Privacy

Information used by the service

Fya handles account email and password through its sign-in provider; profile details; messages and delivery details; translations and language choices; and device push tokens. Fya does not ask for a phone number at signup or upload your address book. If you check whether a contact can be found on Fya, the contact name stays on your device and only the exact email you select or enter is sent to Fya for that lookup. A match is returned only for accounts whose owner opted in and verified the current email address. The discovery feature stores your opt-in and its timestamp, not the selected name or searched email in its discovery tables. You can turn off your availability in Settings → Privacy. If you share a contact card in a message, its selected details are included in that message for its recipients. For abuse prevention, a private rate-limit record stores the number and time of recent checks linked to your account. An hourly cleanup removes it after 24 hours without activity; searched email addresses are not stored.

Translation and message access

Message text and recent conversation context can be sent automatically to our servers for translation and selected Arabic reading varieties. Servers can read this content; Fya is not end-to-end encrypted. Original messages remain available.

When you submit a translation example for review, you can separately allow its exact source text and a moderator-approved correction to be kept in Fya’s shared correction library. Fya uses it only for a later message with the same full text and source/target language forms. The shared entry may remain after report evidence expires until you withdraw this permission, a moderator removes it, the source message is deleted, or your account is deleted. You can withdraw permission in My translation reports.

How translation works

To translate, Fya sends message text and recent chat context to OpenAI or Google Gemini. Voice notes and live captions send audio to EchoNova, Deepgram or Microsoft Azure. Each provider's own terms govern how it keeps and uses this data. Fya is not end-to-end encrypted. Fya asks every account to agree to this once. If you decline, you are logged out and can sign in again at any time.

Personal translation profile

Your optional translation profile can store a tone and phrase examples in private account data. Fya uses it only when you tap “Translate with my profile” and confirm the credit cost. That request may send the message, recent conversation context, your chosen tone, and matching examples to our servers and configured translation service. Voice notes use an existing transcript; audio is not sent in this request. The result is shown only to you and is not added to shared translations or the cache. You can review and remove examples in Settings; profile data is included in your account export and deleted with your account. Fya uses examples to guide individual requests, not to train a shared model. Translation providers’ retention terms apply.

Personal AI tools

Your selected messages, draft and relevant glossary entries are processed by our server. Results stay private and are kept for up to 15 minutes. Review the original messages. Conversation context records expire after 24 hours; cached result text after 15 minutes; request and usage records after seven days. Saved glossary entries stay until you change or remove them or delete your account. Scheduled cleanup may be delayed.

Your choices and controls

Settings provides privacy controls, export and account deletion. Emails with Fya news, tips and offers are optional and start unchecked; change or withdraw the choice in Settings → Privacy. Choice, notice version/language and server timestamps are private, exported and deleted with the account. Arabic reading preferences are also private; they do not collect nationality or location. When you accept these notices in the app, Fya records your choice with the notice version, displayed app language and timestamp in your account. This record is removed with the account.

Safety reports

You can report a message, person, status or group and add a note. For a message, you can choose to include the five messages before it; only human reviewers see them. Reported media is copied to private storage, and report evidence is kept for 30 days, even if the sender deletes the message. Evidence of suspected child sexual exploitation is kept for one year so it can be given to the authorities, and never goes to AI review. Other reports go to AI-assisted review only if you allow it, which is off by default. Fya records when a reviewer opens evidence, but not its content.

Voice notes and live call captions

Voice notes are transcribed automatically. Audio of notes spoken in Arabic goes first to EchoNova in the UAE; other notes go to Deepgram. The transcript may pass through our servers for translation. Live captions are available in the default build. If enabled, both people must agree; short audio goes to Deepgram or Azure Speech for supported Amharic. Fya does not intentionally store captions in call tables.

Files, photos, and chat wallpapers

Photos, videos, documents, voice notes, profile/status media and chat wallpapers are stored in private Supabase Storage buckets. Access depends on account, conversation and audience controls. Providers apply their own retention terms.

Optional encrypted cloud backups

Cloud backup is user-initiated. Fya encrypts the archive on your device with your passphrase before upload. Supabase receives the encrypted file and basic object metadata, not the passphrase or plaintext archive. Keep the passphrase safe; Fya cannot recover it for you.

Location sharing

Fya accesses precise location only when you choose to share it. Live coordinates, accuracy, and sharing timestamps are stored with the conversation and shown to its participants until you stop sharing or the expiry time is reached. Opening a map link can send coordinates to Google Maps or Apple Maps.

Ads, notifications, and diagnostics

Google Mobile Ads/UMP can process device/ad identifiers, IP-derived approximate location, ad interactions and diagnostics; UMP refreshes at launch. Firebase Analytics/Crashlytics are off until you enable App analytics, then can process SDK identifiers, usage and diagnostic data. That switch does not disable push services, ad processing or service/security logs.

Push notifications

Firebase Cloud Messaging and Installations process push/installation identifiers and app/device technical information. Payloads can include message previews when enabled. Notification controls affect delivery/display; App analytics off does not disable these service identifiers.

Service providers and regions

Supabase provides accounts, messaging and private storage; our servers and configured translation services process translation text; Deepgram processes voice-note audio; Microsoft Azure Speech handles supported optional captions. Firebase provides push and optional diagnostics; Google provides sign-in, ads and consent. Cloudflare Realtime TURN relays encrypted WebRTC call packets and processes IP, port and timing metadata. Providers operate internationally and apply their own retention terms. EchoNova processes the audio of voice notes spoken in Arabic, in the UAE; if it is unavailable, Deepgram is used. Sentry receives optional crash reports when App analytics is on. GIPHY provides GIF search. When you search for GIFs, your search words go to GIPHY. When a GIF appears on your phone, your phone contacts GIPHY directly, which shares your IP address with GIPHY. Fya sends GIPHY a random ID, not your name, email or Fya account. GIPHY's own terms govern how it keeps and uses this data. GIPHY also learns which GIFs are shown and sent, linked to that random ID. Where Google Play credit purchases are configured, RevenueCat may initialize after sign-in and before checkout. It processes purchase status, product and transaction IDs, and device/SDK data. Fya links purchases to your account with a separate billing ID and stores verified purchase/refund records and balances. A checkout marker stays encrypted on your device until verification or cancellation. Billing is separate from optional App analytics. Fya does not send message text, voice notes or contact lists to RevenueCat. RevenueCat and Google apply their own retention rules.

Supabase · Deepgram · Google / Firebase · Microsoft · Cloudflare · RevenueCat

Links and maps

Link previews retrieve the supplied URL from its site and may use YouTube, TikTok or Spotify. Opening maps can pass shared coordinates to your chosen map service. These destinations apply their own privacy practices; Fya does not upload a browser-history list.

Retention and deletion requests

Ordinary messages and account files have no general automatic expiry. Status posts expire after 24 hours; disappearing messages use the selected timer. Consented translation-feedback text expires after 30 days; feedback metadata is eligible for removal 180 days after its last update. Cleanup runs periodically and may be delayed by retries. Service providers apply separate retention rules.

Account deletion scope

Account deletion removes your Fya account and account-owned data, including uploaded cloud backups and chat wallpapers. Copies saved by recipients and data held separately by service providers may remain under their own retention rules.

Delete your account

Operator and contact details

Fya · Abu Dhabi, UAE. Contact: info@afya.cc.

Questions

For help or privacy requests, email info@afya.cc.