Privacy policy
Effective date: The date this Policy is first published in the Services.
Last updated: 16 September 2026
Data controller/operator: NYNI LLC
Address: 339 W 38TH St APT 9B, New York, NY 10018-2558, United States
Privacy email: [email protected]
1. Scope and responsibility
This Privacy Policy explains how NYNI LLC (“NYNI,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) processes personal information in Ahalo, its iOS and Android applications, and its related website at https://getahalo.com/ (the “Services”). NYNI LLC is responsible for the processing described here, except where an identified third party independently determines how it uses information.
This Policy applies only to Ahalo, which is offered to users worldwide. The rights and obligations that apply to a particular user depend on applicable law.
You can contact NYNI LLC about this Policy or your information using the privacy email or postal address above.
2. Sources of information
We receive information you enter into the Services or send when contacting us, information generated when your device communicates with the Services, and information processed through the providers described below. You do not need to include your name or other identifying details in a film search.
Information needed to handle a search or maintain a secure connection is necessary to provide that functionality. Optional microphone permission and advertising consent are separate choices. Declining microphone permission does not prevent typed searches.
3. Ahalo: information and processing
Search text and matching
We process the phrases you submit, including text produced from optional voice input, to find matching films and display results. Search text is sent to our server. To match phrases by meaning, our server sends search text to OpenRouter for processing with OpenAI's text-embedding-3-small model when a suitable cached representation is not available. An embedding is a numerical representation of text used to compare it with the film-subtitle catalogue. Ahalo does not provide a chatbot or use a large language model to generate conversational answers.
OpenRouter and the upstream provider serving the embedding model process the submitted text to calculate the embedding. OpenRouter may route this model's requests to OpenAI or Microsoft Azure. Our embedding request does not include your installation identifier or forward your device's IP address; the provider receives the server's connection and service-account information. Search text itself may contain personal information if you include it. Do not include sensitive or confidential information in a query.
We have disabled OpenRouter's optional input/output logging and input/output data-sharing options for Ahalo. Under OpenRouter's published policy, these settings mean it does not retain the submitted text through those optional features. OpenRouter still processes request metadata, such as usage and timing. Upstream providers have separate retention policies, including retention for security and legal compliance; disabling OpenRouter's options does not establish zero retention by every provider. See OpenRouter's data collection explanation, its provider retention information, and the providers serving this embedding model.
Optional microphone use
When you choose voice input, Ahalo requests microphone permission and uses a speech-recognition model on your device. Audio is processed in memory, is not saved as a recording, and is not uploaded to NYNI or an external transcription service. The resulting text can be edited before you submit it as a search. Submitted text is handled under the search section above.
Setting up voice input can require downloading a speech model from the sherpa-onnx project's releases on GitHub. GitHub and its download infrastructure receive ordinary connection information, such as your IP address and the requested file; they do not receive your microphone audio through this process. See the GitHub Privacy Statement.
Device storage and installation identifier
Ahalo stores a randomly generated installation identifier and up to five recent search phrases in device storage. The identifier is sent with API requests for usage limits and operational purposes and may be included in usage logs. It is separate from the advertising identifier and is not an account login. It can link activity from the same installation and is therefore treated as pseudonymous information, not inherently anonymous data.
You can remove saved searches using Settings → Clear search history. This clears local search history; it does not delete server logs or data held by other providers. Secure storage and backups may persist differently across operating systems, so uninstalling or reinstalling is not a guaranteed way to erase every identifier or record.
Usage, network, and diagnostic information
We process installation identifiers, event names and times, event properties, and technical request information to operate and understand the Services. The app sends usage events for searches, empty results, opening a film, and opening a viewing-provider link. Search-event properties contain the phrase length, match-confidence category, and result count, rather than the search phrase itself. Film and provider events contain the film identifier and, where relevant, the provider and whether the link is an affiliate link. Our server logs these events with their supplied properties and installation identifier. Google separately processes advertising interactions as described in Section 4.
Our infrastructure also processes IP addresses, request paths, response status, timing, and security information as needed to deliver requests and control abuse. Search requests contain the submitted phrase in the request URL. The application's routine request logger records the path without the query string, but the full URL is processed by the infrastructure delivering the request. Error and infrastructure records can contain request-related information. The seven-day server-log retention period in Section 7 applies to our server logs.
Support and feedback
If you contact the email address in this Policy, we process your message and any contact details you supply to handle the request. Do not send information you do not want us to process. The website currently does not display a feedback form. If a feedback submission is sent to our feedback API, the server processes the supplied message and optional name and email address; its submission log records whether an email was supplied and the message length, rather than storing the message in a support inbox. For a response, use the contact email in this Policy.
Accounts and information not requested
Ahalo does not require a user account or offer in-app subscriptions. It does not request access to contacts, photo libraries, or precise device location. Advertising providers may infer approximate location from an IP address. App stores independently process information associated with downloading the app under their own policies.
