Terms and Privacy Policy

Hala Message

Terms & Privacy Policy.

Last Modified: July 23, 2020.

We highlight very important information in yellow, to make it easy for you to read

Cider Works is an African social commerce company, located in Abuja, Nigeria, registered under the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission with reference number : 1333289.  Hala Message is a product of Cider Works Limited and we retain the intellectual property of the nature and workings of the service, either offline or online. Hala Message Limited and Cider Works Limited share the same rights to this software and can we used interchangeably in this document.

Our goal is to simulate and improve physical and online interactions between people with technology in order to improve business experiences. All of our services are guided by this goal.

Hala Message is a fun and social way to discover, connect, showcase yourself and do business with people. It's currently built for iOS and Android devices and accessible through the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and through beta testing on TestFlight By Apple. Hala is fundamentally messaging, where you send messages and money to people you connect to , but there is so much more you can send: you can post photos, links and with links to your website or other online content, or videos in a location for varying periods of time. We will put everything in place to improve the ease of doing business in a fast but secure way.

When you use the services on Hala Message, Cider Works as a whole or anywhere else —you’ll share some information with us. We get that it can affect your privacy. So we want to be upfront about the information we collect, how we use it, whom we share it with, and the choices we give you to control, access, and update your information.

That’s why we’ve written this Privacy Policy. And it’s why we’ve tried to write it in a way that’s free of the legal complexities  that often clouds documents like this. Of course, if you still have questions about anything in our Privacy Policy, just contact us: hello@halamessage.com

Protecting Our Community

Hala Message is a social network and a growing community for local and online businesses in which we treat every member as family and hold to high regards. However, in some cases, some users can unconsciously or consciously  become bad actors and we need to put measures in place to protect everyone.

We have implemented mechanisms for our users to protect themselves from any form of harmful content they may discover such as the ability to block posts of other users and report inappropriate content. This means that at any time, we can take action against you or your content without informing you as we carry out our investigation. Your content may be taken down irrecoverably, so please respect the rights of other users.  

Your License to Use the Services

Hala Message  gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you. This license has the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of Hala Message as provided by Hala Message Limited, in the manner permitted by these Terms.

Hala Message services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of both Nigeria and other countries. Nothing in the Terms gives you a right to use the Hala Message name or any of the Hala Message trademarks, logos, domain names, other distinctive brand features, and other proprietary rights. All right, title, and interest in and to the Services (excluding Content provided by users) are and will remain the exclusive property of Hala Message Limited and its licensors. Any feedback, comments, or suggestions you may provide regarding Hala Message, or the Services is entirely voluntary and we will be free to use such feedback, comments or suggestions as we see fit and without any obligation to you.

Who May Use the Services

You may use the Services only if you agree to form a binding contract with Hala Message and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the applicable jurisdiction. In any case, you must be at least 13 years old to use this Service. If you are accepting these Terms and using the Services on behalf of a company, organization, government, or other legal entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so and have the authority to bind such entity to these Terms, in which case the words “you” and “your” as used in these Terms shall refer to such entity.

You are responsible for your use of the Services and for any Content you provide, including compliance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others.

Any use or reliance on any Content or materials posted via Hala Message or obtained by you through Hala Message is at your own risk. We do not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any Content or communications posted via Hala Message or endorse any opinions expressed via Hala Message. You understand that by using Hala Message, you may be exposed to Content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive. All Content is the sole responsibility of the person who originated such Content. We may not monitor or control the Content posted via the Hala Message and, we cannot take responsibility for such Content.

We reserve the right to remove Content that violates the User Agreement, including for example, copyright or trademark violations or other intellectual property misappropriation, impersonation, unlawful conduct, or harassment. Report any form of content violation to content_support@halamessage.com

Your Rights and Grant of Rights to Content

You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or showcase on Hala Message.. What’s yours is yours — you own your Content (photos, links to social media, website, buttons, text, prices and documents are considered part of the Content).

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Hala Message, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed (for clarity, these rights include, for example, curating, transforming, and translating). This license authorizes us to make your Content available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same. You agree that this license includes the right for Hala Message to provide, promote, and improve the Services and to make Content submitted to or through the Services available to other companies, organizations or individuals for the syndication, broadcast, distribution, promotion or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use. Such additional uses by Hala Message, or other companies, organizations or individuals, is made with no compensation paid to you with respect to the Content that you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through Hala Message as the use of the Services by you is hereby agreed as being sufficient compensation for the Content and grant of rights herein.

