Privacy Policy

Overview

This policy explains how Haze Method ("Haze Method", "Haze", "we", "us"), the app operated at tikhaze.com, handles information when you use the Haze Method website, Discord bot, browser extension, and backend at api.hazemethod.xyz. It also covers Community, purchases and optional integrations such as TikTok. What the Haze Check Chrome extension does on your device is described in detail in the Haze Check Extension Privacy Policy.

Haze Method, operated from the Philippines, is the personal information controller responsible for the Haze processing described here. Our data protection contact handles privacy questions and requests at privacy@tikhaze.com. This notice explains our practices; it does not require you to waive privacy rights or provide blanket consent. Optional permissions and any consent required by law are handled separately.

Information We Process

1. Discord account and server information

When you sign in with Discord or use the Haze bot, we may process your Discord user ID, username, avatar, server membership, and Haze-related roles. We use this information to authenticate you, provide bot commands, determine your tier, grant or remove roles, and keep the website and Discord server in sync. Haze's OAuth flow does not request your Discord email address.

1a. Google sign-in and your Haze account

You can sign in with Google instead of, or as well as, Discord. Google sign-in asks only for your basic profile (openid, email, profile): we store Google's account identifier, your name, your profile picture link and your email address when Google has verified it, and use them only to sign you in and to show your account. We do not receive your Google password or access your other Google data. Every Haze account has an account ID (for an account created with Discord, this is your Discord user ID) and a username you choose, which other people may see where Haze shows who did something, such as in Community. Your credits, purchases and settings belong to the Haze account, whichever sign-in method you use; you can connect or remove a sign-in method from the account menu as long as one remains.

1b. Telegram sign-in

You can sign in with Telegram instead of, or as well as, Google or Discord. Telegram tells us your Telegram user ID, your name and your Telegram username if you have one; we store these with your Haze account and use them only to sign you in and to show your account. We do not receive your phone number or contacts, and we do not store your profile photo or the messages you send the bot. When you sign in from a phone, our Telegram bot sends you one message asking you to confirm a sign-in you started; it does not message you otherwise.

1c. TikTok sign-in

You can sign in with TikTok instead of, or as well as, Google, Discord or Telegram. TikTok sign-in asks only for your basic profile: we store your TikTok account identifier and your display name with your Haze account and use them only to sign you in and to show your account. We do not keep the sign-in token TikTok gives us, and we do not store your TikTok profile picture. TikTok does not give us your email address or your password. Signing in with TikTok is separate from connecting a TikTok account to post: it does not let Haze post for you, and connecting an account to post does not make it a way to sign in.

2. Discord bot activity

The bot processes the commands, buttons, and other interactions you send to it. Depending on the feature used, it stores information needed for Haze Credits, XP and levels, moderation and anti-abuse controls, sticky messages, server statistics, donation roles, and feature settings. Chat activity may earn XP, but it does not earn Haze Credits. When a feature depends on a Discord message event, the bot processes the message and channel identifiers and the content needed to perform that feature.

3. Purchases, subscriptions, and older payment tickets

Every purchase, including subscriptions and free trials, goes through our checkout partner Whop, which collects your payment details directly; Haze never receives your full card number. From Whop we receive and store the membership and payment identifiers, the plan, amount, currency, payment status, and trial, renewal and cancellation dates, linked to your Haze account ID. We also record each purchase agreement: your Haze account ID, the Terms and Refund Policy version you accepted, which checkout it was for, and when. We use these records to grant and renew paid plans, stop renewals when you cancel, allow one free trial per person, answer refund requests, and respond to payment disputes.

Before September 28, 2026, some payments were made directly to Haze through Discord payment tickets. For those tickets, we keep the ticket number, Discord account, selected payment method and amount, ticket status, associated Discord channel, staff decision, rejection reason when provided, and role expiry. Payment services may have provided Haze with a transaction identifier, amount, and payment status so we could prevent duplicate processing and grant the correct role. Where the website shows an older ticket, it shows only its status (number, payment method, amount, months and creation date), never the messages in the Discord ticket channel.

