Privacy Policy

Effective July 16, 2026

Howl is built and operated by a single independent developer, not a company. This Policy explains what information Howl collects, why, and what choices you have about it. It should be read alongside our Terms of Service.

1. Who This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to the Howl desktop application, its accounts, and related websites operated by the developer of Howl ("the Developer," "we," "us"), referred to together as "Howl" or "the Service." By using Howl, you agree to the collection and use of information as described here.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information you give us

Account information — username, email address, and password (stored as a salted cryptographic hash, never in plain text).
Profile information — display name, avatar, banner, bio/about-me, and custom status text, if you choose to add them.
Content — messages, images, files, and other Content you send or upload through Servers, channels, and direct messages.
Payment-related information — if you subscribe to Howl Plus, our payment processor (Stripe) collects your payment details directly. We do not receive or store your full card number; we receive limited billing metadata from Stripe (such as your subscription status and a Stripe-generated customer reference) needed to grant and manage your subscription.
Communications with us — if you email support@howl.rip or submit an appeal or report, we keep a record of that correspondence.

2.2 Information collected automatically

Device and login metadata — a device identifier generated on install (used to group your sessions under Trusted Devices), IP address at login/session-refresh time, and basic session metadata, used for account security (for example, detecting logins from a new device).
Presence and activity — your online/idle/offline status, whether you're connected to a voice channel, and typing indicators, shared live with other Users as part of normal chat functionality.
Voice call metadata — who is connected to a voice channel and for how long. Voice audio itself is relayed in real time to let calls function and is not intentionally recorded or stored by us.
Technical/usage data — basic application logs (errors, request metadata) used to operate, secure, and debug the Service.

2.3 Information from others

Other Users may share information about you as part of using Howl — for example, mentioning you in a message, or a Server owner assigning you a role. If someone reports your account or Content to us, we receive the content of that report and use it as described in Section 4.

3. What We Don't Do

We do not sell your personal information.
We do not run advertising, and we do not share your data with ad networks or data brokers.
We do not read your private messages or DMs except as described in Section 4.3 (moderation reports/legal requests) or as strictly necessary to operate the Service (for example, automated abuse/spam filtering, if and when such systems are in place).

4. How We Use Information

We use the information described in Section 2 to:

4.1 Provide the Service — create and maintain your account, deliver your messages and calls to their intended recipients, sync your settings, and operate features like Servers, roles, badges, and Howl Plus.
4.2 Secure the Service — detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access; enforce our Terms of Service; apply rate limits; and investigate suspicious activity.
4.3 Moderation and legal compliance — review reported Content or accounts, respond to valid legal requests (such as a subpoena or court order), and, where legally required or where we determine it necessary (such as CSAM, as described in our Terms), report to law enforcement or organizations like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
4.4 Communicate with you — send account-related emails (email verification, security alerts, two-factor login codes, password resets, notices about enforcement action on your account, and, where relevant, billing receipts for Howl Plus). We do not send marketing email.
4.5 Improve Howl — understand how the Service is used at a technical level (error rates, performance) so we can fix bugs and improve reliability.

5. How We Share Information

5.1 With other Users

Howl is a communication platform — information you choose to share (messages, your profile, your presence status, your participation in a voice channel) is visible to other Users in the Servers, channels, and DMs you participate in, exactly as you'd expect from using a chat app.

5.2 With service providers

We share limited information with the following categories of third-party providers, solely to operate Howl on our behalf. These providers are contractually/technically limited to using your information to provide their service to us, not for their own independent purposes:

Cloudflare — hosting, network infrastructure, database, file storage (for uploaded images/files), and real-time messaging infrastructure that Howl runs on.
Stripe — payment processing for Howl Plus subscriptions. Stripe receives your payment details directly and processes them under its own privacy policy.
Resend — delivery of transactional email (verification codes, security alerts, two-factor codes).
Klipy — powers in-app GIF search; search terms you enter in the GIF picker are sent to Klipy to return results.

5.3 For legal reasons

We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that it's required by law, a valid legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Howl, our Users, or the public — including sharing CSAM-related reports with NCMEC and/or law enforcement as described in our Terms.

5.4 Business transfers

If Howl is ever transferred as part of a sale of assets, acquisition, or similar transaction, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Policy (or a successor policy you're notified of).

6. Data Retention and Deletion

We keep your information for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterward as described below, or as needed to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

If you delete your account, we scrub identifying account fields (email, username, display name, password hash) and disable the account. Content you posted in shared Servers/channels (messages, etc.) may remain visible to other Users, attributed to a deleted/generic account label, since removing it entirely would alter other Users' own conversation history — you can delete individual messages yourself before account deletion if you want them removed first.
Uploaded files/images are removed from active storage on a routine basis after account deletion or after they're no longer referenced by any message, subject to normal backup retention windows.
Records related to moderation action (bans, suspensions, reports) may be retained longer, to prevent ban evasion and to maintain a consistent moderation history.

7. Your Rights and Choices

You can:

Access, correct, or update most of your account and profile information directly in Howl's Settings.
Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Request deletion of your account and associated personal information (subject to Section 6).
Object to or request that we restrict certain processing, where applicable law gives you that right.
Withdraw consent where our processing is based on consent, without affecting processing that happened before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these, email support@howl.rip. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We'll respond within a reasonable time.

8. Children's Privacy

Howl is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created a Howl account, please contact support@howl.rip and we will investigate and, if confirmed, disable the account and delete the associated data.

9. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encrypting data in transit, hashing passwords with a modern, salted hashing algorithm (never storing plain-text passwords), and storing sensitive local session data (like your login refresh token) using your operating system's secure credential storage rather than plain text on disk. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

10. International Data Transfers

Howl's infrastructure runs on global cloud infrastructure (Cloudflare), which may process and store data in countries other than your own. By using Howl, you understand that your information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries that may have different data protection laws than your country of residence.

11. Local Storage and Cookies

Howl is a desktop application, not a website you browse — it does not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. It does use local device storage (on your computer) to remember things like your theme, text size, and window preferences, and secure local storage for your login session, as described in Section 9. Our website (howl.rip) may use minimal, strictly necessary storage to serve the site and check for the latest app version; it does not run third-party advertising trackers.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we'll make a reasonable effort to notify active Users (for example, via an in-app notice or email) before the change takes effect. The "Effective" date at the top of this page reflects the last update.

13. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy, or requests relating to your personal information, can be sent to support@howl.rip.