Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Gua collects, uses, shares and stores personal information when you use the app and the website.

Because Gua is still a prototype, some features, infrastructure, retention periods and account flows may change as the project develops.

1. Who we are

Gua is an experimental, federated messaging project, with open-source apps.

The Gua apps are published by the developer Gua, which is responsible for this policy. Contact details are in section 13.

Gua uses the open Matrix protocol, which allows communication between users of different servers.

The published Gua source code is on GitHub: https://github.com/Gua-ra

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Phone number. Used to create and secure your account, verify sign-in, prevent abuse and support account recovery. Anyone who has your number can see, through Find friends, that you use Gua, with your username and display name.
• Server lookup. Before you sign in, the app sends your phone number to the Gua Resolver, which answers with the server for that account. The app can also send your country and mobile carrier to help choose a server for a new account.
• PIN. The PIN you set to protect your account. We store only a hash of it, never the PIN itself.
• Passkeys. If you add a passkey, we store its public key and related metadata, such as when it was created and last used. We never receive the passkey's private key.
• Profile details. Optional display name and avatar that you choose to show to others.
• Account settings. Preferences, security settings, device/session state and account status.

Information created as you use Gua

• Encrypted message content. Messages and files may be relayed or stored so they can sync to your devices and reach recipients. In private conversations this content is end-to-end encrypted and not readable by Gua.
• Server logs. Gua's servers keep logs to operate the service, diagnose bugs, prevent spam and abuse, enforce rate limits and keep accounts secure. They can include your username, IP address and phone number, and are kept for up to 31 days.
• Push tokens. Apple or Google push notification tokens are used to wake your app for new messages. A notification carries only the identifiers of the new message and its conversation. Your app then downloads the message and decrypts it on your device, so Apple and Google do not receive message content.
• Device and session metadata. We may process information needed to manage your signed-in devices, authentication sessions, encryption state and account security.
• Trusted devices. For each device you sign in on, we store a device identifier, the device name, platform, app version, the last IP address it used, and when it was first and last seen. This lets you recognize your devices and helps protect your account.

When you use this website

• Server logs. Like most websites, gua.global keeps ordinary server logs: your IP address, browser, the page you asked for and the page that linked to it. They are kept for up to 31 days to run the site and detect abuse.
• Visit and click counts. The site counts page views and clicks on its main buttons, by country. The country is worked out from your IP address when the request arrives. The counts contain no IP address or other identifier and are kept for 15 days.
• No cookies. The site sets no cookies and uses no third-party analytics. Your language choice is saved in your browser. It is sent to us only with a support or beta request, so we can reply in your language.
• Support and beta requests. When you send a form on the Support page, we receive what you enter, including your email address. Each request is stored as a private ticket on GitHub and answered by email. For beta invitations, your email address is shared with Apple TestFlight or Google Firebase App Distribution, which send the invitation.

3. What we do not do

Gua does not:

• sell your personal data;
• show advertising;
• rent user data to advertisers;
• build advertising profiles;
• require an email address for normal account creation;
• use third-party advertising trackers.

We may use basic operational monitoring of our servers to understand errors, service health and abuse patterns.

4. Phone numbers and contact discovery

Gua uses phone numbers because they make sign-up and contact discovery familiar.

If you choose to find contacts already on Gua, the app sends the phone numbers in your address book to Gua over an encrypted connection. Gua's server compares them in memory with the numbers of Gua accounts, returns the matches and discards every number it received. The numbers are visible to Gua's server while it compares them. The Find friends directory stores each account's number only as a hash made with a secret key, so a leak of the directory alone does not reveal the numbers.

For now, Find friends is available on iPhone.

You can use Gua without granting access to your contacts.

Gua stores your account phone number to sign you in, prevent abuse, support recovery and maintain your account.

Anyone who knows your phone number can find out that it has a Gua account, for example with Find friends or by starting a sign-in with it. Find friends also shows them your username and display name. Gua limits how often these lookups can be made. There is currently no setting to hide your account from Find friends.

5. Messages and encryption

Gua is designed around private communication.

Private conversations are end-to-end encrypted, including the files you share in them. The encryption keys are held on your devices, so Gua servers cannot read the contents of your messages. Voice and video calls are not part of the current prototype.

Public rooms are not end-to-end encrypted. Their messages and media can be read by the servers that host them and by anyone who joins.

However, encryption does not make all metadata disappear. Gua and participating servers may still process technical information needed to deliver, sync, secure and federate conversations.