Messages, attachments and proofs you choose to send in a Discord support or payment ticket are processed through Discord and can be viewed by the staff handling it. We may keep information necessary to resolve the request or payment claim. Discord's own retention and permissions apply; deleting a channel or message does not necessarily remove an independently retained transaction record. Do not send passwords, full card details, or unrelated sensitive information.

4. Credits, usage, and account status

We store records used to operate the service, including your weekly and purchased Haze Credits, temporary processing reservations, detected resolution, frame rate and file-size pricing data, upload count, approximate MB saved, account restrictions, warnings, and paid-plan and role expiry dates. Weekly balances reset on a weekly schedule; lifetime totals may remain on the account record.

5. Video and media files

• Optional full-video features (off by default)When you turn on an optional feature that needs the whole video, such as re-encoding, your browser uploads the selected video directly to a third-party processing provider, which processes it and returns the result to your browser for the normal Haze optimization. Haze itself receives only a job identifier and its status, not the video. The provider keeps the files it processes under its own retention rules.
• OptimizationFor every optimization option, your browser sends Haze's API only the file's technical header (track layout, timing and sample tables, with no picture or sound) and receives instructions it uses to build the optimized file on your device; the video itself is not uploaded. That header can also hold details your camera or editing app embedded in the file, such as the recording time, device model or location; Haze uses the header only to build those instructions and does not store it. Haze keeps a fingerprint (hash) of the header with the record of that run (and of your credit reservation, when the option costs credits), so an answer lost within the hour can be re-sent without charging you twice, and so free options can be limited per account.
• Recent optimized videosOnly if you turn on "Keep videos on this device" (it is off by default), the website stores the output file, filename, size and related processing information in your browser's IndexedDB so you can download it again or select it for upload. Turning the setting off deletes those saved videos. Your choice is stored in your browser (localStorage key haze_keep_videos). Saved entries expire after 3 days and are removed during cache cleanup when the cache is used. The cache holds at most 20 files and 500 MiB; older entries may be evicted sooner and browser storage may be cleared. Signing out does not necessarily erase saved videos. Turn the setting off or clear site data to remove them, and keep your own backups.
• Posting to TikTokAfter you confirm a post, your browser uploads the video directly to TikTok. Haze sends TikTok the caption, privacy and interaction settings you choose, and stores the publish ID, caption, privacy setting, status, failure reason and public post ID for status history. The retention window is 90 days; older records are removed during database cleanup when new post records are stored.
• Video checkingIf you submit a TikTok URL for analysis, the backend processes the link, publicly available video and creator details, and technical measurements needed to return the result. These records are distinct from your optional TikTok OAuth connection. To show whether TikTok is limiting a video's reach (the "Shadowban" line), your browser also sends the TikTok link you entered directly to a third-party video information provider that reads public TikTok post data. That request carries no Haze account details or cookies; the provider receives the link and ordinary request data such as your IP address under its own terms.

We do not use submitted videos to train models, advertise to you, or build advertising profiles.

5a. Developer API

Businesses and developers can buy access to Haze's optimization for their own websites, apps and bots. If you are a developer, we process your Haze account details as described above, your purchases, and your API keys, which we store only as a fingerprint (hash) so the key itself cannot be read back. We also record each request your keys make: the key, the request identifier you send, the engine, the result (a run, a repeat or the reason it was refused), the time, and a fingerprint (hash) of the video header, so a lost answer can be sent again without charging twice and so we can bill, limit and secure the API.

If you use another company's product that is built on the API, that company's server sends Haze the video's technical header (track layout, timing and sample tables, with no picture or sound), which can include details your camera or editing app embedded, such as the recording time, device model or location. Haze uses the header only to return instructions to that company and does not store it, and receives no account, name or contact details about you from it. That company decides how your video is handled and is responsible for telling you about it; its own privacy notice applies to everything else it does.

5b. Creator referral program

If you apply, we store your application: the link code you asked for, the links to the social accounts and post you gave us, when you applied, whether it was accepted automatically, and our decision with any reason we gave. We use those links only to review the application, and only Haze staff see them.

