Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

In short: Accord is a calm messaging app. We collect only what we need to run it. We never sell your data, we show no ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites. You can delete your account and your data at any time, inside the app.

1. Who we are

Accord (accord-c2w.pages.dev and the Accord Android app) is run by Samuel Nkrumah, Ghana ("Accord", "we", "us"). For any privacy question or request, email samnkrumah6@gmail.com.

2. What we collect

Your account: your name, email address (from Google or email sign-in), and anything you choose to add: phone number, profile photo, short bio, country, goals and your current mode (Student, Professional, Faith or Family).
Your age group: when you first use Accord, we ask for the year you were born. We use it once to work out your age group (13–17 or 18+) and then keep only the age group, never the year. Your age group is private: other people can't see it.
What you send: messages, voice notes (and their written words), photos, Moments, posts in institution groups, and your replies to institution notices. We store these so they can be delivered to the people you send them to.
Institutions: if you join a school, university, faith community, company, club or NGO on Accord, we keep your role and group or class. If you are a parent or guardian at a school, we keep your child's first name and class only. The institution's staff can see whether a notice reached you, whether you opened it, and your answer (for example "I agree"). Phone numbers or emails an institution uses to send you an invite link are not stored by Accord.
Your device: a notification token (so we can send push notifications), your language, time zone and app settings. Some settings, a copy of recent chats and the photos you have already opened are kept on your phone to make Accord fast and work offline. Those saved photos are removed from the phone when you sign out.
Safety: reports and blocks you make, and reports others make about an account.
Feedback: answers you choose to give, such as the weekly "Did Accord help?" check-in.

Find friends from contacts: only if you choose it, you pick contacts on your phone and Accord checks their phone numbers once to show which of them use Accord. Those numbers are not stored.

We do not collect your whole contacts list, your location, or your browsing on other apps and websites.

3. How we use it

To run Accord: sign you in, deliver messages and notices, send notifications, and show you people and groups.
To keep people safe: protect teenagers (13–17), handle reports, stop spam and fake institutions.
For Accord's smart features (see section 4).
To fix problems and improve Accord, using totals rather than looking at individual people.

4. Accord's AI features

Some features use artificial intelligence. Accord never uses your messages to build advertising profiles, and Accord never uses your messages to train AI.

How modes check a message — what the AI sees

To keep each mode calm (so an off-topic message can wait for the right moment), a message is checked automatically for a few seconds when it is sent.

What is sent for the check: that one message (for a voice note, its written transcript; for a document, its file name and note), up to 6 recent messages from the same chat (shortened), the mode, the chat's short topic line if you set one, the kind of institution (if any), and language and country codes. Email addresses and phone numbers in the text are hidden before the check.
What is not sent: your name, your phone number, your email address, your other chats, your photos, or your contacts. Accord does not read your chats in the background.
What is kept: your message is stored in your chat as normal, but Accord keeps no copy of the text that was checked. It keeps only totals (for example "3 messages waited this week, in Swahili, in Student mode"), and — only after someone taps "This was wrong" — a short topic note for that one chat (for example "choir talk is OK", with no names or numbers) so the same mistake is not repeated.
Never held: danger, emergencies, health, feelings, greetings, and time plans like "I'm outside" always go through straight away. If a check cannot run, the message is simply delivered. Nothing waits more than 24 hours.
Your choice: in Settings → "How modes protect me" you can choose Standard, Gentle (nothing waits; off-topic messages arrive quietly) or Off. With Off, messages sent to you are not checked at all.
Who does the check: OpenAI, with Google Gemini as a backup and second opinion. OpenAI does not use the text to train its models; it may keep a log for up to 30 days only to detect abuse. Each provider's own privacy terms apply to the text it processes for us.
Teenagers: Accord never tells parents, schools or anyone else which of a teenager's messages waited. Only totals are counted.

Features you choose

The Accord assistant, translation, "Polish", summaries, icebreakers and voice-note transcription only run when you use them. The text or audio they need is sent securely to an AI service, used to produce the answer, and not kept by Accord for any other purpose.

The AI services we use are OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter (which may route to other model providers) and Groq (voice-note transcription). Their own privacy terms apply to the data they process for us.

Feedback and app errors

If you use "Send feedback", Accord keeps your words, your first name, basic phone details (browser, language, time zone) and any screenshot you choose to add, so Samuel can fix things. Screenshots are deleted after 90 days. If the app breaks on your phone, it quietly reports the technical error (what failed and where) — never your messages; email addresses and phone numbers are removed first.

5. Who we share it with

We never sell your data. We share it only:

With the people you choose: the people you message, and the institutions you join (as described above). Institution admins can never read your private chats.
With our service providers, who run Accord for us: Google Firebase (sign-in, database, file storage, push notifications), Cloudflare (hosting), and the AI services in section 4.
When the law requires it, or to protect someone from serious harm.

These providers may store and process data outside your country, including in the United States and other countries. We choose providers with strong security.

6. Teenagers and children

Accord is for people 13 and older. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 13 to create an account; if someone tells us they are under 13, the account is stopped. For users aged 13–17, Accord turns on extra protection automatically: they don't appear in Discover, and adults they don't already know can't start new chats with them. Younger children at a school are never Accord users — their parents or guardians are.

If you believe a child under 13 is using Accord, email samnkrumah6@gmail.com and we will remove the account.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your data while you have an account. When you delete your account, your profile, your chats (for everyone in them), your Moments and the institutions you own are deleted straight away, and your remaining records (such as institution memberships and your age group) are removed within 30 days. An institution may keep a record that a notice was sent to a member, with the name removed.

8. Your choices and rights

See and change your profile at any time in the app (☰ → Settings).
Delete your account inside the app (☰ → Settings → Delete account), or follow these steps.
Ask for a copy of your data, or ask us to correct or delete something, by emailing us. We reply within 30 days.
Turn off notifications in the app or in your phone's settings.

Depending on where you live (for example under Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012, the EU/UK GDPR, or India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023), you may have further rights, including the right to complain to your data protection authority.

9. Security

Data is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Access is limited by strict database rules, so people can only read what is meant for them. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your sign-in safe and tell us if you notice anything wrong.

10. Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top, and tell you in the app if the change is important.