Terms of participation and voice data consent

Who we are

The Oya voice program is run by Andelle Limited, a company registered in England and Wales ("we", "us"). We build Oya, the voice layer that lets people talk to AI in their own languages and accents and be understood: Nigerian English, Pidgin, Yorùbá, Igbo and Hausa, in the accents people really have, and the way we mix them. Oya is offered as an app and as an API that other companies build into their products. For the personal data described here, we are the data controller.

Who can take part

• You must be 18 or older. We ask for your date of birth before anything else. If you're under 18 we can't accept you, and we don't keep anything you entered.
• For now the program is open to people living in Nigeria, paid into a Nigerian bank account. Other countries are coming soon.
• You must speak at least one of the program's languages well.
• One account per person. Don't create a second account, and don't record on someone else's behalf.
• Taking part is voluntary. You can stop at any time.

Payment

• We pay a fixed amount in naira for each approved session. The amount is shown in the app before you start, and it's the same whatever consent choices you make.
• A session is approved after we've reviewed every recording in it. We may ask you to redo some prompts, with a note saying why.
• We may reject a session, and not pay for it, if the recordings are unusable (silent, noisy, cut off, not what the prompt asked) or if we believe it isn't genuine: someone else's voice, recordings that were copied, generated or played back, or more than one account per person.
• We pay by bank transfer to a Nigerian bank account in your own name. We don't pay into shared or third-party accounts. Make sure the details are right; we can't recover money sent to an account you gave us by mistake.
• Payments are made in batches by hand, so they can take time after approval. You can see what you're owed and what's been paid, with the transfer reference, in the app.
• If you withdraw your consent, any payment we haven't sent yet is cancelled, even for sessions already approved. Payments already sent are yours to keep.
• There's a limit on approved sessions per language per person, so that no single voice takes over. The app shows how many you have left.
• You're responsible for any tax due on what you're paid. Payment doesn't make you our employee.
• If we suspend an account for fraud, we may withhold payment for sessions affected by it.

Recording rules

• Record only your own voice. Never record anyone else without their consent, and never with other people talking in the background.
• Don't say personal details in your recordings: your full name, address, phone number, bank or card numbers, or anyone else's. If you do by accident, re-record the prompt. If one slips through, we delete it when we find it.
• Answer the open questions honestly, in your own words. Don't read from a script or use a recording or a synthetic voice.
• Don't say anything hateful, threatening or illegal.

If these rules are broken we may reject sessions, suspend the account, and delete the recordings.

What we keep

• Your recordings, and the prompt you were reading or answering.
• Transcripts: the text of what you said, written by us or by a speech-recognition service.
• Your profile: date of birth, the languages you speak, gender if you tell us, the state you live in, and the kind of phone you record on. These help us check the technology works for everyone.
• Your account: your name and email from Google sign-in, and an optional phone number.
• Bank details for payment: bank, account number and account name. The account number is stored encrypted and only shown in full to the people who make payments.
• Your consent record: the version of these terms you accepted, your choices, the name you typed and the time. We keep every acceptance and withdrawal.

Your recordings are labelled with a speaker code (like s042), not your name. Your name and bank details are kept apart from the recordings and used only to pay you and to handle your requests.

How we use it

We ask for each use separately. Two are needed to take part; the others are up to you, and you can change your mind later.

We rely on your consent for these uses, under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and, where it applies, UK data protection law. We use your account and bank details to run the program and pay you, which is needed to perform this agreement. We don't use your data for advertising.

Where it's stored

• Recordings and program records are stored on Google Cloud in London (United Kingdom).
• Sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication, a Google service.
• Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Only the small Oya team can see it, and access is logged.

This means your data is processed outside Nigeria. We rely on the safeguards the law requires for that transfer, including our agreements with these providers.

Who we share it with

• We never sell your recordings or personal data.
• We use these processors, under contract, only to provide their service to us:
  • Google (Google Cloud, Firebase): storage, hosting and sign-in.
  • Cloudflare: carries traffic to the app at app.heyoya.io, encrypted, without storing it.
  • Spitch: speech recognition, used to check and transcribe recordings. Where we can choose, we don't let them keep or train on your recordings.
• If we add a processor that receives your recordings, we'll update these terms and tell you.
• We may disclose data if the law requires it, or to protect the program from fraud.
• If Andelle's Oya business is sold or merged, the data may move with it, under these same terms.

How long we keep it

• Recordings and transcripts: for as long as the project needs them, reviewed every two years. Only the latest take of each prompt is kept on your session.
• Payment records: for six years after payment, because tax and accounting law requires it.
• Consent records: for as long as we keep anything that relies on them, so we can show what you agreed to.
• If you're under 18, we keep nothing.

Your rights

• You can ask to see, correct or delete your recordings and details at any time. Email us from the address you signed in with; we'll act within 30 days.
• You can withdraw your consent at any time, from Settings in the app or by emailing us.

• You can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (ndpc.gov.ng) or, in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We'd like the chance to put things right first.

Changes

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we'll give them a new version, show you what changed, and ask you to accept again before you record. Recordings you've already made stay under the version you agreed to.

Contact

Andelle Limited · hello@heyoya.io. Include your email and, if you have it, your speaker code.