4. Advertising and privacy choices
Ahalo uses Google AdMob to display advertisements in search results. Google’s advertising SDK may process IP addresses and approximate location inferred from them, device or advertising identifiers, ad impressions and interactions, app interactions, crash information, and performance information. Purposes include delivering and measuring advertising, analytics, diagnostics, and preventing fraud.
The app integrates Google’s User Messaging Platform to obtain available regional privacy choices before initializing advertising. The messages and choices shown depend on your region and the messages configured for Ahalo in AdMob. On iOS, the app also requests tracking permission where relevant. The app requests non-personalized ads when the required personalization permissions are absent. Non-personalized advertising can still involve processing information for delivery, measurement, and fraud prevention.
Use Settings → Ad & privacy choices to revisit available advertising choices. The options displayed depend on your region and the configured consent message. You can also change microphone and, where supported, tracking or advertising permissions in your device settings. Withdrawing consent does not invalidate processing that occurred lawfully before withdrawal.
Google AdMob is Ahalo's only integrated advertising network; we do not integrate additional mediation networks. Google explains its processing in its Privacy Policy and partner-services notice. Google and the advertising technology providers participating in its ad delivery may act as independent controllers for some purposes. Applicable advertising messages identify participating providers and available choices.
5. Purposes and legal bases
Where European or UK data protection law applies, our purposes and legal bases are:
| Purpose | Information involved | Legal basis, where applicable |
|---|---|---|
| Provide a requested search and return results | Search text and necessary request information | Performance of our agreement with you, where processing is objectively necessary to deliver the feature |
| Protect the Services, enforce fair usage, and diagnose failures | Installation identifier, network information, operational logs | Legitimate interests in secure, reliable operation, subject to your rights; legal obligation where applicable |
| Understand use and improve functionality | Usage events and associated identifiers | Legitimate interests where permitted and proportionate; consent where required for analytics or device access |
| Process optional voice input | Microphone audio locally; submitted transcript as search text | Consent where required for microphone access; requested search processing as above |
| Deliver and measure advertising | Advertising identifiers, interaction and technical data | Consent for personalization and for device access where required; legitimate interests in delivering permitted contextual advertising and preventing advertising fraud, only where consent is not required and subject to your rights |
| Respond to support or rights requests | Message, contact details, proportionate verification information | Legitimate interests in responding to support; legal obligation for statutory requests |
We do not treat acceptance of the Terms or this Policy as consent to optional processing. We rely on legitimate interests only where the processing is necessary for the stated purpose and those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. A device permission does not replace any additional consent required by law. Advertising providers explain their own purposes and legal bases in the applicable privacy messages and their privacy information.
6. Who receives information
Information may be available to:
- Contabo, which provides hosting for our US application server and the infrastructure storing the data we hold there. See Contabo's privacy information.
- Providers of infrastructure, security, and email services that process information as needed to operate the Services or deliver and handle your correspondence, subject to applicable confidentiality and data protection requirements.
- The search-processing providers identified in Section 3, which receive submitted text for the described search functionality.
- Google and any disclosed advertising partners, for the advertising purposes in Section 4 and subject to applicable choices.
- GitHub and its download infrastructure, for delivery of the optional on-device speech model as described in Section 3.
- A third-party viewing provider or website when you follow its link. That provider receives information associated with your connection and handles it under its own policy. Some viewing links are affiliate links and may pass through a referral service, such as Impact, to attribute a referral. Ahalo labels affiliate links, and the destination or referral service may process connection and referral information when you open them.
- Professional advisers, authorities, or other parties where disclosure is necessary and lawful to meet legal obligations, protect rights, investigate abuse, or address a security incident.
- A successor or prospective purchaser in a merger, acquisition, or business transfer, with appropriate confidentiality safeguards and notice where required.
We do not publish your search history as a public profile. Disclosing device identifiers, online activity, and advertising interactions to advertising providers for personalized advertising can constitute a “sale,” “sharing,” or “targeted advertising” under some US state laws even without monetary payment. Where those laws apply, the associated opt-out rights are described in Section 9. We do not describe advertising-related disclosures as exempt from those rights simply because no money is paid for the information.
