Privacy Policy

Information Collection And Use

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you. Personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) may include, but is not limited to:

• Account information: your email address, name, and password when you create an account. If you sign in with a third-party provider, we receive your email address and name from that provider. If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple gives us your name only once, the first time you authorise the app, and lets you hide your real email address behind a private relay address — in which case that relay address is the only one we ever hold, and it is what we write to.
• Phone numbers you dial: when you place a paid call to a phone, we process and store the destination phone number so we can connect and bill the call.
• Payment information: when you buy calling credit, our payment processor collects your payment details. We store your purchase history and credit balance but never your full card number.
• Call records: metadata about the paid calls you place (see “Voice Calls and Phone Numbers” below).
• Text messages: if you rent a phone number and use it to text, we store the content of the messages you send and receive, together with the other party’s number and delivery status (see “Text Messages” below).
• Rented number records: the phone number assigned to you, its subscription status, and its renewal history (see “Rented Phone Numbers” below).
• Device and network signals: including your IP address and a browser fingerprint, used to prevent fraud and abuse (see “Fraud and Abuse Prevention” below).
• Voicemail: if you rent a phone number, an audio recording of any message a caller leaves for you (see “Voicemail” below).
• Contacts you save: the name and phone number of anyone you add to your contact list, whether you typed them in or picked them from your device’s address book (see “Your Contacts” below).
• Mobile app information: if you use the FreeCallMeapp, a device identifier and a push notification token, so we can alert you to incoming calls and messages (see “Mobile App” below).

We use your Personal Information to operate, provide, secure, and improve the Service, to process payments and place your calls, to prevent fraud and abuse, and to communicate with you about your account.

Voice Calls and Phone Numbers

Browser-to-browser calls. Free calls between browsers use a direct, peer-to-peer WebRTC connection. Call audio, video, chat messages, and files are exchanged directly between participants (or relayed through a TURN server only when a direct connection is not possible). We do not record, store, or listen to the contents of these calls. To help browsers find each other, connection setup messages (signaling) pass through our real-time infrastructure and TURN relay providers, but the call media itself is not stored by us.

Calls to phones.When you use paid calling to reach a regular phone number, your call is routed to the recipient through third-party telecommunications carriers. To connect and bill these calls, we store call records that may include the destination phone number, the country, the date and time, the duration, the call outcome (for example, answered, no answer, or blocked by the carrier), the carrier used, technical hang-up details, and the cost. We use this information to place your calls, bill you accurately, provide support, monitor call quality, and prevent fraud and abuse. The recipient’s phone displays a FreeCallMe caller ID number, not your personal number.

Voicemail

If you rent a phone number and a caller leaves a message, we store an audio recordingof that message, together with the caller’s phone number, the time, and the length of the recording. The recording is held in private storage and is reachable only through a short-lived link issued to your signed-in account.

This is audio we hold, and it is worth being exact about what it is not. We do not record your calls. A voicemail is a message a caller chose to leave for you after you did not answer, in the same way a physical answering machine works. Live call audio, whether on a free browser call or a paid call to a phone, is never recorded by us.

Automatic transcription of voicemail is switched off. If we turn it on in future, the transcript would be produced by the telecommunications carrier that delivered the call and stored alongside the recording, and we will say so here before that happens.

You can delete a voicemail from inside the app at any time, and recordings are deleted automatically on the schedule set out under “Data Retention” below.

Text Messages

If you rent a phone number and use it to send or receive text messages, we store the contentof those messages, the other party’s phone number, the direction, the timestamp, the delivery status reported by the carrier, and the number of message segments used for billing. This is more than we store for voice calls, where we keep only metadata, and we do it because a messaging thread is unusable if the messages are not there.

Messages are stored so that we can show you your conversations, bill your usage accurately, provide support, and investigate abuse reports. We do not read your messages for advertising, we do not sell them, and we do not use them to train machine learning models. Access by us is limited to what is necessary to run the Service, to respond to an abuse report, or to comply with a valid legal request.

Message content necessarily passes through the telecommunications carrier that delivers it, and through the recipient’s own carrier and device, none of which we control. Text messaging is not encrypted end to end. Do not send anything through SMS that you would not want a carrier to be able to see.