If you are a creator, we store your link code, its commission rate, a daily count of how many times your link was opened (with no information about who opened it), the accounts that joined through it, the commissions on their payments, the payout details you give us (for example a wallet address, or an account name and number), your cash-out requests and how each was paid, and when you accepted the creator terms. Your creator page shows the accounts that joined through your link by username only, with whether their first payment has counted and what you earned from it; it never shows what they bought, their payment details, or their email. Payout details are shown back to you only partly hidden and are used only to pay you.

If you open someone's referral link, your browser remembers the link code for 30 days. When you create a Haze account, we record that the account was referred and by which creator, and we compare the devices it was used on with the creator's to stop self-referral. Your payments then count toward that creator's commission as described above.

6. TikTok connection (Login Kit & Content Posting API)

Connecting TikTok is optional and uses its official OAuth Login Kit. With user.info.basic, we retrieve your display name and profile picture to identify the connected account. We store access and refresh tokens encrypted, associate them with your Haze account or a random anonymous ID stored in your browser, and refresh them as needed. When you confirm publishing, video.publish is used for the video and settings you select, with a direct upload to TikTok. These permissions are not used to publish without your action.

You can disconnect on the Upload page to delete the saved tokens from Haze, or revoke permissions in your TikTok account. Revoking at TikTok prevents further authorized use but does not itself guarantee immediate deletion of our stored record; disconnect on the Upload page, delete your account, or contact us if you also need deletion. Deleting your Haze account also deletes your TikTok connections (see Deleting your account under Your Choices and Deletion Requests). Clearing site data can lose access to an anonymous connection, so disconnect first or revoke at TikTok and contact us with enough information to identify it. Never send us a token as proof. Disconnecting does not delete an already published TikTok post or automatically erase status history; request eligible record deletion separately.

Connection and publishing data are processed only for the purposes described here and shared with TikTok and the infrastructure needed to provide the feature. TikTok applies its own privacy policy to information it receives.

6a. Zernio connection

Posting through Zernio is optional and uses your own Zernio account. Zernio is a separate service with its own terms and privacy policy, and you connect your TikTok account there, not on Haze. If you paste a Zernio API key, we store it encrypted, associate it with your Haze account or a random anonymous ID stored in your browser, and use it only to list the TikTok accounts in your Zernio account, read their posting options, set up the upload of a video you chose, post what you confirm, and read that post's status. We never show the key again, keep only its last four characters for display, and do not sell or share it.

When you post this way, your browser uploads the whole video to Zernio's storage and Zernio sends it on to TikTok, so unlike the standard route, Zernio receives your video. Haze sends Zernio the video's file name and size, and the caption, privacy and interaction settings you choose. Haze keeps the same post record it keeps for other TikTok posts (see Posting to TikTok above), marked as made through Zernio.

You can remove the key on the Upload page, which deletes it from Haze. Deleting your Haze account also deletes it. Removing the key does not delete a post already published or anything Zernio holds; manage those in your Zernio account. A key saved without a Haze account belongs to the anonymous ID in your browser. Clearing site data loses access to that ID, and if you sign in later the key does not move to your account, so remove the key first; otherwise delete the key in Zernio, which stops it working, and contact us if you also want it deleted from Haze. Never send us a key as proof.

7. Security, analytics and technical information

The website sends limited operational measurements to our hosting logs: app version, page category, operation category, duration, and success or failure. Performance measurements are sampled. These event payloads exclude account identifiers, tokens, video contents, filenames, captions, full URLs, and error messages. This reporting honors browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals and is capped per page session.

Separately, the website uses a privacy-focused web analytics service to measure traffic and page use. It uses request-derived anonymous visitor measurements without analytics cookies, and may process the page path, referring site, device or browser characteristics, and approximate region. Haze removes query strings, including query strings embedded in route hashes, before sending page URLs so sign-in callback tokens are not included. This analytics path is separate from the operational reporting above; the operational reporting's Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control gate should not be understood as a site-wide analytics opt-out. Where applicable law requires consent or an opt-out for particular processing, those requirements apply.

