핑핑(PingPing) 개인정보처리방침

PingPing is a pager style app. People who have swapped six-digit friend codes send each other number codes of two to four digits. There is no account, login or profile. The server keeps a random device ID created by the app, your friend code and the number codes you send and receive. Everything else, such as the names you give friends and your block list, stays on your device. Only while Nearby friends (added in version 1.1.0) is on, a temporary Bluetooth token and your block list are briefly held on the server, and both are deleted when you turn it off (section 3). PingPing does not handle your location, name, contacts, photos or any text. It shows one Google AdMob banner at the bottom of the Friends tab (section 5) and includes no analytics tools.

From version 1.2.0, the app is available in English and Korean and follows your device's language settings. On Korean devices it is called 핑핑. The information it handles is the same in both languages; only the minimum age differs (section 6). The Korean policy above and this English policy describe the same practices.

1. Information we process and why

PingPing has no accounts, so we never ask for your name, email address or phone number. We process the information below. “Device” means the app's storage on your phone, and “server” means the cloud database PingPing uses.

• Device ID (a random UUID created by the app)

  Purpose

  Registers your device, issues your friend code and fetches your pings. It is not an account and does not reveal who you are.

  Stored in

  Device (pingping.device_id) and the id column of the server table pingping_devices

  Kept for

  On the device until you delete the app. Reinstalling creates a new one. Server retention is described in section 3.

• Your friend code (6 digits)

  Purpose

  The address other people use to ping you. The server assigns it at random.

  Stored in

  Device (pingping.my_code) and the code column of the server table pingping_devices

  Kept for

  On the device until you delete the app. Server retention is described in section 3.

• Registration time and last seen time

  Purpose

  Used to find device rows that have not been used for a long time. The last seen time is updated each time the device registers or fetches its pings.

  Stored in

  The created_at and last_seen_at columns of the server table pingping_devices

  Kept for

  See section 3.

• Pings (sender code, recipient code, a number code of 2 to 4 digits, time sent)

  Purpose

  Delivers your ping to the other person, shows ping backs and counts the daily limit of three pings. Nearby friends also uses them to check whether two codes have pinged each other. There are no columns for text, photos or names.

  Stored in

  The server table pingping_pings

  Kept for

  See section 3.

• Time of your age confirmation

  Purpose

  Remembers that you completed the age check on first launch (16 or older in the English app, 14 or older in the Korean app).

  Stored in

  Device (pingping.age_confirmed_at)

  Kept for

  Until you delete the app. It is never sent to the server.

• Saved friend codes and the names you give them

  Purpose

  Shows names for the dots in your sky and in your pings. When you ping a new code, it is saved automatically without a name.

  Stored in

  Device (pingping.friends)

  Kept for

  Until you remove it on the Friends tab or delete the app. It is never sent to the server.

• Blocked codes

  Purpose

  Hides pings from blocked codes and stops you from pinging them. While Nearby friends is on, it is also used to hide you from codes you blocked.

  Stored in

  Device (pingping.blocked_codes). Only while Nearby friends is on, also the hidden_from column of the server table pingping_nearby_tokens (your 200 most recent blocks)

  Kept for

  On the device until you unblock the code or delete the app. The copy held on the server is deleted together with the temporary Nearby friends token (right away when you turn it off, after 15 minutes at most).

• Practice mode setting and whether you have seen the Nearby friends intro

  Purpose

  Remembers whether you turned on the mode that trades pings with practice friends on your device instead of the server, and whether you have seen the first Nearby friends explanation.

  Stored in

  Device (pingping.practice_mode and pingping.nearby_intro_seen)

  Kept for

  Until you delete the app.

• Temporary Nearby friends token (12 random bytes)

  Purpose

  The signal your phone sends over Bluetooth while Nearby friends is on. The server creates a new one each time you turn it on, and it contains no friend code or name. The server uses it only to check whether it belongs to a connected friend.

  Stored in

  The server table pingping_nearby_tokens (linked to your device) and a Bluetooth advertisement (one service UUID)

  Kept for

  Valid for 15 minutes at most and deleted as soon as you turn Nearby friends off. If the app closes unexpectedly, the token stops working after 15 minutes and is deleted at the next cleanup.

• Time of your last Nearby friends check

  Purpose

  Used only to keep checks from being too frequent (once every 4 seconds per device). It does not record whom you checked.

  Stored in

  The nearby_resolved_at column of the server table pingping_devices (a single time, overwritten each time)

  Kept for

  Same as the device row (section 3).

