Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to Between ("we", "us", or "our"), operated by [Legal Entity Name / Developer Name]. Between is a private daily game for two, designed to help couples connect, laugh, and discover how well they know each other through daily questions, playful prediction duels, on-demand challenges, and shared memories.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use the Between mobile application on iOS or Android, or visit our website at https://littlebetween.com (collectively, the "Service").

By downloading, accessing, or using Between, you agree to the collection and use of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our practices, please do not use the Service.

2. Information We Collect

We adhere to data minimization principles, collecting only the information strictly necessary to provide the couple gameplay experience.

2.1 Account and Profile Information

• Name or Nickname: A display name (up to 30 characters) that you provide during onboarding, used inside the app to address you and your partner.
• Email Address: If you sign up using email and password, we collect your email address to manage authentication and password resets.
• Third-Party Authentication Credentials: If you sign in using Apple or Google ("Sign in with Apple", "Sign in with Google"), we receive a unique token and identifier authorized by that provider. When using Apple’s Private Relay email feature, we only receive the anonymous relay address provided by Apple.
• Timezone and Locale: Your device's IANA timezone (e.g., America/New_York) and language preference. The invite creator's timezone establishes the couple's shared game clock so that daily questions refresh at midnight in that zone.
• Theme & Presentation Preferences: Optional personal accent selection (e.g., violet, rose, tide) saved to your profile.

2.2 Partner Pairing & Gameplay Data

• Invite Codes: A 6-character cryptographic code generated to pair two partners. Codes expire automatically after 24 hours, can only be used once, and are permanently deleted after pairing.
• Couple Identifier: An internal identifier linking you and your partner into a shared space.
• Answers and Predictions: Your selected answers and your predictions of your partner’s choices for daily questions and challenge rounds.
• Scores and Progression: Points earned in the friendly rivalry scoreboard, consecutive day streaks, and your calculated Couple Match percentage.
• Relationship Journal ("Our Story"): The archive of completed daily questions, answers, and timestamps shared between you and your partner.
• Custom Questions: Questions and multiple-choice options authored by you for your couple’s private question rotation.

2.3 Technical, Telemetry & Diagnostics Data

• Push Notification Tokens: Device tokens issued by Apple Push Notification service (APNs) or Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) when you opt in to notifications. These tokens are stored securely in hashed form.
• Crash & Performance Diagnostics: Stack traces, operating system versions, and app states logged via Firebase Crashlytics when an unexpected error occurs. An opaque user identifier is attached to facilitate technical support, and is cleared upon sign-out.
• Anonymized Feature Analytics: General usage statistics logged via Firebase Analytics (such as whether onboarding was completed or how often challenge categories are played). We never send question text, answer text, partner names, email addresses, invite codes, or couple IDs to our analytics provider.

3. Photos & Memory Questions

Between allows users to create custom memory-based questions by uploading photographs from their device's photo library. We treat photos with strict privacy safeguards:

• Automatic Metadata & Location Stripping: Before any uploaded photo is stored in our database, our server-side image pipeline processes the file using Sharp. All EXIF metadata, camera device details, and GPS location coordinates are permanently stripped.
• Image Optimization: Photos are automatically resized (maximum 1440×1440 pixels) and compressed to reduce storage overhead.
• Strict Couple Isolation: Photos are saved in private, non-public Google Cloud Storage paths tied directly to your unique couple ID.
• No Public Download Links: We do not mint public download URLs or web-accessible links for your images. Images can only be retrieved by authenticated devices belonging to the specific, active couple that created the memory question.

4. How We Use Information

We use your data solely for the following operational purposes:

• Delivering the Core Gameplay: Presenting daily questions, recording your confidential answers, syncing with your partner, and orchestrating the simultaneous reveal.
• Scoring and Streaks: Computing prediction accuracy (Couple Match percentage), updating individual scores (+1 for correct guesses), and tracking daily consecutive streaks.
• Synchronizing Timezones: Ensuring that daily questions refresh at the same local midnight for both partners, regardless of travel.
• Transactional Notifications: Sending timely notifications when a new question is ready, when your partner has answered, or when a challenge round invitation arrives.
• Customer Support and Bug Resolution: Investigating crashes, fixing bugs, and responding to your direct inquiries.
• Preventing Abuse and Spam: Rate-limiting repeated invite attempts and safeguarding server infrastructure.