Hala Message has an evolving set of rules for how ecosystem partners can interact with your Content on the Services. These rules exist to enable an open ecosystem with your rights in mind. You understand that we may modify or adapt your Content as it is distributed, syndicated, published, or broadcast by us and our partners and/or make changes to your Content in order to adapt the Content to different media.

You represent and warrant that you have, or have obtained, all rights, licenses, consents, permissions, power and/or authority necessary to grant the rights granted herein for any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. You agree that such Content will not contain material subject to copyright or other proprietary rights, unless you have necessary permission or are otherwise legally entitled to post the material and to grant Hala Message the license described above.

Information We Collect

There are three basic categories of information we collect:

• Information you choose to give us.
• Information we get when you use our services.
• Information we get from third parties.

Here’s a little more detail on each of these categories.

Information You Choose to Give Us

When you interact with our services, we collect the information  you choose to share with us. For example, most of our services require you to set up an account, so we need to collect a few important details about you, such as: your phone number,a name you’d like to go by, a passcode  and an email address for communication about your money. To make it easier for others to find you, we  also ask you to provide us with some additional information that may be publicly visible on our services, such as profile pictures, a name, or other useful identifying information. For Wallet, we may require you to provide us with a debit or credit card details which we will tie securely  to Your Unique profile.Please note that we do not store card details on our servers for security reasons, rather we store them with our financial partner who have the rights and vetted security measures to keep them safe.

Of course, you’ll also provide us whatever information you send through the services, such as photos, phone book  and location data. Keep in mind that photos are regarded are public, any  content you share may be  saved and criticised. So, the same common sense that applies to the internet at large applies to Hala Message as well: Don’t post  or share content that you are not comfortable with sharing. It’s like a Signboard/Billboard - You only want content on Hala Message that you don’t mind the world seeing.

It probably goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: When you contact Support (Hala Team) or communicate with us in any other way, we’ll collect whatever information you volunteer.

Information We Get When You Use Our Services

When you use our services, we collect information about which of those services you’ve used and how you’ve used them. We might know, for instance, that you viewed a particular post, saw a specific profile or advertisement for a certain period of time, and saved a photos or taken screenshots. Here’s a fuller explanation of the types of information we collect when you use our services :

• Usage Information. We collect information about your activity through our services. For example, we may collect information about:

• how you interact with the services, such as your content location data, caption, wallet data, or which search queries you submit and suggested interests in search. Search is a vital part of our app, we plan to use this aspect of Hala Message to provide you with very useful information - we could also share this information with our third party partners, but it a way that would not be harmful to you or people in your circle.

• the location of chats or content  when you post them from your device.

• how you communicate with other Hala Message users, such as their names, the time and date of your communications, the call history , how much you send and receive via Wallet and money requests regardless of the expression.

• Users will be able to reach you via phone, so we might track your call attempts too. This also applies to social media applications you choose to link to your profile.

• Content Information. We collect information about the content you provide, such as if the recipient has viewed the content and the metadata that is provided with the content.

• Device Information. We may or may not collect device-specific information, such as location data, the hardware model, operating system version, advertising identifier, unique application identifiers, unique device identifiers, browser type, language, wireless network, and mobile network information (including the mobile phone number).

• Device Phonebook. Because Hala Message may allow you to  communicate and send money with your friends, we —with your consent—collect information from your device’s phonebook.

• Camera and Photos. Many of our services require us to collect images and other information from your device’s camera and photos. For example, you won’t be able to send pictures or other media from your camera roll unless we can access your camera or photos. This applies to both our iOS and Android clients. We use WeTransfer as a method of transferring content, using Hala means you accept their terms and conditions as well. We would not be held responsible for any breach of privacy that may occur with any 3rd party service you use for showcase or send media.

• Location Information. When you use our services we may collect information about your location. With your consent, we may also collect information about your precise location using methods that include GPS, wireless networks, cell towers, Wi-Fi access points, and other sensors, such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, and compasses.

