again, and your Journey or room with them ends.
- The blocked person loses access to your shared call recordings, notes, transcripts and keepsake drawings. They keep only the notes they wrote themselves.
- You keep your history of the conversations. Yada keeps what a safety review needs.
- If you remove a person from your Blocked list, you stay separated for good. Yada never suggests or matches you again.
Report
- You can report a person or an item, with a reason and a note.
- The person you report is never told that a report exists. They can see only its effects, such as a block or an ended Journey.
- A report holds the reported item and its media as evidence, so that nobody deletes it during the review.
- During the beta, the operator reviews reports. To ask about a decision, write to hello@yada.ing.
Leave
If you leave a Journey or a room, it ends for you both. The other person sees that it ended, not who ended it.
Deleting your account
To delete your account, open You > Settings > Delete account in the app. If you cannot use the app, write to hello@yada.ing from the email address you signed in with. Yada answers within one month.
When you delete your account, you can no longer sign in, your open Journeys and rooms end, and the other person can no longer play your shared recordings or read the shared transcripts and notes. Yada then erases your voice introduction, portraits, Reveal reactions, your own call recordings and unfinished uploads, and your sign-in record. Items that an open report holds as evidence stay until the review ends. Text that you and the other person wrote, such as transcripts and notes, stays on the server, but nobody can read it in the app.
If you sign in again later with the same Apple or Google account, Yada treats you as a new person.
Copies that someone already saved or shared outside Yada stay where they are.
Age
Yada is for adults 18 and older. If your birth date shows that you are under 18, you cannot continue, and Yada creates no account. Yada keeps only a one-way code (a hash) of your Apple or Google sign-in ID, so the same sign-in cannot try again with another birth date. Yada does not check ID during the beta. If you think a person is under 18, report them with the reason "May be under 18".
Your rights
You can ask Yada for a copy of your data, ask Yada to correct or delete it, ask Yada to limit how it uses it, object to a use based on legitimate interest, and get your data in a portable form. Write to hello@yada.ing. Yada answers within one month.
You can also complain to the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (aki.ee) or to the data protection authority where you live.
Beta status
- This is a beta. It runs only on iPhone, through Apple's TestFlight.
- Features, rules and this policy can change during the beta.
- The recording consent text and the AI vendor terms have not had their final legal review.
- Apple runs TestFlight. Apple can share with Yada some data, such as crash reports, usage counts, and the feedback and screenshots you choose to send. Apple's own privacy policy applies to TestFlight.
Changes to this policy
When Yada changes this policy, it updates this page and the date at the top. For an important change, Yada tells you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.