No Sale of Personal Data: We do not sell, rent, monetize, or trade your personal information to third parties, data brokers, or advertisers under any circumstances.

5. Privacy Between Paired Partners

Because Between is an app for couples, understanding what your partner can and cannot see is essential:

• Sealed Answers Until Reveal: When you submit an answer to today's question or an active challenge, your answer is stored in a private subcollection that only your authenticated account can access. Your partner's device cannot read your answer until they also submit their choice and our server issues the joint reveal.
• What Your Partner Sees After Reveal: Once both partners have submitted, both partners can see each other's chosen answer, each other's prediction, the points awarded, the updated Couple Match percentage, and the streak.
• What Happens When a Partner Leaves: Either partner can choose to leave a pair at any time in Settings. When a partner leaves, the couple's status changes to ended. Both users lose active game access to that pair, and the remaining partner is notified that the pair has closed. Historical answers cannot be transferred to a new relationship.

6. Third-Party Service Providers

We rely on trusted cloud infrastructure providers to run Between securely. Each provider is bound by strict contractual data processing agreements:

7. Push Notifications

Between offers push notifications to let you know when today's question is ready, when your partner has answered and the reveal is unlocked, or when your partner invites you to a Challenge round.

• Notifications are completely optional. We ask for your permission before enabling them.
• You can enable or disable notifications at any time directly in Between's Settings or within your device’s system settings.
• Our notification payloads never include sensitive personal responses or the text of your private answers.

8. In-App Account Deletion & Data Retention

In compliance with Apple App Store Guideline 5.1.1(v) and global privacy laws, Between provides a complete, self-serve account deletion mechanism directly within the application:

• How to Delete: Open the app, navigate to Together → Settings → Delete My Account. For your security, you will be prompted to re-authenticate if your last sign-in was more than five minutes ago.
• What Happens Upon Deletion:
  1. Your couple pairing is immediately ended.
  2. Your active invite codes and push notification device tokens are revoked and deleted.
  3. Your profile document and all personal user subcollections are recursively and permanently purged from Cloud Firestore.
  4. Your authentication record is deleted from Firebase Authentication.
• Data Retention: We retain your personal data only for as long as your account remains active. When you delete your account, your data is erased immediately from production databases. Residual backups are overwritten within standard operational cycles (typically within 30 days).

9. Security Architecture

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information:

• Encryption in Transit: All communication between your device and our servers uses Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.3 / HTTPS).
• Server-Enforced Firestore Rules: Granular database security rules prevent unauthorized access, ensuring that only authenticated members of a couple can read their shared relationship data.
• Immutable Answer Submissions: Answers cannot be altered or inspected through client manipulation prior to official server resolution.

10. Children's Privacy

Between is designed for adults and couples. Our Service is not directed to children under the age of 17 (or under 13 in the United States, or under 16 in the European Economic Area). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a child has provided us with personal data without verifiable parental consent, we will promptly delete that information and terminate the account.

11. Your Privacy Rights (GDPR, CCPA & Global)

Depending on your jurisdiction (such as the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or California), you have rights regarding your personal information, including:

• Right of Access: The right to request copies of your personal data.
• Right to Rectification: The right to update or correct inaccurate profile details (e.g., your name or timezone) directly in the app.
• Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): The right to delete your account and personal data using the in-app deletion tool.
• Right to Data Portability: The right to receive a machine-readable copy of data you provided to us.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: The right to withdraw consent for push notifications or optional features at any time.

To exercise any of these rights beyond what is available directly in the app, please contact us at fatih.appstudio@gmail.com.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

• Email: fatih.appstudio@gmail.com
• Entity: Between App Studio
• Support: Official Support Center