Mobile Information and Text Messaging Consent

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Information sharing to subcontractors in support services, such as customer service or message delivery, is permitted. All other use case categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not sell or rent phone numbers, contact lists, or messaging consent data to anyone, for any purpose.

Rented Phone Numbers

When you rent a phone number we record which number is assigned to you, when the subscription started, its renewal and payment history, and its current status. Because the number is leased from a telecommunications carrier, that carrier also holds records relating to it, and both we and the carrier may be required to retain and disclose those records under telecommunications law.

If your subscription ends, the number is released back to the carrier and may later be reassigned to a different person. We delete your message history for a released number in line with the retention periods below, but we cannot control what the carrier or a future holder of that number does with it.

Your Contacts

FreeCallMelets you keep a list of people you call. You can type a contact in by hand, or import one from your device’s address book.

We never read your whole address book. Importing uses your operating system’s own contact picker: you choose one person, and only that person’s name and phone numbers are handed to the app. We do not scan, copy, upload, or index your contacts in bulk, and we do not ask your contacts’ permission to reach them because we never reach them.

A contact you save is stored on our servers, under your account, so it appears on every device you sign in on. It holds the name you gave it, the phone number, the country the number belongs to, and whether you marked it a favourite. You can edit or delete any contact at any time, and all of them are deleted with your account.

We do not use your contacts to suggest connections, to build a social graph, to find other FreeCallMe users, or for marketing of any kind, and we never share or sell them.

Mobile App

Push notifications. The app registers a push notification token with Apple or Google so we can wake your device for an incoming call, a missed call, a voicemail, or a text message. You can stop push notifications at any time in your device settings. Doing so does not delete your account, but you will stop being alerted to incoming calls.

Device identifier. The app reads an identifier that your operating system provides for this purpose — the vendor identifier on iOS, or the Android ID on Android. We use it for one thing: to link an installation to your account and to detect duplicate or automated signups, which is what keeps free calling free. It is not an advertising identifier, we do not use it for advertising or ad measurement, we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers, and it is not combined with any advertising identifier. It resets when you factory-reset the device, or when you remove all of our apps on iOS.

Camera and microphone. The app asks for camera and microphone access so you can be seen and heard on a call. That audio and video goes directly between you and the other participants, or to the telecommunications carrier placing your call. We do not record it, store it, or listen to it. The only audio we hold is a voicemail somebody left for you, which is described above.

Contacts. Only the one contact you pick, and only when you pick it. See “Your Contacts” above.

Purchases. Calling credit and phone number subscriptions bought inside the app are processed by the App Store or Google Play. We receive a confirmation of the transaction from Apple or Google and record what it entitled you to; we never receive or store your payment details.

Screen sharing. Where the app offers screen sharing on a video call, the shared image is sent live to the other participants in that call, in the same way your camera is. We do not record or store it.

Analytics. The app asks your permission before collecting any product analytics, and collects none until you agree. See “Analytics” below.

Payments

Payments for calling credit are processed by Stripe. When you make a purchase, your payment information is collected and handled directly by Stripe in accordance with its own privacy policy. We receive confirmation of your payment and a limited record of the transaction (such as the amount and status), and we maintain your credit balance and purchase history. We do not store your full payment card number on our servers.

Fraud and Abuse Prevention

To keep free calling free and protect the Service from abuse, we use automated checks when you sign up and when you place calls. These may include your IP address (and its network subnet), a browser fingerprint generated in your browser, your name, checks against known disposable email providers, and rate limits on account creation and calling. We combine these signals into a risk score associated with your account. We use this information solely to detect and prevent duplicate accounts, fraud, and abuse of the Service, and we log blocked attempts for security purposes.

Log Data

We collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our Service (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages and other statistics.

Analytics

We use third-party analytics services, including PostHog and Vercel Analytics, to understand how visitors use the Service so we can improve it. These services collect usage information such as pages viewed, interactions, and general device and browser details. This information is used in aggregate to measure and improve the performance and usability of the Service.

In the mobile app, analytics are off until you turn them on. The app asks once, on first launch, and collects nothing at all until you agree — no analytics client is started, no identifier is generated, and no events are queued. If you decline, we do not ask again. You can change your answer at any time in the app under Account → Settings, and withdrawing consent stops collection and clears the analytics identifier held on your device.

Analytics tell us which features are used and where people get stuck. They are never used for advertising, they are not shared with advertisers or data brokers, and they do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.