Haze does not place advertising cookies or advertising pixels on its pages, and does not share your activity on Haze with advertising networks.

When you use Haze, we process normal request information such as IP address, timestamps, request metadata, and rate-limit events. For multi-account and abuse detection, we may also store a browser-generated device identifier, hashed identifiers, linked account IDs, detection outcomes, warnings, and termination status. These checks can restrict an account automatically. If that happens to you, contact us and a person will review the decision.

8. Information stored on your device

The website and extension store session details, basic profile and tier data, credit balances, feature preferences, and interface settings using cookies, local storage, or extension storage. Signing out clears Haze authentication data from the active browser. The extension's optional TikTok repair action deletes the ttwid cookie when you ask it to; it does not transmit that cookie's value to Haze.

Local storage also supports language choice, onboarding preferences, anonymous TikTok ownership and recent optimized files. Some storage is necessary for the features you request; clearing it may sign you out, reset preferences or remove access to an anonymous connection. A cookie or local identifier is not proof that a particular individual authorized a payment.

9. Community

When you post in Community, your message, your username and your badge at that moment are shown publicly to anyone who visits the page, and stored with the time you sent it. If you share a Haze check, the result of that check (the TikTok handle, resolution, frame rate and verdict) is stored with your message. Moderators can delete messages and limit who can post. Deleted messages are hidden right away and kept for 30 days so reports can be reviewed, then removed. Anything you post publicly can be seen, and copied, by other visitors, so do not share private information there.

Reviews you leave after a purchase are shown publicly in the Haze Discord and in Community on the site, with your username, a mark of how you sign in, your rating, your comment, the product and the date; they never show what you paid. If you have no username yet, Community shows your Discord username or “Haze buyer”. A review from a purchase that was refunded or charged back is no longer shown, and staff may hide a review that breaks the Community rules. To have your review removed, email us using the contact details below.

10. Help chat (Ask Haze)

When you send Ask Haze a message, Haze sends it, the last few messages of that conversation, the page you are on, your browser’s time zone (so times can be given in your local time; it is not saved) and any error or check result you asked about to an AI assistant provider, which writes the answer. If the AI cannot answer, Ask Haze shows matching help pages instead; that search sends nothing to Haze. If you are signed in, Haze also adds a short summary of your own account so the answer fits it: your username, rank, credit balances and reset time, plan, renewal date and free-trial eligibility, how many TikTok accounts you have connected, whether your account has a multi-account warning, and which optimization options are working today. Nothing about any other account is sent.

Ask Haze stores every conversation. Using it means your messages and Ask Haze’s answers are kept as described below; if you do not want that, do not use Ask Haze. Haze keeps them for 30 days, with the page, the language, whether it was answered and your thumbs up or down, so we can see what people need and improve the help pages. They are saved without your account, name or IP address, and emails, phone numbers and long numbers are removed before saving. To have something deleted sooner, write to privacy@tikhaze.com and tell us what you asked and roughly when.

Haze also keeps daily counts (messages answered, feedback given, the cost of the day’s answers, and how many people used Ask Haze that day, counted with a one-way code that cannot be turned back into your account or IP address and that changes every day) and, when a help search finds nothing, single search words that several people used on the same day, with nothing linking them to you.

The chat on your screen is kept in that browser tab and is gone when you close the tab; the stored copy described above stays for 30 days. Do not type passwords, payment details or other private information into the chat.

Discord Privileged Intents and Your Controls

The Haze bot uses one Discord privileged gateway intent, Server Members. This section describes what it is used for and the controls available to you. Message-content features (such as info commands and link moderation) are provided by a separate companion bot.

Server Members

Used to welcome new members, log departures for moderators, and keep your Haze tier in sync when donation or booster roles change. As described above, we store your Discord user ID, assigned tier, and role expiry off-platform; this is required to grant your perks.

