Privacy policy

Last updated: 30 October 2026

Publisher and contact

The app is published on Google Play by DigitalWerk – Verein zur Förderung digitaler und technischer Projekte.

DigitalWerk – Verein zur Förderung digitaler und technischer Projekte
Rohrbach 12, 8083 St. Stefan im Rosental, Austria
Association register (ZVR): 1470169958
digitalwerk.office@gmail.com

How Hopvio works

When two phones with Hopvio meet, they find each other via Bluetooth and exchange data. Each phone also stores messages from others and passes them on at the next encounter until they reach their destination. That is why copies of your data are kept on other users’ phones, as described below.

Data the app processes

• Your ID: a random key that the app creates on your phone. It says nothing about you. Others see it as a short string next to your name.
• Your name: a name you choose (up to 20 characters). It is listed with your ID, your region and the week in the public directory that all phones pass on. It does not have to be your real name.
• Your region: a rough area of about 100 km, not an exact place. The app determines it from your phone’s location or, without location access, from the regions of the phones you meet. Your exact location is neither stored nor passed on. In the settings you can choose “Not shared”, and your region is no longer passed on to others.
• Messages: end-to-end encrypted. Only the recipient can read the text. Phones that carry a message only see from which ID to which ID it goes, the week and the sender’s region. When a message arrives, the recipient’s phone creates a delivery receipt, which also spreads and deletes the copies being carried.
• Board posts: public and not encrypted. A post shows your name, your ID, your region and the day. It is visible in your area for 7 days. You can withdraw it; it then gradually disappears from the phones that already have it. Before your first post, the app shows the board rules. That you accepted them is stored only on your phone.
• Reports: if you report a post, it disappears from your phone at once. The report contains your ID, the author’s ID and the post’s region and day. It is signed with your key, not encrypted, and spreads like a post. Once 3 different people have reported a post, every phone deletes it. The app does not show who reported a post.
• Time: to keep data in order, the app counts the week (public). The minute a message was written is encrypted inside the message.
• Country: to show regions with the right place name, the app reads the country from the mobile network, the SIM card or the language setting. It stays on your phone.
• Contacts, blocks, favourites: only on your phone.
• System log: the app writes no measurements to your phone’s system log. At most, technical error messages end up there, for example when Bluetooth refuses a connection, without IDs, names or content.

Disclosure

Data only goes via Bluetooth to other phones with Hopvio nearby and from there on to other users. No data is transferred to the association, the developer or third parties.

In its Bluetooth advertising, the phone only sends a random number that changes every 15 minutes, and no ID. With “Changing ID” in the settings, the phone also shows a different ID every day instead of yours during exchanges.

Storage

All data is kept in an encrypted database on your phone. Its key is stored in Android’s protected key store. The app shows the 24 recovery words only to you. App data is not included in Android or Google backups.

On other phones, copies are kept at most this long:

• Messages: until delivered, at most about 2 years
• Delivery receipts: about 6 months
• Directory entry (name, ID, region): about 3 years after the last renewal; the app renews it regularly while you use it
• Board posts: 7 days, shorter after withdrawal
• Reports: 7 days, like the reported post

When a phone’s storage is full, it deletes the oldest and most distant data first.

Deleting

Under “Settings” › “Delete all data” you remove all data and your ID from your phone. You can delete individual messages and chats on your phone. Copies already on other phones cannot be deleted centrally by anyone. They disappear after the periods above. You can withdraw board posts.

Permissions

• Nearby devices (Bluetooth): to find other phones and exchange data. Without this permission, the app exchanges nothing.
• Location (optional): for the rough region and an accurate time from GPS. Up to Android 11, the Bluetooth search also needs this permission. Of it, the app only uses the rough area and the time.
• Notifications: for the alert “New message”, without name or text, and the calm notice “Ready for messages” while the exchange runs in the background. You can hide the notice.
• Battery optimisation exemption, start after reboot, background service: so the exchange also works when the app is closed.

Google Play

If you get Hopvio from Google Play, Google processes data under its own terms, see Google’s Privacy Policy. We have no influence on this processing. The app itself sends nothing to Google.

Children

Hopvio is intended for people aged 18 and over.

Legal basis

The app processes data so that you can use the features you choose: writing and receiving messages, being found in the directory and the board (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). It uses your location only if you allow it in Android (consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw this permission at any time in the Android settings. Reports on the board protect all users from insults, threats and other harmful content (legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection. Since the association and the developer receive no data from the app, it exists only on your phone and on the phones of other users. On your phone you can view, change and delete it yourself. If you have questions, write to the address above.

You can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular the Austrian Data Protection Authority.

Changes

If the app changes so that other data is processed, we will update this policy. The version on this page applies. In the app, you can find it under “Settings” › “Privacy policy”.

German version / Deutsche Fassung