7. Retention
We retain personal information only as long as needed for the stated purpose, taking account of operational needs, legal obligations, security, and the establishment or defense of legal claims:
| Information | Retention or deletion criteria |
|---|---|
| Raw voice audio | Processed temporarily on-device; not saved as a recording or transmitted by the voice feature |
| Local search history | Up to five recent phrases, until replaced by later searches or cleared in Settings |
| Installation identifier on the device | Until the relevant secure-storage entry is removed; OS storage and backup behavior may affect persistence |
| Cached numerical search representations | Expire 30 days after a cache entry is written; repeated processing can create a new entry. This is not a retention limit for logs or provider records |
| Server logs, including application usage and request logs | Seven days, except for specific records that must be preserved for a documented security incident, legal obligation, or legal claim |
| Support correspondence | Until the request and related follow-up are resolved; longer only where the correspondence is needed for an applicable legal obligation or a specific dispute |
| Privacy-rights request records | For the period required by applicable recordkeeping law, or otherwise while needed to resolve the request and any related appeal or dispute; limited to information necessary for that purpose |
| Server backups | Seven days. Data deleted from active systems may remain in an existing backup until that backup expires |
| OpenRouter and upstream embedding-provider records | Optional OpenRouter input/output logging and data sharing are disabled. Request metadata and upstream security or compliance records are subject to the provider retention policies linked in Section 3; our seven-day server-log rule does not apply to these providers |
| Google advertising and GitHub download records | Retained under the respective provider policies linked in Sections 3 and 4 for their stated service, security, advertising, and legal purposes; these independent-provider records are not governed by our seven-day server-log rule |
Where a justified legal hold applies, relevant records may be kept longer and restricted to the purpose of that hold. Data that has been irreversibly anonymized may be retained for statistics; information linked to an installation identifier is not automatically anonymous.
8. International processing and security
Ahalo's application server is hosted by Contabo in the United States. If you use Ahalo from another country, submitting a search transfers that text and the associated request information to our US server. OpenRouter, its upstream embedding providers, Google, GitHub, and their service providers may also process information in the United States and other countries as described in their applicable privacy information. Those countries may have different data protection laws from your country.
For transfers requiring legal safeguards, we require an applicable adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK Addendum where relevant, together with additional protections where necessary. This Policy does not treat your use of Ahalo as a waiver of transfer protections or as consent to an otherwise unlawful transfer. Contact us for information about the arrangements applicable to your information or to request a copy of relevant safeguards, subject to lawful redactions.
Our security measures include HTTPS connections for the public service and external embedding requests, password-protected administrative access, request limits to reduce abuse, and restricted database access. No transmission or storage system provides absolute security.
9. Your rights and requests
Depending on where you live and the law applicable to us, you may have rights to access or obtain a copy of information, correct it, delete it, restrict processing, obtain a portable copy, object to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent. You may complain to your local data protection authority, including the UK Information Commissioner where applicable. You do not have to contact us before complaining.
Some US state laws also provide rights to opt out of sale, sharing, or targeted advertising, use an authorized agent, appeal a denied request, and receive services without unlawful discrimination for exercising rights. These rights apply where the relevant law covers you and our activities. We do not use Ahalo search matching to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you.
Send a request to the privacy email above and identify the app and the request. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to locate records and verify authority, including information relating to the relevant installation. Do not send a password or identity document unless a secure, necessary verification process has been explained. If we cannot identify the relevant records, we will explain the limitation. We do not collect additional identifying information solely to make otherwise unidentifiable records identifiable unless required by law.
We will respond within the deadlines set by applicable law and explain any lawful refusal, extension, or fee. Where an appeal right applies, you can appeal by replying to our response or contacting the privacy email and stating that you wish to appeal.
For advertising choices, open Settings → Ad & privacy choicesand use the regional choices available through Google. If you cannot find an applicable opt-out option, contact the privacy email above for assistance exercising your rights. Device-level tracking settings provide additional controls. The mobile app does not receive a browser's Global Privacy Control signal merely because you have enabled that signal in a separate browser; website signal handling is described in Section 11. These technical limitations do not limit rights granted by applicable law.
Clearing history or uninstalling does not send us a request to delete server or third-party records. Ahalo has no user account to close. Contact us for requests concerning information under our control; independent providers may also offer their own rights-request processes.
10. Children
The Services are intended for people aged 16 and older and are not directed to children under 16. People under 16 must not use Ahalo. Users aged 16 or 17 must have the permission and supervision required by our Terms & Conditions.
If you believe someone under 16 has provided personal information through Ahalo, contact us using the privacy email above. We will investigate and take appropriate steps, including deleting information under our control where required. Users aged 16 or 17 may still have additional protections under applicable law; our minimum age does not remove those protections.
11. Website technologies and changes
The Ahalo website does not use advertising pixels, third-party audience-analytics scripts, or advertising cookies. Ordinary connection information is processed to serve and secure the website. The website currently does not alter its behavior in response to legacy browser “Do Not Track” signals or Global Privacy Control signals; it does not carry out the mobile app's advertising activities. Website preferences do not automatically change advertising choices in the mobile app.
We may update this Policy as the Services or our practices change. We will show the updated effective date and provide additional notice or obtain consent where required before applying a materially different use of personal information.
12. Contact
For privacy questions, requests, or complaints:
NYNI LLC
Address: 339 W 38TH St APT 9B, New York, NY 10018-2558, United States
Email: [email protected]