Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Zik4U is a music social app and website (the “Service”). The person responsible for your data (the “controller”) is Bertrand Chardinne, founder, acting for Zik4U, a French simplified joint-stock company (SAS) in formation. Once the company is registered, it will take over this role and we will update this page.

Contact for anything about your data: privacy@zik4u.com.

2. The short version

• Zik4U builds your music identity from what you really listen to.
• On Android, it reads only the "now playing" notifications of music apps, never your messages or other notifications.
• Your listening mood profile is on by default if you are 18 or older, and off unless you turn it on if you are 16 or 17. You can turn it off at any time; turning it off deletes it.
• Your listening moods are never shared with anyone. Your listener archetype is shown on your Music DNA card.
• Music research is off unless you turn it on. Partners only ever receive trends computed over 100 people or more, never you.
• We do not sell your personal data. We do not show ads. We do not use advertising identifiers.
• Our database is hosted in the United States. Section 10 explains how your data is protected there.
• You can download or delete your data at any time from the app.

3. Data we collect

Account. Email address, password (stored by our authentication provider in hashed form), username, display name, profile photo, bio, and the sign-in method you use (email, Google or Apple). Your age group (16 or 17, or 18 and older), and, if you give it, your confirmation that you are 18 or older for Music Match and music research. A record of each choice you make about your data (what you chose, when, which version of our terms, and where in the app). If you add them in Edit profile: your location (shown only to you), your usernames on other networks offered in the app (for example Instagram, TikTok, X, Snapchat or Facebook) and, if you are 18 or older, your relationship status (single or in a relationship). All three are optional, and you can remove them at any time.

Profile photo. If you choose one, we keep only a square copy, without the information your phone attaches to pictures (such as where it was taken). It is stored privately and shown through temporary links. When you change or remove it, the previous photo is deleted. We may remove a photo that breaks our Terms; we then tell you why by email.

Accounts you block. The list of members you have blocked. It is used only to keep you apart, is never shown to them, and is deleted when you unblock them or delete your account.

Listening (capture). On Android, if you grant Zik4U notification access, the app reads the playback notifications of a fixed list of music apps and keeps: track title, artist, album, duration, time played, the app you listened in, and a link to the cover art. It ignores every other notification. You can revoke notification access at any time in your phone settings; capture then stops. Listens made in private mode are marked private.

What you create and share. Posts, comments, reactions, playlists, follows, direct messages, and reports you send to us.

Listening mood profile (see section 5). Computed every night from your listening of the previous day: a dominant listening mood, worked out from when and how you listened (time of day, how many different artists, repeats), not from the music itself or how you feel; a daily listening score (variety, repetition, regularity); the hours you listen at; how many posts and likes you made that day; and your top artists. A listener archetype is derived from your listening habits over the last 30 days.

Music Match (see section 6) and music research (see section 7), only if you turn them on.

Purchases (when subscriptions open). Subscriptions are bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play. We receive the product, its status and dates, and a store transaction reference, never your card details. Our purchase-management provider, RevenueCat, processes these receipts.

Creator payouts (when payouts open). If you are a creator, our payout provider, Trolley, collects the identity, tax and bank information required to pay you. Because French law requires us to report creators' earnings to the French tax authority (EU rules known as DAC7), Trolley also passes to us your name, address, date of birth, tax identification number, country of tax residence, VAT status and number, business status, and the account to which your payouts are sent. We also keep the invoices issued on your behalf.

Device and technical data. Push notification token, device model, operating system, app version, and signals that show whether capture is working. Crash and error reports (the error, your device model, operating system and app version) through Sentry; these reports are not linked to your account. Our hosting providers process IP addresses in their technical logs. Our sign-in system also keeps the IP address and the name of the app or browser of each signed-in session to protect your account; this record is deleted when you sign out, when you delete your account, or after 12 months without using the app on that device. We also keep a log of the sign-ins, sign-outs and password or email changes on your account (date, IP address, app or browser) for one year, to protect your account and investigate misuse; it is deleted with your account.