• Tokens your phone picks up nearby (check requests)

  Purpose

  Your phone sends the tokens it picked up nearby to the server, up to 32 at a time, and gets back friend codes only for the tokens that belong to connected friends.

  Stored in

  Not stored. The server checks them on the spot and discards them after replying.

  Kept for

  Not stored. They are also cleared from your phone's memory when you turn Nearby friends off.

• Bluetooth signal strength

  Purpose

  Gives a rough sense of whether a nearby friend is Close, Nearby or A bit far.

  Stored in

  Device memory

  Kept for

  Discarded after 20 seconds. It is never sent to the server or written to a file.

We do not handle the following.

• Location. PingPing does not ask for location permission. A dot's place in your sky is calculated from its friend code and has nothing to do with real location, distance or direction. Nearby friends uses only Bluetooth signal strength and keeps no record of coordinates, or of who was near whom and when. On Android, the Bluetooth scan permission is declared with neverForLocation, so Bluetooth scanning is never used to find your location.
• Names, contacts, email addresses and phone numbers. The names you give friends stay on your device.
• Photos, text and profiles. Only number codes are exchanged, and you cannot type anything other than digits.
• Microphone and camera data. The operating system advertising ID is never sent to the PingPing server. Only the Google ads SDK described in section 5 may use it to serve ads.

2. Permissions

• On Android, PingPing declares the internet (INTERNET) permission. At build time, the Google ads SDK (and the androidx.work library inside it) adds ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS, WAKE_LOCK and FOREGROUND_SERVICE. These are all normal permissions that never show a prompt. PingPing declares no foreground service of its own and does no Bluetooth work in the background. It does not ask for location, microphone, camera, contacts, photos or notification permissions.
• Nearby friends (Bluetooth): the Nearby devices permission on Android 12 and later (BLUETOOTH_SCAN, BLUETOOTH_ADVERTISE, BLUETOOTH_CONNECT) and the Bluetooth permission on iOS are requested only the first time you turn on Nearby friends, never when the app starts. BLUETOOTH_SCAN is declared with neverForLocation, so Bluetooth scanning is not used to find your location, and if another library pulls in a location permission, it is removed from the manifest. On Android 11 and earlier, the Bluetooth library adds normal permissions that are granted at install (BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH_ADMIN), but Nearby friends is hidden and no permission is requested. The iOS background Bluetooth mode is not used. Permission prompts follow your device language (English or Korean).
• PingPing connects to its server only after you complete the age check, and only when it is not in practice mode. The ads SDK also starts only after the age check, so nothing goes over the network before you confirm. In practice mode, PingPing does not connect to its server (ads are still shown), and builds without server settings run in practice mode from the start. If the network drops, you see a “Couldn't reach the server” message with a Try again button.
• There are no push notifications. While the app is open, pings arrive through a realtime channel or a check every 30 seconds.

3. What is sent to the server and how long it is kept

The server is a Supabase cloud database. The app never reads or writes its tables directly. It calls only six server functions.

• Register device: sends the device ID and receives your friend code.
• My pings: sends the device ID and receives your code, how many pings you have left today, and the 200 most recent pings sent or received by your code.
• Send ping: sends the device ID, the friend's code and the number code, and receives the result and how many pings you have left.
• Turn on Nearby friends: sends the device ID and your block list (your 200 most recent blocks), and receives a temporary token valid for 15 minutes at most. If you block a code while it is on, the token is replaced right away.
• Nearby friends check: sends the device ID and the tokens picked up nearby (up to 32 at a time), and receives friend codes only for the tokens that belong to friends you have traded pings with. It never reveals when the other person turned the feature on.
• Turn off Nearby friends: sends the device ID, and the server deletes your temporary token and the block list it was holding right away.

The app sends only the device ID, the friend's code, the number code and, while Nearby friends is on, your block list and the tokens picked up nearby. It never sends your location, names, contacts, device model, the operating system advertising ID or Bluetooth signal strength, and it does not send your language setting either. The server counts the daily limit of three pings and resets it at midnight Korea time (15:00 UTC). In practice mode, nothing is sent to the server.