What We Do Not Collect

To be explicit about the things we are asked about most:

• No location. We never request or collect your device’s location, precise or approximate. The country shown next to a phone number is worked out from the number you dialled, not from where you are.
• No advertising identifiers and no tracking. We do not use the iOS advertising identifier (IDFA), we do not use the Android advertising ID, we show no advertising, and we do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites. We have no reason to ask for App Tracking Transparency permission and we do not.
• No sale of personal information. We do not sell or rent your personal information, your phone number, your contacts, or your message history to anyone, for any purpose.
• No call recording. We do not record the audio or video of your calls. The only audio we hold is a voicemail somebody left for you.
• No health, financial, or biometric data. We do not collect any of it. Payment card details go to our payment processor or to the app store, never to us.
• No training of machine learning models on your messages, your calls, your voicemail, or your contacts.

Cookies

Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer’s hard drive.

We use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used. These providers include, among others:

• Supabase: account authentication, database, and real-time signaling for calls.
• Twilio, SignalWire, and Telnyx: telecommunications carriers that connect your paid calls, deliver your text messages, and supply rented phone numbers.
• Cloudflare: TURN relay servers used to help establish browser calls.
• Stripe and PayPal: payment processing for calling credit and subscriptions on the web.
• Apple and Google: in-app purchases, subscription billing, and push notification delivery for the mobile app.
• Maileroo: delivery of account and service email.
• PostHog and Vercel: analytics and hosting.
• Fraud-prevention providers: services that help us detect abuse and duplicate accounts (such as browser fingerprinting and rate limiting).

These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Links To Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“Children”).

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we discover that a child under 18 has provided us with Personal Information, we will delete such information from our servers immediately.

Compliance With Laws

We will disclose your Personal Information where required to do so by law or subpoena.

Data Retention

We keep information only as long as we need it, or as long as the law requires:

• Account information is kept while your account is open, and deleted within 30 days of closure.
• Call and message records are kept for up to 24 months, which covers billing disputes, abuse investigations, and carrier record-keeping obligations.
• Message content is kept while you hold the number and for up to 90 days after the number is released or the account is closed, then deleted.
• Voicemail recordings are kept for 90 days and then deleted automatically, recording and audio file together. You can delete one sooner from inside the app.
• Contacts you save are kept until you delete them or delete your account, whichever comes first. They are not retained afterwards for any purpose, including fraud prevention.
• Payment and transaction records are kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires, generally seven years.
• Fraud and abuse signals are kept for up to 24 months so that a closed account cannot immediately be recreated to evade a block.

Some information survives account deletion in backups for a short period, and anything we are legally required to preserve is kept for as long as that obligation lasts.

Deleting Your Account

You can delete your account yourself, at any time, from inside the FreeCallMe app: Account → Settings → Delete account. It happens immediately and needs no approval from us. If you no longer have the app, email john@freecallme.com from the address on the account.

Deleting removes your profile, sign-in, call history, contacts, text messages, voicemail and push registrations, and releases any rented phone number. None of it can be restored. Any calling credit left on the account is forfeited and is not refunded.

Two things outlive the account. Payment and transaction records are kept for as long as tax law requires. And we keep a small anti-fraud record holding a device identifier, the network address the account was created from, and a one-way hash of the email address, so that an account suspended for abuse cannot be re-created simply by deleting it first. A hash cannot be reversed, so that record cannot be used to recover your address or to contact you. For accounts in good standing it is removed after 30 days and it never prevents you from signing up again.

Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription. Only the store can do that, so cancel it there first or you will keep being charged. See Delete your account for the full detail.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a portable copy, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of, but the right exists regardless.

To exercise any of these rights, email john@freecallme.com from the address on your account. We will respond within the time the applicable law allows, generally 45 days, and we will not treat you differently for asking. If we cannot verify that the request came from you, we may decline it, because handing your data to someone impersonating you would be the greater harm.

Marketing email carries a one-click unsubscribe link in every message. Unsubscribing does not stop service email such as receipts, security notices, or messages about your subscription.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

FreeCallMe, a sole proprietorship operated by John Patino. Questions about this Privacy Policy, privacy rights requests, and law enforcement requests go to john@freecallme.com. Our business address is available on request. General help is on the support page.