ANO Privacy Policy

This policy explains how your personal data is processed when you use the ANO mobile app ("ANO", "the app"). Reading it is not a form of consent.

In short

• ANO uses AI to build character dossiers from a WhatsApp group chat you upload, and writes a six-chapter interactive story with those characters.
• Your chat file is read on your device. We upload a trimmed excerpt, not the whole file. The excerpt contains the names and messages of other people in the chat, not only the people you select.
• The excerpt is sent to an AI provider outside Türkiye (OpenAI, Anthropic or Google) to write the dossiers. When the analysis succeeds, the excerpt is deleted from our servers; the dossiers stay and are sent to those providers again to write each chapter.
• We do not sell your chat content or dossiers or use them for advertising. Our agreements with the providers say this data is not used to train their models.
• The app shows no ads. Google's Firebase tools collect usage statistics and crash reports (Section 3.7).
• You can delete your account and data in the app: Settings → Delete my account and all my data.
• ANO is for people aged 18 or over only.

1. Who is responsible for your data?

ANO is provided by Freops, based in Türkiye. Freops is the data controller for the processing described in this policy.

Contact: account@freops.com

2. Who does this policy cover?

• Users: anyone who creates an ANO account.
• Chat participants: people who do not use ANO but whose name and messages appear in a chat that a user uploads. Section 6 is for you.

3. What data we process, why, and on what legal basis

Legal bases are given under Turkish law (KVKK). The equivalent bases under the GDPR and UK GDPR are in Section 14.1.

3.1 Account

Accounts are held in Google's Firebase Authentication service. We do not display your Google name or profile photo in the app; the name is only used to suggest your first display name.

3.2 Profile and display name

Your first display name is taken from your Google account name or, if there is none, from the part of your email address before the "@". Other members of stories you join can see it. You can change it at any time in Settings.

3.3 Chat import, analysis and character dossiers

3.4 Stories, lobby and voting

Members of a story (up to 6 including the founder) can see: the chapters, the chat's name, the characters' names in the chat and in the story, members' display names, and who voted for which option. Members cannot see the dossiers or the conversation history with the AI.

Anyone who has the invite link or code can join the lobby until the story starts. The founder can renew the link and remove members.

3.5 Notifications

Notifications are only about your stories; we send no promotional notifications. Notification text never contains people's names or chat content.

3.6 Data kept on your device

To work, the app stores on your device: flags that you have seen the intro, given the chat-upload consent and been asked about notifications; an invite code, shared-file location or tapped-notification target held until you are signed in; the random device ID; a copy of your display name; your page position in stories; when the last verification email was sent. Account-related items are deleted when you sign out or delete your account; the rest when you uninstall the app. On Android, if device backup is on, this data may be included in the device backup in your Google account.

A copy of the WhatsApp export file you import may remain in the app's temporary storage on your device until the operating system clears it or you uninstall the app. That copy is not sent to our servers.

3.7 Usage statistics and crash reports

We do not link this data to your account (email, account ID) and we define no events of our own. We show no ads and do not use this data for advertising. On Android you can reset or delete your advertising ID in device settings.

3.8 Security and system logs

Chat content, dossiers and story text are never written to these logs.

3.9 Your requests

When you contact us we process your email address, the content of your message and the identity and contact details needed to handle your request. Legal basis: compliance with a legal obligation (KVKK Art. 5/2-ç) and the establishment, exercise or protection of a right (Art. 5/2-e).