• Realtime delivery: when a new ping is saved, the server sends the ping ID, sender code, number code and time to the recipient's channel (pingping:device:<device ID>). The channel name is based on the device ID, which only that device and the server know. Other users only ever see your six-digit friend code.
• Blocking happens on your device. The server does not know about blocks when it saves a ping, so pings from blocked codes are still stored on the server and appear again if you unblock. Only while Nearby friends is on, your block list (your 200 most recent blocks) is held on the server so that blocked codes cannot see you, and it is deleted when you turn the feature off.
• Nearby friends works only between codes that have pinged each other (a single ping back is enough), only while PingPing is open on screen, only when both of you turn it on, and only if neither of you has blocked the other. Removing a friend from your list does not undo the connection, because your friend list exists only on your device, so block any code you do not want to see you. Each session lasts up to 10 minutes and ends as soon as 10 minutes pass, the screen turns off or you leave the app. The screen stays awake only while it is on. It works on iPhone and on Android 12 or later. Over Bluetooth, PingPing advertises only one service UUID (a fixed Nearby friends prefix plus the temporary token) and never your friend code, names, device ID or device name. On Android it advertises a non-connectable signal and does not open a Bluetooth connection server (GATT). On iOS, system advertisements always accept connections (see known limit 3 below). The screen shows only Close, Nearby or A bit far, with no distance in numbers, no direction and no map. Practice mode uses neither Bluetooth nor the server.
• Whether two codes have pinged each other is checked against existing ping records each time, and no separate table of friendships is kept. Only pings exchanged after both devices received their current friend codes count. We do not store who was nearby or when. From a check request, the server stores only the time of your last check. At the moment of a check, the server can tell that a set of tokens was picked up near one phone, but it does not store that. Service logs keep only the same general access records as other features (IP address, time and the name of the function called), never token values or the other person's code.
• Retention: ping rows and device rows on the server are kept while the service is running. The operator has a cleanup routine (pingping_prune) that deletes pings older than 30 days and device rows with no activity for 180 days; until it runs, rows remain. The pings list returns only the 200 most recent pings. Temporary Nearby friends tokens and the block list held with them are deleted as soon as you turn the feature off and stop working after 15 minutes at most. Expired tokens are deleted the next time someone turns the feature on or off, or by the cleanup routine.
• If you delete the app, the device ID is lost and the link to your server rows is broken. Those rows are removed by the cleanup routine or by a deletion request (section 7).

Known limits of Nearby friends

1. If someone in the same place picks up your token and broadcasts it again somewhere else, your friend's screen could wrongly show you as nearby. After you turn the feature off, your token stops working within 2 minutes, and a token lasts 15 minutes at most.
2. People nearby running a Bluetooth scanner app can tell that a PingPing Nearby friends signal is present. The signal alone does not reveal a friend code or a name in PingPing (for your phone's name, see 3). The token stays the same for one session (up to 10 minutes).
3. On iPhone, while Nearby friends is on, nearby devices can connect over Bluetooth and read your phone's name. iOS advertisements always accept connections, so the app cannot prevent this. We recommend not using your real name as your phone's name. On Android, PingPing advertises a non-connectable signal, so your phone's name cannot be read through it.
4. If the operator pauses Nearby friends on the server, all tokens on the server are deleted, so nobody can resolve them from that moment, and devices that have it on switch off within 10 minutes at the latest (when their session ends).
5. A connected friend using a modified app could see you without advertising their own token. This applies only to connected friends. If you do not want to be seen, block them.
6. Distance is estimated from signal strength, so walls, bodies and pockets can make it wrong.

4. Service providers, sharing and international transfers

The following companies process information so we can provide the service.

• Supabase (cloud database and realtime channels): stores and delivers device IDs, friend codes and pings, and issues and checks temporary Nearby friends tokens.
• Google AdMob (in-app ads): to show the banner on the Friends tab, the Google ads SDK collects the information described in section 5 (advertising ID, approximate location based on IP, ad views and clicks, diagnostics) and processes it on Google's servers. PingPing's device ID, friend codes and pings are never passed to it.

We do not sell your information or share it with anyone else. Other users can see your friend code and the number codes you send, with the time sent. With Nearby friends, only friends who have traded pings with you and have the feature on at the same time can see you as Close, Nearby or A bit far. Supabase and Google run servers in several countries, so this information may be processed outside your country, including outside Korea. We use no other outside services, such as speech recognition or analytics.

5. Ads

PingPing shows one Google AdMob banner at the bottom of the Friends tab, just above the tab bar. Home (your sky), Send, the age check screen and Settings have no ads, and there are no interstitial or rewarded ads. The ads SDK starts only after you complete the age check. To serve and measure ads, the Google Mobile Ads SDK may collect your device's advertising ID, approximate location based on your IP address (country or region level), ad views and clicks, and app performance and crash diagnostics. Friend codes, pings, saved friend names and your block list are never passed to the ads SDK, and the device ID in section 1 is a random value created by the app, unrelated to the operating system advertising ID.