• Information Collected by Cookies and Other Technologies. Like most online services and mobile applications, we may use cookies and other technologies, such as web beacons, web storage, and unique advertising identifiers, to collect information about your activity, browser, and device. We may also use these technologies to collect information when you interact with services we offer through one of our partners, such as commerce features. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually remove or reject browser cookies through the settings on your browser or device. Keep in mind, though, that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of our services.
• Log Information. We may also collect log information when you use our application. That information includes, among other things:

• details about how you’ve used our services.
• device information, such as your device or platform type and language.
• access times, pages viewed, IP address, identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify your device or browser, pages you visited before or after navigating our app or any expression of our service.

Information We Collect from Third Parties

We may collect information that other users provide about you when they use our services. For example, if another user allows us to collect information from their device phonebook—and you’re one of that user’s contacts—we may combine the information we collect from that user’s phonebook with other information we have collected about you. We may also obtain information from other companies that are owned or operated by us, or any other third-party sources, and combine that with the information we collect through our services.

How We Use Information

What do we do with the information we collect?

All the information we collect from you will be used entirely to better your experiences at Hala Message.

Here are some of the ways we do that:

• develop, operate, improve, deliver, maintain, and protect our products and services.
• send you communications, including by email. For example, we may use email to respond to support inquiries or to share information about our products, services, and promotional offers that we think may interest you.
• monitor and analyze trends and usage.
• personalize the services by, among other things, suggesting friends or profile information, or customizing the content we show you, including ads.
• contextualize your experience by, among other things, tagging your Memories content using your precise location data (if, of course, you’ve consented to us collecting that data) and applying other labels based on the content.
• improve ad targeting and measurement, including through the use of your precise location data (again, if you’ve consented to us collecting that data). See the Control Over Your Information section below for more information about Cider Works/Hala Message advertising practices and your choices.
• enhance the safety and security of our products and services.
• verify your identity and prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity.
• use information we’ve collected from cookies and other technology to enhance the services and your experience with them.
• enforce our Terms of Service and other usage policies.

We may also store some information locally on your device. For example, we may store information as local cache so that you can open the app and view content faster.

How We Share Information.

We may share information about you in the following ways:

• With other Hala Message Users. We may share the following information with other Hala Message users:

• information about you, such as your username, legal name, and avatar.
• information about how you have interacted with the services, such as your Hala ID or phone number, and other information that will help Hala Message understand your connections with others using all Cider Works services or services of our partners.
•  
• any additional information you have consented for us to share. For example, when you let us access your device phonebook, we may share information about you with other users who have your phone number in their device phonebook.
• content you post may  be shared with other Hala Message users; how widely your content is shared depends on the on reach you choose. For example, a post may be posted in chat, or on profile or on an embedded applet or in a short radius but your content may be pumped to another location for any reason left to our discretion. We also would not be held responsible for your content that may be taken out of Hala Message to other platforms like social media services or news sites.

• With all Hala Messages, our business partners, and the general public. We may share the following information with all Hala Messages as well as with our business partners and the general public:

• public information like your name, username, unique ID  and pictures.
• any content that you submit to Hala Message or through the in-app Hala Message browser.

• With our affiliates. We may share information with entities within the Hala Message or Cider Works family.

• With third parties. We may share your information with the following third parties:

• With service providers, sellers, and partners. We may share information about you with service providers who perform services on our behalf, sellers that provide goods through our services, and business partners that provide services and functionality.

• With third parties for legal reasons. We may share information about you if we reasonably believe that disclosing the information is needed to:

• comply with any valid legal process, governmental request, or applicable law, rule, or regulation.
• investigate, remedy, or enforce potential Terms of Service violations.
• protect the rights, property, and safety of us, our users, or others.
• detect and resolve any fraud or security concerns.

• With third parties as part of a merger or acquisition. If Hala Message or Cider Works. gets involved in a merger, asset sale, financing, liquidation or bankruptcy, or acquisition of all or some portion of our business to another company, we may share your information with that company before and after the transaction closes.

We may also share with third parties—such as advertisers—aggregated, non-personally identifiable, or de-identified information.

Third-Party Content and Integrations.

