Privacy policy

Last updated: 15 November 2026

The short version

We keep as little as we can. Messages are deleted from our server a week after your phone saves them.
No phone number. Nobody can find you by searching.
No adverts, no tracking, and we never sell your information.
You can ask us for a copy of your information, or to delete it, at any time.

1. Who we are

Telli is a messaging app. Inside the app it is called TELLA. It is made by CTRL FN (Control Function), in South Africa. In this policy, “we” and “us” means CTRL FN, and “Telli” means the app on phones and on the web (app.tellatelli.com).

We follow South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). If you have a question about your information, write to privacy@tellatelli.com.

2. What we keep, and why

Your account

Email address and password, to sign you in and to reset your password. Your password is stored scrambled (hashed); we can’t read it.
Username and display name. People you’re not linked with only ever see these two.
Optional: profile photo, bio, and your birthday (day and month only, no year). Only people you’re linked with see them.
Your time zone, so TELLA TIME messages arrive at the right moment.
Which kind of device you use (web, Android or iPhone), so the other person can see a “Web user” label.

Who you’re linked with

Link requests, your links, and the people you’ve blocked. We need these to decide who may message you.

Messages and files

Messages, photos, videos, voice notes, video notes and files pass through our server so they can reach the other person.
Once every person in the chat has saved a message on their device, it is deleted from our server 7 days later. A message nobody collects is deleted after 30 days. After that, your history exists only on your devices.
TELLA TIME messages are kept, sealed, until the time you chose. Only you can see them until then; the other person isn’t told anything in advance.
Note never leaves your phone. We don’t have it.

Other things you choose to share

Statuses are shown to people you’re linked with for 24 hours, then deleted.
Live location is shared only while you choose to share it (30 minutes, 1 hour or 3 hours) and only while Telli is open. The position is wiped when it ends.
Polls, plans, shared lists, albums, sealed reveals and Blind Tap scores are kept so they work for everyone in the chat. Polls are deleted 90 days after they’re asked, plans 30 days after they start.

To make the app work

Online status and last seen, shown only to people you’re linked with. You can switch this off in Profile > Privacy.
Notifications: if you turn them on, we keep your browser’s notification address. Notifications show only a name (“New message from Jordan”), never what was written.
Read and delivered times, so the app can show Delivered and Read.

3. What we don’t do

No adverts, and no advertising or analytics trackers in the app.
We don’t sell or rent your information to anyone.
We don’t read your messages to profile you.
We don’t ask for your phone number or your contacts.

4. Services we use

These companies process information for us, only to run Telli:

Service	What for
Supabase	Our database, sign-in and file storage (servers in the European Union).
Cloudflare	Hosting the website and the web app, and keeping them safe from attacks.
Your browser’s or phone’s notification service	Delivering notifications (for example Google or Apple). They see only that a notification was sent and the name in it.
OpenStreetMap	Map pictures in live location. Your device asks OpenStreetMap for the map around the shared position.
Our email provider	Sending account emails, such as password resets.

Some of these services store information outside South Africa. We use them only where they protect it to a standard POPIA accepts.

5. How long we keep it

Messages and files: 7 days after everyone has saved them, or 30 days if never collected.
Statuses: 24 hours.
Your account information: until you delete your account.
Our database provider keeps backups for a short time. Something deleted can stay in a backup until that backup expires.

6. Your rights

You can:

see and change most of your information in the app (Profile and Edit profile);
ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you;
ask us to correct it, or to delete your account and everything linked to it;
object to how we use it.

Write to privacy@tellatelli.com from the email address you signed up with. We reply within 30 days. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to South Africa’s Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za).

7. Keeping it safe

Information travels encrypted (https). Our database only lets each person read what they’re allowed to: for example, someone you’re not linked with can’t see your photo, bio or status. No system is perfectly secure, and anyone you send a message to can still copy it, for example with another phone’s camera.

8. Children

Telli is for people aged 13 and older. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, write to us and we will delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. For important changes we’ll also tell you in the app.