Analytics, only if you agree. If you accept analytics, we record how you use the app. Firebase Analytics receives usage events linked to a pseudonymous identifier (a short code derived from your account, never your name or email). Our own database keeps how you interact with the music on profiles: the track you tap, preview or play, how long a preview stays open, and whose profile you were on. These records are deleted after 13 months. Analytics is off unless you accept. You can turn it off anytime in Settings, which stops recording and deletes these records.

Website. If you join a waitlist on zik4u.com: your email address, the profile you pick (listener, creator or fan), and for creators your artist name. The website has no account login, no analytics and no advertising cookies (section 13).

Messages to us. Emails you send to support or privacy.

4. Why we use your data, and our legal basis (EU/EEA and UK)

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

5. Your listening mood profile

What it is. Every night, Zik4U sorts the listens of the day before into listening moods (for example Late Night, Explorer or Deep Focus) based on when and how you listened, and computes the data listed in section 3. From your last 30 days, it derives a listener archetype. These moods describe your listening habits: Zik4U does not analyze the music itself, and does not read or infer your feelings.

Who sees it. Your archetype is shown on your Music DNA card, which other members can see under your privacy settings (section 8). Zik4U never shares your listening moods with anyone: not other members, not partners. If you share your own card from the app, it shows what you chose to share.

What it is not. It describes how you listen, not your health or your emotions. Zik4U does not infer health, mental-health conditions or feelings.

Your choice. If you are 18 or older, it is on by default; if you are 16 or 17, it stays off unless you turn it on. Turn it off anytime in Settings › Privacy › Listening mood profile: your archetype and the moods behind it are deleted, and Zik4U stops computing them. Everything else works the same.

6. Music Match

• Music Match lets adults discover people with compatible music tastes. It is off unless you turn it on, and requires you to confirm you are 18 or older.
• It compares listening only: artists you have in common and the same track played at the same time. It does not use your moods, your photo, your location, or your relationship status.
• You are visible only to other members who turned Music Match on.
• Turn it off anytime in Settings › Privacy › Music Match: you disappear from all results immediately.
• Blocking someone removes them from your results and prevents any contact.

7. Music research

Off unless you turn it on. Zik4U works exactly the same either way. Only members who confirmed they are 18 or older can turn it on.

What we use. The songs you play after you turn it on, when you play them, the listening moods derived from when and how you play them, and your archetype. Never listens made in private mode. Never your moods or archetype if your listening mood profile is off.

What partners receive. Weekly trends (for example, how many listeners an artist had, or at what times of day and in which listening moods people listened) computed only over groups of 100 people or more, with statistical noise added and figures rounded. Never your name, your profile, your songs, or any data about you as an individual. Partners must contractually commit never to try to re-identify anyone.

Who receives them. Music companies (labels, publishers) and, later, AI research organizations. Zik4U may be paid for these reports.

Your choice. Turn it off anytime in Settings › Privacy › Music research: your data leaves all future reports. Reports already delivered cannot be changed, but they hold no data about you as an individual. Every report we produce is logged.

8. What other people can see

What anyone can see. Your display name, avatar and bio are public. Anyone, including visitors without a Zik4U account, can see them on your profile page. If you are a creator, your subscription tiers and prices are also public.

Links to your other networks and relationship status. If you add them, they are shown on your profile in the app to signed-in members only, never to visitors without an account and never on our website. On a private account, only followers you have approved see them. Your relationship status is shown only if you are 18 or older. Tapping one of your links opens that network, whose own privacy policy then applies.

Search engines and AI assistants. This minimal public profile (name, avatar, bio) may be indexed by search engines such as Google and read by AI assistants and their crawlers (for example ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity). If your account is set to private, your profile is excluded from our sitemap and marked so that search engines and AI crawlers do not index it.

What stays protected. Your listening history, top artists and tracks, music signature, listener archetype, activity and compatibility scores are never shown to visitors without an account. On a private account, they are visible only to followers you have approved. On a creator's “subscribers only” profile, they are visible only to active subscribers.

Links you share. When you share your profile card from the app, the link shows your full card to anyone who opens it, even if your account is private. You choose to share it. Shared cards are marked so that search engines and AI crawlers do not index them. The card stays up to date with your activity. You can revoke all links you have shared at any time in the app's privacy settings; revoked links then show only your minimal public profile.