This may include:

• account identifiers;
• device identifiers;
• room or conversation identifiers;
• membership information;
• room and group names, topics and pictures, which are not end-to-end encrypted, even in private conversations;
• reactions, which are not end-to-end encrypted, even in private conversations: servers can see which message you reacted to and the emoji, but not the message text;
• timestamps;
• delivery state;
• encrypted events;
• abuse-prevention and security logs.

6. Federation and servers

Gua is built on federated infrastructure.

A server is where an account lives and how it participates in message delivery. In a federated network, different servers can exchange information so users on different servers can communicate.

In Gua’s design, each server decides how it connects to other servers: openly, with chosen partners, or not at all.

Gua uses the Gua Resolver to route accounts within the federation. Before you sign in, the app sends your phone number to the resolver, which answers with the server for that account. The app can also send your country and mobile carrier to help choose a server for a new account. The resolver publishes a signed list of the servers that can host Gua accounts, with a public log of every change to it.

In simpler terms:

• the app can find the correct server for an account;
• the list shows which servers can host Gua accounts;
• new servers can be added to the list, and each addition is logged publicly;
• organizations will be able to run their own servers on the list.

Today only servers on the list can host Gua accounts, and the list has one server. Gua's server already federates with other Matrix servers, like any Matrix server. The list decides where Gua accounts are created, not which servers can talk to Gua. The Gua project runs that server, the resolver and the sign-in service, and decides which servers are added to the list. The apps do not yet check the list's signature, and the public key that checks it is not published yet.

Depending on how you use Gua, your server and other participating servers may process:

• your account identifier;
• public profile information;
• room or group membership metadata;
• encrypted message events;
• reactions, including the emoji and the message they refer to;
• routing and delivery metadata;
• device information;
• security and abuse-prevention data.

Servers cannot read the contents of end-to-end encrypted messages, but they still help route and synchronize them.

7. Sharing

We share data only when needed to operate Gua, provide core functionality, comply with law or protect users and the service.

This may include:

• the Gua Resolver, which the Gua project runs, to find the server for your account: it receives your phone number before you sign in, and can also receive your country and mobile carrier;
• SMS providers, to send verification codes;
• Apple or Google, for push notifications;
• GitHub, which stores support and beta requests sent from this website as private tickets;
• an email provider, to answer those requests and send beta invitations;
• Apple TestFlight and Google Firebase App Distribution, to send beta invitations and deliver beta builds;
• MapTiler, which provides the map images when you share or view a location;
• hosting and infrastructure providers;
• security, abuse-prevention or operational service providers;
• legal authorities, if legally required.

Because messages are end-to-end encrypted, we may be able to provide encrypted data if legally compelled, but not the plaintext contents, which we do not have.

8. Retention

We keep account data while your account is active.

Encrypted message data may be retained as needed to deliver messages, sync devices and operate conversations. Deleted messages are removed under normal operation, subject to technical limits, legal obligations, abuse-prevention needs and backup retention.

Deleting your account signs you out everywhere and deactivates it. During the beta, removing your directory entry, PIN, passkeys and trusted devices is being rolled out; write to privacy@gua.global to ask for it. Until then, your number still matches in Find friends. If you choose the option to hide your messages while deleting, your display name and profile photo are removed from your profile, and people who join your conversations later do not see your messages. Messages you already sent stay with the people who received them, files you uploaded stay in Gua's media storage for now, and Gua keeps a record of your username so it is never given to someone else. Delete your account lists what is removed, what is kept and why.

Because Gua is federated, some data may already have been delivered to other users' devices or other servers. Gua may not be able to delete copies controlled by other users, other servers or third-party systems.

After you delete your account, records of your ended sign-in sessions are removed within 30 days, and server logs within 31 days.

Website server logs are kept for up to 31 days, and visit and click counts for 15 days. Support and beta requests are kept until you ask us to remove them at privacy@gua.global.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your data, and to object to certain processing.

You can delete your account yourself at any time. See Delete your account for the steps, what deletion removes and what it keeps.

To make a privacy request, contact: privacy@gua.global

We may need to verify that the account is yours before fulfilling a request.

10. Children

You must be at least 18 years old to use Gua. Gua is not directed at children or adolescents.

If you believe someone under 18 has provided personal information to Gua, contact privacy@gua.global.

11. Prototype status

Gua is under active development.

Features may change. Security designs may evolve. Some functionality may be incomplete. Availability is not guaranteed.

Do not rely on the current prototype for emergencies, legally required communications, medical emergencies or critical institutional operations.

12. Changes

We will update this page when our practices change and revise the date above.

Significant changes should be highlighted in the app or on the website.

13. Contact

Privacy questions: privacy@gua.global

General support: support@gua.global