4. How your chat is processed, step by step

1. Read on your device. The .txt or .zip file you choose (up to 20 MB) is opened and parsed on your device. Media placeholders, call records, deleted messages and system lines are removed. The whole file is never sent to our servers.
2. You pick people. You see the people in the chat and their message counts, select 1–6 of them for the story and may rename them.
3. An excerpt is built. If the chat has up to 4,000 messages, all of it is taken; if it is longer, 40 passages spread across its history (60 consecutive messages each) plus the latest 1,500 messages. If the excerpt exceeds 250,000 characters, its beginning is cut. Each line is "sender name: message"; in long chats passages are headed by a date, and message times are not included. The excerpt includes the names and messages of people you did not select if they wrote in those passages. People not saved in your contacts appear in WhatsApp exports by phone number, so the excerpt may contain phone numbers.
4. Uploaded to our server. The excerpt goes to storage (in Belgium) that only your account can write to and no user can read. The names and message counts of everyone in the chat are also saved in your chat record.
5. AI analysis. The excerpt and the names you selected are sent to an AI provider. Only the dossiers of the people you selected are saved; those dossiers may mention other people in the chat.
6. The excerpt is deleted. When the analysis succeeds, the excerpt is permanently deleted from our storage. If the analysis fails, the excerpt is kept so you can retry, until a retry succeeds or you delete the chat or your account.
7. The dossiers stay. They are kept in your chat record. When you start a story, a copy is attached to that story; deleting the chat later does not remove the copy in a story that has already started.
8. Chapters are written. For each chapter, the dossiers, the story so far and the winning option are sent to the AI provider.

5. Use of AI

• Dossiers and chapters are written by generative AI models. Stories are fiction; they are not statements of fact about real people.
• A dossier is an automated extraction of a person's texting style and personality traits (profiling). It is used only to write the story; no decision with legal or similarly significant effects is made about you.
• Providers we use: OpenAI, Anthropic and Google (Gemini API). Which one is used may change over time; for each operation your data is sent to only one of them. A story's chapters are, as a rule, all written with the same provider.
• Under the providers' commercial API terms, the content we send is not used to train or improve their models. Providers keep requests and responses for a limited time to detect abuse (Section 9), and their authorised staff may review them where needed.
• The models are instructed to reproduce slang and swearing as it appears in your chat; stories may contain strong or uncomfortable language.

6. Chat participants who do not use ANO

If a friend uploaded a WhatsApp chat that you are part of:

• What data is processed? Your name in the chat (your phone number if the uploader has not saved you as a contact), your message count and those of your messages that fall inside the excerpt. If you were selected as a character: also the dossier written about you and the chapters featuring you. If you were not selected, no dossier is written about you, though other people's dossiers may mention your name.
• Source: Your data comes from the user who uploaded the chat, not from you.
• Purpose: Writing the story the uploader asked for.
• Legal basis: Your explicit consent (KVKK Art. 5/1 and 6/3-a). The uploader obtains it from you and confirms to us that they have; our Terms of Use require them to inform you and get your agreement first.
• Who sees it? Your messages in the excerpt are not shown to any user through ANO; they are sent only to the AI provider. Your dossier contains quotes of phrases you often use, and the story may use them. Only the founder and up to 5 people they invite can read the story.
• Your rights: All rights in Section 11 (and Section 14, where applicable) are yours too. If you do not want your data processed, write to account@freops.com with details that let us identify you and the chat (your name in the chat, the chat's name, who uploaded it). Once we have identified the record, we delete the chat record, dossier and stories concerning you.

7. Who we share your data with

We do not sell your data. We share it only with the recipients below.

Google, OpenAI and Anthropic process this data on our behalf and on our instructions under their data processing agreements. Sign-in with Google or Apple, and Google Analytics, are also subject to those companies' own privacy policies.

8. International transfers

We are established in Türkiye and our servers are outside Türkiye. When you use ANO, the data in the Section 7 table is processed in the countries shown there. The Turkish Personal Data Protection Board has not issued an adequacy decision for these countries.

• For the transfer of your chat excerpt and dossiers to AI providers we ask for your explicit consent, after informing you of the possible risks (Chat Import Consent).

For users in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, see Section 14.1.

9. How long we keep your data

Data you delete is removed from our live systems immediately. Google states that deleted data is removed from its backup systems within 180 days at most. Provider periods are based on their published terms and may be changed by them.

10. Security

• All traffic between the app and the servers is encrypted (TLS); data is stored encrypted on Google's infrastructure.
• The app cannot write to the database directly; every change goes through authenticated server functions. Each user can read only their own chat records and the stories they are a member of.
• No user can read the chat excerpt or a story's conversation history with the AI; only server functions can.
• AI provider keys are never in the app; they are kept in a secret manager on the server.
• Administrative access to production systems is limited to the Freops team.