Hala Message  may also contain third-party links and search results, include third-party integrations, or offer a co-branded or third-party-branded service. Through these links, third-party integrations, and co-branded or third-party-branded services, you may (but hardly) be providing information (including personal information) directly to the third party, us, or both. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for how those third parties collect or use your information. As always, we encourage you to review the privacy policies of every third-party website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties you interact with through our services.

Hala Message gives everyone an opportunity to get their content out. We do not take any responsibility for any user generated content on Hala Message or website you view through our service.

Analytics and Advertising Services Provided by Others.

We may let other companies use cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies on our services. These companies may collect information about how you use our services and other websites and online services over time and across different services. This information may be used to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand your online activity.

Additionally, some companies may use information collected on our services to deliver targeted advertisements on behalf of us or other companies, including on third-party websites and apps. For more information about interest-based ads and the choices available to you, send a mail to hello@halamessage.com

How Long We Keep Your Content

Hala Message lets you upload your content and show the world your craft. On our end, that means that we automatically delete your chats after they have been delivered from our servers. This means that when you reinstall Hala, you may lose all your chat history. We would not take responsibility for any lost messages.  But remember: There are various ways Hala Messages may save your content.  We go into more detail below about how users can save Hala Message content.

Outside of posts or chats, the rest of our services may use content for longer periods of time or fail to delete them from our databases, which means those services may follow different deletion protocols. So, for example, we may  retain your chats longer than normal. Or, if you submit content in a way that may require the content to last longer.  If you have any questions about how a feature works you can just  reach us via hello@halamessage.com

You should understand that users who see the content you post or send can always save it using any number of techniques: screenshots, in-app (device)  functionality, or any other image-capture technology. It’s also possible, as with any digital information, that someone might be able to access content  forensically or find them in a device’s temporary storage. Keep in mind that, while our systems are designed to carry out our deletion practices automatically, we cannot promise that deletion will occur within a specific timeframe. And we may need to suspend those deletion practices if we receive a valid legal process asking us to preserve content or if we receive reports of abuse or other Terms of Service violations. Finally, we may also retain certain information in backup for a limited period of time or as required by law.

Control over Your Information.

We want you to be in control of your information, so we provide you with the following tools.

• Access and Updates. We strive to let you access and update most of the personal information that we have about you. There are limits though to the requests we’ll accommodate. We may reject a request for a number of reasons, including, for example, that the request risks the privacy of other users, requires technical efforts that are disproportionate to the request, is repetitive, or is unlawful. You can access and update most of your Hala information  right in the app by tapping your profile image, or in settings or wallet - you may give access to that page entering a unique pass code. ID is a Hala Message service and is  important to us, so we may ask you to verify your identity or provide additional information before we let you access or update your personal information.
• Revoking Permissions. If you change your mind about our ongoing ability to collect information from certain sources that you have already consented to, such as your phonebook or location services, you can simply revoke your consent by changing the settings on your device if your device offers those options. Of course, if you do that, certain services may lose full functionality. If it would make you more comfortable, you may reinstall the app from either the App Store or Google Play Store.

• Advertising Preferences. We may try  to show you ads or businesses that we think will be relevant to your interest.Please note that we have implemented various security measures within the app, so we advise that you do not expect the same features from this app as you would on other apps. For example, you may not be able to log out at will and you can only run one session of Hala Message per device per time. You will be logged out of any existing session if you sign in on a new device. This is for security purposes.

Users Outside Nigeria.

Although we plan to have users  from all over the world, keep in mind that no matter where you live or where you happen to use our services, your information may be shared with Cider Works Limited. This means that we may collect your personal information from, transfer it to, and store and process it in Nigeria or on any of our servers worldwide. We take no responsibility for and law that does not relate to Nigerian laws.

Children.

We do not limit our services to an age range at the moment, but we do not take responsibilities for any law against having children on an app like Hala Message. If  you are a parent, we suggest you monitor your child's phone usage and manage their hala usage at your discretion.

Revisions to the Privacy Policy.

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time at our discretion. We advise that you check this document often as we put it front and centre in the Hala Message app. We may  let you know one way or another.  Sometimes, we’ll let you know by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy that’s available on the Hala Message  website and Hala Message iOS and Android  application. Other times, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our websites’ homepages or providing you with an in-app notification).

2020, Cider Works Limited & Hala Message Limited