How We Use Information

• Authenticate users and synchronize Discord roles and Haze tiers
• Operate the website, Discord bot, optimizer, Community, ticket system, economy, and usage limits
• Process payments and grant time-limited roles or bought credits
• Carry out video processing and publishing actions you request
• Measure site traffic and reliability in aggregate
• Run promotions you choose to take part in
• Provide support, diagnose failures, secure the service, moderate Community, rate-limit requests, and prevent abuse

We do not sell personal information or share it with advertisers or data brokers.

Why We Are Allowed to Use It

Where data-protection law (such as the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 or the GDPR) asks for a legal basis, we rely on:

• Contractto provide the features, purchases and subscriptions you ask for;
• Legitimate intereststo secure Haze, investigate suspected fraud and multi-account abuse, moderate Community, measure site traffic, resolve disputes, and improve reliability, where that basis is available and our purpose and necessity are balanced against your rights;
• Consentfor optional connections such as TikTok, which you can withdraw by disconnecting;
• Legal obligationto keep payment records and answer lawful requests.

Retention

We retain only what is reasonably necessary for the stated purpose or a legal obligation, and review retention when resolving deletion requests. Records needed for accounting, a pending dispute, fraud investigation or legal claim may remain restricted rather than immediately erased. Different records and backups may have different removal schedules; we do not promise every copy disappears instantly. We will explain a relevant retention exception when responding to your request.

When Information Is Shared

Information is shared only as needed to provide a feature you use. We name the services you choose or see; we describe other providers by their role, and may change them without changing this policy when the change does not reduce your protections.

• Discordfor sign-in, server membership and roles, bot interactions, ticket channels, and related Discord features.
• Googlewhen you sign in with Google, Google confirms your identity to us; we send Google nothing beyond the sign-in request.
• Telegramwhen you sign in with Telegram, Telegram confirms your identity to us; we send Telegram only the confirmation message described above.
• TikTokwhen you sign in with TikTok, or connect or post to TikTok. TikTok's own terms and privacy policy apply to its processing.
• Zernioonly when you choose to post through your own Zernio account. Zernio receives your API key on each request, the whole video, and the caption and settings you choose. Zernio's own terms and privacy policy apply to its processing.
• Payment providers and storesWhop and the payment method selected at checkout process information you provide directly to them under their own notices. Checkout metadata includes your Haze account ID, purchase type, relevant plan or trial details, and accepted agreement version so payment and access can be attributed correctly. Providers return transaction and membership information to Haze. Records of payments made directly to Haze before September 28, 2026 remain subject to the retention rules above. For a dispute, we may provide proportionate agreement, payment, cancellation, entitlement and usage evidence to the provider or issuer; this does not mean sharing your video file.
• Hosting, security and analytics providersreceive the data needed to host, secure, measure and operate the website and API. Hosting request logs may include ordinary network information even where a custom event payload excludes it.
• Font providersome public pages load fonts from a third-party font service, which receives normal web-request information such as your IP address.
• Trustpilotthe Shop shows a "Review us on Trustpilot" button that loads from Trustpilot in its own frame, separate from the Haze page. Trustpilot receives normal web-request information such as your IP address and may use its own storage in that frame under its own terms. Haze sends Trustpilot no account details, and a review you choose to write goes to Trustpilot directly.
• Processing providersonly when you turn on an optional feature that needs the whole video; your browser sends that video to the provider before Haze optimizes it.
• Video information providerswhen you check a video, your browser sends the TikTok link you entered to a provider that reads public TikTok post data, to show whether TikTok is limiting that post's reach. The provider receives the link and normal web-request information such as your IP address, not your Haze account.
• AI assistant providerwhen you send the help chat a message: it receives your message, the recent messages of that conversation, the page context and, if you are signed in, the account summary described above, to write the answer. It does not receive your video files or payment details.
• The publicmessages you post in Community, with your username and badge, are visible to anyone who opens the page.

Authorized staff and the Community moderators we appoint may access information needed for support, moderation, payments and security. We may disclose relevant information for a lawful request or to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim, using only what is reasonably necessary. A business transfer may involve service records, subject to applicable safeguards and notice requirements. We do not publish private support or payment evidence as a response to a refund claim.