No system is completely secure. If we learn of a breach affecting your data, we will notify the competent authority and you within the time the law requires.

11. Your rights and how to use them

Under KVKK Art. 11 you have the right to: learn whether your data is processed and request information about it; learn the purpose of processing and whether it is used accordingly; know the third parties in Türkiye or abroad to whom it is transferred; have incomplete or inaccurate data corrected; have data erased or destroyed; have these operations notified to third parties to whom the data was transferred; object to a result against you arising from analysis solely by automated systems; and claim compensation for damage caused by unlawful processing. Where processing is based on consent you may withdraw it at any time; withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing.

How to apply. Send your request

from the email address registered on your account to account@freops.com.

Requests relying on Turkish law must be in Turkish. Include your name, your request and an address where we can reach you; we may ask for more information to verify your identity. We answer as soon as possible and within 30 days at the latest, free of charge, in writing or electronically. If you are not satisfied with our answer or receive none in time, you may complain to the Turkish Personal Data Protection Board within 30 days of learning our answer and in any case within 60 days of your application.

12. Managing your data in the app

• Change your display name: Settings.
• Delete a chat and its dossiers: the delete icon on the chat in the chat selection screen. Copies in stories that have already started remain.
• Delete a draft or lobby: on the draft on the home screen (founder only).
• Change or withdraw your vote: in the chapter screen while voting is open.
• Turn off notifications: device settings.
• Delete your account and all data: Settings → Delete my account and all my data. Details: Account and Data Deletion.

To have a started or finished story deleted, contact us as described in Section 11.

13. Age limit

ANO is only for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has created an account, or that a chat containing children's data has been uploaded, tell us and we will delete the account and the data.

14. Users outside Türkiye

14.1 European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, the GDPR, UK GDPR or Swiss FADP may apply to our processing of your data. In that case:

• Controller: Freops (Section 1), established in Türkiye. We have not appointed a data protection officer.

• Legal bases: account, profile, stories, lobby, voting and notifications — performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Chat analysis, dossiers and story writing — your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a)). Usage statistics, crash reports and security logs — our legitimate interests in running a stable and secure app (Art. 6(1)(f)). Handling your requests — legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)).

• Chat participants: if your data was uploaded by someone else, this policy is the information we make publicly available to you under Art. 14 GDPR, since we have no means of contacting you directly.

• Transfers: you send your data directly to us in Türkiye, a country without an EU or UK adequacy decision. Our providers process it in the EU (Belgium), the United States and other countries. Their data processing terms include the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) for transfers that require them, and Google LLC takes part in the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for more information on these safeguards.

• Your rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, objection to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdrawal of consent at any time. Use them by contacting us as described in Section 11 (you may write in English). You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of your country of residence.

• Automated decisions: dossiers are a form of profiling used only to write fiction. We make no decisions with legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing.

• Must you provide data? An email address or a Google/Apple account is needed to create an account. Uploading a chat is optional, but without it you cannot create your own story.

14.2 United States

• Categories of personal information we collect: identifiers (email, account ID, device and installation identifiers, IP address); internet or other electronic network activity (usage statistics, crash data); user content (chat excerpts, which may contain sensitive personal information depending on what was written in the chat; votes; display name); and inferences (the AI-written character dossiers). Sources, purposes and recipients are described in Sections 3, 4 and 7; retention in Section 9.
• No sale or sharing: we do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We use sensitive personal information only to provide the service you request.
• Your rights: depending on your state, you may have the right to know, access, correct and delete your personal information and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. We honour these requests for all users; contact us as described in Section 11. You may use an authorised agent; we will ask for proof of authorisation.
• Children: the app is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and never from children under 13.

15. Changes

When we update this policy we publish the new version here with its effective date. We announce changes that affect the purposes of processing, the recipients or your rights in the app or by email before they take effect. If the scope of a consent-based operation changes, we ask for your consent again.

16. Contact

Questions: account@freops.com