• No tracking. On iOS, PingPing does not ask for App Tracking Transparency (ATT) permission and does not use the advertising ID to track you across other companies' apps or websites.
• Ad content rating. Ads are requested with a maximum content rating of T (Teen).
• Consent and choices. Users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK see a consent form before any ad is shown and can change their choice at any time with Ad privacy settings in the Settings tab. Elsewhere, no extra consent is needed, so the button is unavailable and shows “Not needed in your region.”
• Deletion and questions. Information collected by the ads SDK is processed by Google. SLOX does not receive it at the individual level, so it cannot be deleted from within the app. On Android, you can reset or delete your advertising ID under Ads in your device settings. For details on how Google processes this data, see Google's advertising policy.
• No analytics. PingPing includes no usage analytics SDKs.

6. Children

PingPing is for people 16 or older in the English app and 14 or older in the Korean app. On first launch you can start only after checking “I'm 16 or older” (in the Korean app, “저는 만 14세 이상이에요”). Until you do, the app does not connect to its server or start the ads SDK. Because there are no accounts, your age is self-declared. The question is asked once; if you change your device language later, it is not asked again. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these ages, and if we learn that a child under the minimum age has used PingPing, we delete the related server records.

7. Your rights and how to delete your data

• In the app: on the Friends tab, Remove deletes a saved friend and its name, and Rename changes the name. In Settings, Unblock removes a block.
• Turning off Nearby friends: the temporary token and block list on the server are deleted right away. If the app closes unexpectedly, the token stops working within 15 minutes and is deleted at the next cleanup.
• Deleting the app: everything on the device is deleted, including the device ID, your code, your age confirmation and the practice mode setting. There is no reset-all button in the app.
• Deleting server data: there is no way to delete server rows from inside the app. Email us your six-digit friend code at the address below, and the operator will promptly delete that code's device row and every ping it sent or received. Requests to access or correct your data, or to stop processing it, go to the same address.
• Users in the EEA and UK: we process the server data above because it is needed to provide the features you use, such as delivering pings and applying the daily limit. Personalized ads depend on the choice you make in Google's consent form. You may also object to or restrict processing, and you can complain to your local data protection authority.

Contact: namurobori@gmail.com

8. Security

• Row level security (RLS) is enabled on the server tables, and the app key has no access policies, so the app cannot read or write the tables directly. It can only call the six server functions.
• The server functions look up your code from your device ID and return only the pings sent or received by that code. Nobody can look up other people's pings.
• Code format checks, the daily limit of three pings and the block on pinging your own code are enforced on the server.
• The Nearby friends token table cannot be read or written with the app key either, and the functions that decide whether two codes have pinged each other, and that clean up old tokens, are not available to the app. Checks are limited to one every 4 seconds and 32 tokens per request for each device, and token issuing to 12 per hour for each device.
• Your device ID is never shown to other users. Even the About section in Settings shows only its first 8 characters.
• Server connection details (address and key) are not kept in the source repository; they are supplied at build time. The cleanup routine and direct table access require admin rights.

9. Privacy officer and contact

Service provider

SLOX (PingPing)

Privacy officer

Seokwon Yang (양석원)

Contact

namurobori@gmail.com

Users in Korea can also contact the following organizations to report a privacy violation or get advice: the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee (1833-6972, kopico.go.kr), the Personal Information Infringement Report Center (118, privacy.kisa.or.kr), the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Cyber Investigation Division (1301, spo.go.kr) and the Korean National Police Agency Cyber Bureau (182, ecrm.police.go.kr).

10. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will post the changes and their effective date on this page. If a change is unfavorable to users, we will post it on this page 30 days before it takes effect.

• September 23, 2026 · v1.0 · First version.
• September 24, 2026 · v1.1 · Added one Google AdMob banner at the bottom of the Friends tab. Section 5 became Ads, and the permissions, service provider and international transfer text was updated.
• October 1, 2026 · v1.2 · Added Nearby friends (Bluetooth). Updated sections 1, 2, 3 and 7, along with the service providers and what others can see in section 4 and the number of server functions in section 8. Applies from app version 1.1.0.
• October 7, 2026 · v1.3 · Added the English app (English name PingPing) and this full English policy. The minimum age is now stated as 16 in the English app and 14 in the Korean app, and sections 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 were updated to match. The information we handle and how the server processes it are unchanged. Applies from app version 1.2.0.