Safety, security and admin controls

Permissions

We strive to keep Heylo a safe and secure place for groups. Admins have the ultimate control over their group. These permissions help maintain order, privacy, and the overall functioning of the group.

To edit group permissions, navigate to admin settings from the group tab, and then select "Permissions."

Permissions can be granted to all members, admins only, or specific Roles.

Permission controls for onboarding new members

Admins control who joins their group and how their group appears on Heylo.

• Discoverability. Heylo can help promote your group by making it discoverable. Discoverable groups appear in Heylo Discover and on the profiles of members. When they join other groups on Heylo, all the members in those groups can see the discoverable group. Furthermore, Heylo helps discoverable groups by indexing group pages and surfacing them on the web and search engines, like Google and Bing.
• New member approval. When set to manual, admins must approve all new members before they join the group on Heylo. This setting is agnostic of discoverability. Instead of seeing a “join” button on a group page, new prospective members can “request to join”. The request sends a push notification to admins, and the prospective member is listed at the top of the members screen. Admins can either accept or reject the member. If accepted, the member gets automatically added to the group, notified, and presented with an invitation on Heylo. If rejected, the pending request disappears, and no one is notified. An admin can always initiate a direct message with a prospective member as well if any additional information is needed.
• Invitations. Admins can restrict who can send invitations to the group. When restricted to admins, members must communicate directly with admins via in-person or chat to request new members to be invited to the group.

Permission controls for members

Group permissions on Heylo also determine the level of access and actions that members can perform within a group.

• Topics. New members can create new topics from the topics screen
• Pages. New members can create new topics from the content screen
• Events. New members can create new topics from the events screen
• Event check-in counts. Admins can control who can see total check-in counts on other members’ profiles.

It's critical for admins to carefully consider and configure group permissions to strike a balance between collaboration and privacy. By setting appropriate permissions, admins can create a safe and productive environment for group members to interact and engage according to the group’s culture and values.

Waivers, or liability releases, can provide members with context on the group’s activities and risks associated with them. Furthermore, when legally sound, they can serve as a release of liability from the leaders of the group.

Heylo can help group leaders get waivers signed. By uploading the waiver language to Heylo, members must sign the waiver in order to participate in the group’s activities by digitally signing with a check mark: “I have read, understand, and agree to…” on the waiver. If the member does not sign, they are not allowed to join the group. Members only need to sign the waiver once, not for every single event.

Launch waiver signatures

To launch your waiver:

1. Head to the admin settings under the group tab and select “Waiver Collection”
2. Copy and paste your waiver language into the text section on Heylo. Note, rich text is not supported
3. Save and select who should sign. The selected recipients must sign the waiver in order to continue to participate in the group.

To update a waiver, admins can add new text to the form and select save. Admins can select who should sign the new waiver - only admins or just new members.

View waiver status

An admin can view waiver status anytime:

1. Member insights
2. During event attendance, admins can see who has not yet signed a waiver
3. Member CSV export

When a waiver is signed, a timestamp and version of the document are marked in Heylo’s databases and recoverable if ever required by either party. To recover a signed waiver document, contact the Heylo team.

Group leaders should give members adequate time to read and accept the waiver. While seemingly complex, waivers can help members understand the potential risks associated with joining the group and attending events. Heylo handles the friction by collecting waiver signatures and providing sufficient time for members to read and accept the terms of the group before joining.

Group admins on Heylo can access insights into their members. From the profile of the member, admins can select the three-dot more menu, and then “member insights”.

There, admins can see analytics about members on a granular level including:

• Date joined
• Waiver sign date
• Total events hosted and attended
• Total payments collected
• Membership plan, if set
• Private info

Ultimately Heylo is a comprehensive space for admins to control and lead the groups according to their own culture and values.

Heylo serves as the place for your members to access the info they need to belong to your group and communicate with other members. However, Heylo doesn’t do everything! Where there are missing gaps, we strive to integrate Heylo with other software platforms to keep groups operating as seamlessly as possible.

Integrations include:

• Google and search engines. Groups and events can be listed on Google and search engines. Admins can make their group discoverable in their admin settings, and their group page indexed on web and available for search on Google and search engines. It is optimized for search engine discovery to enable easy discoverability. Event pages can be indexed as well. As always, group and event pages can be controlled and disabled by a group admin.
• Google and Apple calendar. When a host creates an event, or a member signs up for an event, they can add the event details directly to their personal calendar (mobile app only). However, they must check Heylo for any changes in the event status.
• Google Maps. An event host can integrate a specific location for their event for easy navigation. Members can tap the navigation button, and the location automatically opens to Google Maps.
• Mailchimp. Admins can automatically pass a member's name, email, and associated tag to an existing Mailchimp account. To set up Mailchimp integration, admins need their Mailchimp API key.
• Instagram. Events on Heylo can be published to Instagram stories with one tap. Heylo will automatically generate an event promo card, and hosts and members can seamlessly share.
• Shopify. Admins can automatically pass member emails from Heylo to a Shopify store to verify discount codes (see stores for more info).

Everyone has access to reporting tools to flag inappropriate behavior on Heylo. Inappropriate behavior can include unwanted messages, unacceptable actions, or inappropriate photos.

There are two ways to report a member:

1. Navigate to a member’s profile, select the three-dot menu and then select “report”. Reports from profiles are best for issues with that specific person.

2. Open the overview of a topic or private message, and select “report”. Reports from topics or private messages are best for issues with that specific conversation.

When a report is submitted, the Heylo team first reviews the behavior. Anyone sending spam is removed entirely from the Heylo platform. Other issues are escalated to the specific group leaders. Only with permission from the reporter, details of the case are shared with the leaders of the group, and the leaders are encouraged to help resolve the issue with the support of the Heylo team.

On Heylo, members have control over who can send them direct messages. Any member can block another member.

Blocked members

• Any existing direct message conversation is deleted when blocked, and no new direct message conversation can be initiated.
• Blocks do not apply to group activities. For example, members can still see messages and event attendance in the group.
• Blocked members cannot direct messages.
• No notifications are sent to the person who was blocked.
• For further unwanted or inappropriate activity, consider selecting Report.

How to block and unblock

• To block a member, navigate to their profile and select “Block”
• To unblock a member, navigate to their profile and press the three-dot menu to select “Unblock”

Admins can remove any member from the group.

When a member is removed, they cannot contribute to group topics or event chats, nor can they sign up for new events or view members, stores, or pages in the group. They are also no longer visible in the member list to members and cannot initialize direct messaging or private chats with other members. Removed members are not included in member counts. However, admins can still see and direct message removed members under “past members” at the bottom of the members tab.

Removed member’s history is not altered, however. The following are not deleted:

• Messages in topics and event chats
• Attendance data

Anyone can leave a group anytime. No one is notified when you leave. To leave a group, head to the group tab and then scroll down to “leave”.

Data is handled in a similar fashion to a member removed from the group. Members can rejoin the group at any time and your profile will remain intact. However, joined topics and event sign-ups will reset. Furthermore, a removed member can continue to use any existing private communications on Heylo.

A group is automatically deleted when there are no members in the group. An admin can remove members, and then leave the group themselves.

If there are many members, admins can get in touch with the Heylo Team to assist with group deletion.

In order for groups to build community, they must be safe. On Heylo, we strive to help groups have a safe space to organize and connect with each other.

Data inputted into Heylo is stored securely using modern cloud infrastructure. All Heylo team members do not have access to all messages or information shared; a handful may retain access to handle disputes or serve legal requests. Learn more details in Heylo the privacy policy.

Messages are not encrypted. They are stored in a secure database and are not associated with the name of any specific person.

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