Terms of use
These terms are an agreement between you and the owner of TalkAm ("TalkAm", "we", "us"). By opening or using TalkAm you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.
1. Who can use TalkAm
- You must be at least 16 years old. To buy Premium or boosts you must be 18 or older, or have a parent or guardian's permission.
- You must follow the laws of Ghana and of the place you are in.
- If we remove you from TalkAm, you may not come back with a new account.
2. Your account
TalkAm needs no name, email or phone number. Your account lives on your phone. If you lose your phone or clear your browser data, you may lose the account unless you saved a recovery code. Keep the code private. Anyone who has it can open your account. We cannot restore an account without the code.
3. What you may not post or do
- Harassment, bullying, threats, hate speech, or content that attacks people for their tribe, religion, gender, disability or sexuality.
- Sexual content, nudity, or anything involving children in a sexual or harmful way. We report this to the police and other authorities.
- Private information about other people, such as names with phone numbers, addresses, ID numbers, or photos of people without their consent.
- False statements that damage a real person or business (defamation), or impersonating someone else.
- Scams, fake offers, spam, fake reviews, illegal goods or services, drugs, weapons, or anything that breaks the law.
- Content that you do not have the right to share, such as other people's copyrighted photos, videos or music.
- Trying to break, overload, scrape, reverse-engineer or get around the limits and safety features of TalkAm, or creating many accounts to avoid a ban.
4. Your content
- You own what you post. You are fully responsible for it.
- By posting, you give TalkAm a free, worldwide licence to host, show, copy and distribute your content inside TalkAm so the app can work. This ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies that other people made lawfully, and backups that are removed in the normal cycle.
- Posts and replies are visible to people near you. Photos and videos can be opened by anyone who has the link.
- Other users' content is theirs. We do not check it before it appears and we do not promise it is true.
5. Moderation and removal
Members can report posts and replies. Posts with enough reports are removed automatically. TalkAm may remove any content, limit features, or suspend or close any account at any time if we believe these terms are broken, the law requires it, or other people are at risk. We may do this without warning. Removed posts can cost karma. Decisions about content are ours to make, but you can ask us to review a decision using the contact details below.
6. Reporting illegal or harmful content
To report content that is illegal, defamatory, infringes your rights, or shows a child in danger, use the report button in the app, or email us at the address below with: a link or description of the post, what is wrong, and how to contact you. We aim to review reports promptly and remove content that clearly breaks these terms or the law. For emergencies, call the police or emergency services first. TalkAm cannot respond to emergencies.
7. Anonymous does not mean untraceable
Other users cannot see who you are. TalkAm keeps limited technical records to run and protect the service. If a court, the police or another authority lawfully requires it, or if we believe it is needed to prevent serious harm, we may share information we hold, including account and content records.
8. Premium, boosts and payments
- Premium and boosts are paid through Paystack. Prices are shown in Ghana cedis before you pay.
- Premium gives extra features for the period you pay for. Some plans renew automatically each period until you cancel with Paystack or by contacting us. We will show a reminder before Premium ends.
- Premium styling on a post follows your Premium status when you posted. When Premium ends, features end.
- Refunds: payments are generally non-refundable once the feature has started, except where the law requires it, or where you were charged by mistake or twice. Contact us within 7 days with your payment details and we will look at it fairly.
- Premium does not give you the right to break the rules. We may remove Premium from accounts that are suspended.
9. Meeting people and safety
People on TalkAm are strangers. Do not share your phone number, address or money. Meet only in busy public places and tell someone you trust. We are not responsible for what happens between users, online or in person.
10. No guarantees
TalkAm is provided "as is" and "as available". We try to keep it safe and running but we do not promise it will always work, be error-free, or keep your content forever. Content comes from other users and may be wrong or offensive. Do not rely on posts for emergencies, medical, legal, financial or safety decisions.
11. Our responsibility (limits)
To the fullest extent the law of Ghana allows, TalkAm and its owner are not responsible for: what users post, losses from things you read or buy because of a post, meetings between users, or loss of data, profit or access caused by things outside our control (such as network failures, phone problems, or third-party services). Our total responsibility to you for anything connected to TalkAm is limited to the amount you paid us in the 3 months before the problem. Nothing in these terms removes rights that you have by law that cannot be removed.