International Transfers

Haze is operated from the Philippines. Hosting, database, payment and connected-service providers may process information in the United States and other countries with different privacy laws. Where applicable law requires a transfer mechanism or safeguards, we must use the applicable protections, such as appropriate contractual safeguards or a recognized lawful transfer basis. Contact us for information about safeguards relevant to your data; this notice is not itself a claim that every destination has equivalent laws.

Your Rights

Depending on where you live, including under the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012, the GDPR in the EU and UK, and US state privacy laws, you may have the right to:

• Know

  be told how your information is used (this policy);

• Get a copy

  get a copy of the information we hold about you, in a portable format;

• Correct

  correct information that is wrong or incomplete;

• Delete or restrict

  have information deleted or blocked, or object to or restrict how we use it;

• Withdraw consent

  withdraw consent you gave, without affecting what we did before; and

• Complain

  complain to a data-protection authority — in the Philippines, the National Privacy Commission (privacy.gov.ph).

To delete your account yourself, use Delete account in the account menu (see Deleting your account). For anything else, email privacy@tikhaze.com or open an official Discord ticket. Identify the account and request, but do not send passwords, access tokens, or full card details. We may seek proportionate proof of ownership; if you have lost access to your sign-in method, contact us to discuss another way to verify the request. An authorized representative may act where the law permits. We aim to respond within 30 days and follow any shorter deadline or permitted extension under the applicable law, explaining an extension or refusal and available review or complaint routes.

We will not penalize you for using privacy rights. Deleting browser data or requesting account-data deletion by email does not by itself stop subscription billing; deleting your account with the Delete account button does stop renewal. If you also want cancellation, clearly say so, use Cancel in the account menu where your subscription shows it, or cancel through Whop; a clear on-time request is treated under the Refund Policy. Necessary billing or dispute records may remain even after eligible account data is deleted.

Your Choices and Deletion Requests

• Sign out to remove active Haze authentication data from that browser.
• Clear the site's browser data or remove the extension to clear locally stored preferences.
• Disconnect TikTok on the Upload page to delete the encrypted connection from Haze.
• Delete ticket messages or attachments in Discord where Discord permits; the website neither stores nor displays ticket conversations.
• Delete your account yourself: open the account menu, choose Account & sign-in, then Delete account. See Deleting your account below.
• For anything the button does not cover, request deletion of eligible server-side account information using the contact details below. Some transaction, moderation, or security records may need to be retained where reasonably necessary.

A request to Haze can address data we control. It does not erase data independently held by Discord, Google, TikTok, Whop, other third-party providers, your bank or your downloaded files; use those services' own controls where necessary. Withdrawing optional consent stops the corresponding future processing unless another lawful basis applies, without invalidating earlier lawful processing.

Security

Haze uses HTTPS for network communication, encrypted storage for TikTok tokens, signed sessions, access controls, rate limits, and other technical safeguards. No internet service can guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the authorities where the law requires it.

Children's Privacy

Haze is not intended for children under 13 or below a higher minimum age applicable to the service where they live. We do not knowingly collect their personal information. If we learn an ineligible child provided information, we will take steps to remove it, subject to any necessary legal or safety retention. Parents or guardians can contact us about a child's information. A minor's account does not prove valid parental permission or payment authorization.

Changes to This Policy

We update the date when this notice changes and provide appropriate notice of material changes. If a new use of information requires consent or another legal step, publishing an updated notice or continuing to use Haze does not substitute for that requirement. Changes do not retroactively authorize a use that was unlawful when it occurred.

Contact

Haze Method, operated from the Philippines, is the personal information controller for the information described in this policy. For privacy questions or data requests, email our data protection contact at privacy@tikhaze.com or contact staff through the official Discord community linked at tikhaze.com. General support stays at support@tikhaze.com.

This policy applies to the Haze website, Discord bot, browser extension, and backend service. Third-party services maintain their own privacy practices.