Privacy Policy

circle (“we”, “us”) is a social app and website for meeting people worth knowing in your city: you join circles (a university, a running club, a residence, a café), see the people in them, connect, and go to their events. This policy explains what we collect, why, who sees it, and your choices. It covers the circle iOS app and circlesocialai.app.

Who we are

circle is operated by the app’s developer (“we”). For any privacy question or request, email circlesocialappai@gmail.com.

Information you give us

• Account: your email address and a password. Passwords are stored only in hashed form by our authentication provider; we never see them.
• Profile: your name, birthday (we show your age, never your birthday), gender, the city you live in, where you’re from, your university and studies or work, what you’re doing in the city, languages, skills and interests, and one profile photo.
• Contact details: your Instagram handle and WhatsApp number. These are private: they are shown only to people you have mutually connected with, never on your public profile. We may also use your WhatsApp number or email to send you messages about your account and about circle (for example, a verification code, or that circle has launched).
• Circles and events: the circles you join, create or host, the events you reserve a spot at or buy a ticket for, and requests you send us to start a circle.
• Event films: if an event’s host turns on its film (for example the “hangover film”) and you shoot with circle’s camera during the event, the photos and short videos you take. See “Event films” below.
• Connections and safety: connection requests you send and accept, and the people, events or circles you report or block.
• Payments: tickets for paid events are paid through Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe; we never see or store them. We keep a record of your ticket (the event, the amount and whether it was paid).
• Hosts who sell tickets: if you host a circle and set up payouts, you give your identity and bank details directly to Stripe. We store only your Stripe account ID and whether payouts are ready.

Information collected automatically

• Activity in circle: the actions you take in the app and on the website, for example opening circle, viewing a profile, circle or event, sending or accepting a connection, joining a circle, reserving a spot or sharing an invite link. We record the action, when it happened, and whether it was in the app or on the website. We use this only to understand how circle is used and to improve it.
• Profile views: when you open someone’s profile, we record it, and that person can see that you viewed their profile.
• Location (optional): if you tap “use my location” when signing up, your device’s location is used once to fill in your city. We save only the city, never your coordinates.
• Notifications (optional): if you allow notifications, we store your device’s push token so we can tell you about connection requests and accepted connections.
• Technical data: sign-in tokens, and standard server logs from our hosting providers (such as IP address and timestamps) for security and abuse prevention. On the website, your browser keeps you signed in if you choose “keep me signed in”.

circle has no advertising, does not use third-party advertising or analytics SDKs, does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and does not sell your personal data.

How we use your information

• To create your account and show your profile to other members.
• To run circles and events: show you the people in your circles, let you reserve spots and buy tickets, and pay hosts.
• To let you connect with people, and reveal Instagram and WhatsApp once you’re both connected.
• To keep circle safe: enforce our Terms, review reports and remove abusive users and content.
• To contact you about your account and about circle.
• To operate, secure and improve the service.

Event films

A host can turn on a film for their event and choose who can shoot it (everyone going, only the host, or people the host picks). While the event is on, those people can take photos and short videos with circle’s camera. Shots are stored privately: nobody can see them, not even the person who took them. After the event, the shots are edited automatically into one film. The host watches the film first and can take any shot out; then everyone who went to the event, and everyone who shot it, can watch and download it. Only shoot people who are happy to be in it. If you’re in a film and want a shot removed, ask the host or email us and we’ll take it out. We keep the shots and films while the event exists on circle.

Events picked for you

Businesses on circle can choose to show an event, in the “for you” list, to members who match what they pick: the university you study at, the country you’re from and the city you live in. We do the matching inside circle: businesses never see who matched or anyone’s profile, only an approximate number of people, and never a number under 20. An audience only decides who sees an event in “for you”, not who can go. If you’d rather not see these events, email us and we’ll stop showing them to you.

Who can see your information

• Other members can see your profile: photo, name, age, gender, city, where you’re from, university and studies or work, what you’re doing here, languages, skills and interests. They cannot see your email, birthday, Instagram or WhatsApp unless you have mutually connected (then they see your Instagram and WhatsApp).
• People in your circles see you in that circle, and its host can see who is in it. People going to an event can see who else is going (for paid events, only people who bought a ticket).
• Service providers that run circle for us, under their own security controls: Supabase (database, sign-in, file storage and server functions), Vercel (website hosting), Apple (push notifications), Stripe (ticket payments and host payouts), Twilio and Resend (sending WhatsApp messages and emails), and GitHub (making event films from the shots).
• AI providers: our internal team tools use an AI provider (Anthropic) to help analyse how circle is growing. The member data we send is pseudonymized: people are replaced with codes, and no names, emails, phone numbers or Instagram handles are sent. If we add AI-powered search to the app, we will tell you in the app and ask your permission before anything you type is sent to an AI provider.
• We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the safety of our members.

Your photo

Your profile photo is stored in a private storage bucket and shown through short-lived signed links. You can change it at any time from your profile.

Data retention and deletion

We keep your data while your account exists. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Profile → delete my account) or by emailing us. Deleting your account permanently removes your profile, photo, connections, circle memberships, event spots and tickets, activity history, blocks and reports, and deletes your login. This cannot be undone. For tickets you paid for, we keep a record of the payment (the event, the amount, the ticket number and the payment reference), because we need it for accounting, refunds and the law; Stripe also keeps the payment records it is legally required to keep. Circles you hosted stay for their members without you as host.

If a host deletes a circle, we keep a copy for 30 days so it can be brought back if it was deleted by mistake, then delete it for good.

Safety tools

You can report or block any person, and report any event or circle. Blocked people can’t see you and you can’t see them. We review reports within 24 hours.

Age

circle is only for people 18 and older. We ask for your birthday when you sign up and don’t let anyone under 18 create a profile. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU), you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to complain to your data protection authority. You can edit or delete most of your data directly in circle, or email circlesocialappai@gmail.com.

International users

Your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including where our service providers operate. We rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers.

Changes

We may update this policy. We will change the “Last updated” date above and, for important changes, tell you in the app.

Contact

Questions or requests: circlesocialappai@gmail.com

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