12. If you break these terms
You agree to cover reasonable losses and costs that we suffer because of content you post or because you break these terms or the law, to the extent the law allows.
13. Changes, law and disputes
- We may change these terms or the app. If a change is important we will tell you in the app. Using TalkAm after a change means you accept it.
- These terms are governed by the laws of Ghana. If we cannot settle a disagreement by talking, it will be decided by the courts of Ghana.
- If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest still applies.
Privacy policy
This explains what information TalkAm collects, why, who sees it, and your choices. We try to follow Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843). We do not sell your information.
What we collect
- Anonymous account. A random ID stored on your phone. No name, email or phone number is needed.
- Approximate location. We use it to show posts near you. It is rounded (to roughly 1 km) before it is saved. Your exact position is never shown to other users. You can turn location off in your phone settings; some features then stop working.
- Your content. Posts, replies, votes, reactions, pins and saves, reports, photos and videos, and private chat messages.
- Recovery code (optional). If you create one, a hidden sign-in linked to that code is added to your account so you can restore it on a new phone. We do not know who you are from it.
- Notifications (optional). If you turn them on, your device's push address is stored so we can send alerts.
- Payments. Handled by Paystack. We receive confirmation that a payment happened, the amount and the plan. We do not see or store your card number or Mobile Money PIN.
- Technical information. Basic data needed to run and protect the app, such as device type, app version, request times and error logs, and limits to stop spam.
- Messages to us through "Report a problem", including anything you write.
- On your device. We store settings (theme, language, reminders) in your phone's browser storage. You can clear this in your browser settings.
Why we use it (and our basis)
- To run TalkAm and show you nearby content (to provide the service you asked for).
- To prevent abuse, spam, fraud and illegal content, and to keep users safe (our legitimate interest, and legal duties).
- To process Premium and boosts (to perform our agreement with you).
- To fix problems and improve the app (our legitimate interest).
- To answer you, and to meet legal requirements.
Who can see what
- Other users see your posts and replies under an anonymous name, never your account ID.
- Photos and videos you post are stored online and anyone with the link can open them.
- Private chats are visible only to the two people in them and to the system that runs TalkAm. We do not read chats unless needed to deal with a report or a legal duty.
- TalkAm admins and moderators can see reported content and account activity needed to enforce the rules.
Who we share it with
- Service providers who help us run the app: Supabase (database, storage and sign-in), Paystack (payments), and our hosting provider. They may only use data to provide their service to us.
- Authorities, when the law requires it or to prevent serious harm (see the Terms, section 7).
- A buyer, if TalkAm is ever sold or merged. We would tell you first if your data is affected.
Where it is stored and kept
Your data is processed on servers of our providers, which may be outside Ghana. We use providers that protect data with encryption in transit and access controls. We keep content while your account exists. When you delete a post, it is removed from the app. When you delete your account, your account data and content are deleted or made anonymous, except what we must keep for the law, safety or payments records (for example payment records for the time the law requires, and records of serious abuse). Backups are cleared in the normal cycle.
Your rights and choices
- Delete your content: delete your own posts any time from the ••• menu.
- Delete your account: use "Delete my account" in your profile. This cannot be undone.
- Access or correct your data, or object to how we use it: contact us below. We will reply within a reasonable time and tell you if we cannot do something and why.
- Notifications and location: turn them off in Profile or in your phone settings.
- Complaints: you can complain to Ghana's Data Protection Commission if you believe your data has been mishandled.
Security
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including access limits and encryption in transit. No service is completely secure. If a breach seriously affects you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires. Keep your recovery code private.
Children
TalkAm is for people aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from younger children. If you believe a child under 16 is using TalkAm, contact us and we will remove the account.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in an important way we will tell you in the app. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.
Contact
Operator: Galley Richmond Ebenezer, Ghana
Email for questions, reports, takedown and data requests: talkam.app@gmail.com
You can also use "Report a problem" inside the app.