Creator content. Sharing a creator card never gives access to exclusive posts, drops or listening rooms, which remain reserved for subscribers.

9. Who processes your data for us

We never sell your personal data. We share it only with the providers below, which process it on our instructions (Expo also has a limited use of its own, described below), and with the app stores as independent companies.

Expo also uses technical information about your device, such as its IP address, for its own aggregate statistics, as an independent controller under its own privacy policy (expo.dev/privacy).

For creators who are paid, we send the information required by law to the French tax authority (DGFiP), which may share it with the tax authority of the country where they live.

We may also disclose data when the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or to a successor if Zik4U's business is transferred (we would tell you first).

10. International transfers

Our main database is hosted in the United States, and several providers above are based there. When your data leaves the European Economic Area or the UK, it is protected by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses included in our providers' data processing agreements, and, where a provider is certified, by the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for a copy of these safeguards at privacy@zik4u.com.

11. How long we keep your data

• Account and everything attached to it (listening, content, messages, listening mood profile, settings): as long as your account exists.
• When you delete your account: it is erased from our live database immediately, except a minimal record that French law requires hosting services to keep for one year, so that the author of published content can be identified at a judge's request: your username, email address, account creation date, and the identifier, date and IP address of each post, comment or message you published (never their content, and none of your listening). This record is locked, used only to answer a legal request, and deleted after one year. Residual copies in backups and our providers' technical logs disappear within 30 days.
• Listening mood profile: your daily listening moods are kept for 13 months, then deleted automatically; everything is deleted immediately when you turn it off.
• Inactive accounts: deleted after 3 years without any activity. We email you 30 days before, so you can keep your account by opening the app.
• Sign-in sessions: closed and deleted after 12 months without use.
• Sign-in log: 1 year, deleted with your account.
• Technical logs we keep (for example the health checks of the service): 1 year. Records of actions taken in our administration tool: 3 years, for security.
• Crash and error reports: up to 90 days.
• Purchase, payout, invoice and tax reporting records: kept as long as tax and accounting law requires (up to 10 years in France).
• Waitlists: until we invite you at launch, and at most 24 months, or earlier if you ask us.
• Usage analytics (only if you accept): the records in our database are kept 13 months and deleted at once when you turn analytics off; events already sent to Google Analytics are kept 2 months by Google.
• Emails to support: up to 3 years after our last exchange.
• Research reports: contain no personal data.

12. Your rights

Everyone. Wherever you live, you can:

• Download your data in Settings › My Data (GDPR / CCPA).
• Delete your account in Settings › Delete account, or from the web at zik4u.com/delete-account.
• Turn off your listening mood profile, Music Match, music research, analytics and notifications at any time.
• Correct your profile information in the app.
• Ask us anything at privacy@zik4u.com. We answer within one month.

EU/EEA and UK. You also have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection (including to the listening mood profile, by turning it off) and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting what was done before. You can complain to the French data protection authority, the CNIL (www.cnil.fr), or to the authority of the country where you live.

California and other U.S. states. You have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to access, correct and delete it; and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you beyond providing the Service. Research reports contain only de-identified, aggregated information. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of sale or sharing. You may use an authorized agent; we will verify the request. If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer.

13. Cookies and similar technologies

Website. zik4u.com uses no advertising or analytics cookies and has no login. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we set one technical cookie to remember it. No cookie banner is needed because no cookie requires your consent.

App. The app does not use advertising identifiers. Analytics run only if you accept them.

14. Age

Zik4U is for people 16 and older. Music Match and music research are for people 18 and older. Age is declared by you; we do not verify identity documents. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we delete it. To report one, write to privacy@zik4u.com. If you tell us you are 16 or 17, your listening mood profile stays off unless you turn it on.

15. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest by our hosting provider. Access rules in the database restrict each member to the data they are allowed to see. Administrative access requires a physical security key. If a data breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we notify the CNIL within 72 hours and tell you without undue delay when the risk is high.

16. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. When a change matters, the app shows it to you before it applies.

17. Contact

privacy@zik4u.com: Bertrand Chardinne, for Zik4U (French SAS in formation).