Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

GentleHello is operated by Wong Jin Quan in Singapore. In this policy, “GentleHello,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to that service and operator.

Privacy questions and requests can be sent to hello@gentlehello.com.

2. Scope and age

This policy covers the GentleHello mobile application, gentlehello.com, and the support, safety, and account services connected to them. The initial service is intended for people in Singapore and the United States.

GentleHello is for people aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly offer the service to children. If you believe a person under 18 has created an account, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

3. Information we handle

Account and profile information

• Your phone number, verification and authentication records, and account status.
• Your display name and profile image, if you add one.
• Your account, profile, onboarding, and update timestamps.

Connections and sharing

• Your mutual connections, connection status, mute or block choices, and connection timestamps.
• Posts, captions, selected photos, image dimensions and formats, post status, and post timestamps.
• One-to-one messages, post responses, reactions, read state, and conversation timestamps.

Photos may contain metadata placed there by your camera or another app. The current version prepares selected images for upload, but does not promise that every metadata field is removed.

Nearby connection information

When Add connection is open, GentleHello uses Bluetooth and local-network access to discover another nearby phone that is on the same screen. The pairing flow exchanges a short-lived signed card containing your account ID, display name, profile photo if set, installation ID, visible-post count, profile-state version, and temporary attempt identifiers. It also exchanges a matching code and confirmation proof needed to create a mutual connection. Cards, attempts, codes, and proofs expire; the account and installation records remain as needed to operate your account. GentleHello does not scan for people in the background.

Device, notification, and operational information

• A random installation identifier, device platform, app version and build.
• Push-notification tokens, registration status, delivery state, and related timestamps.
• Temporary upload, retry, and synchronization state needed to complete actions reliably.
• IP address and ordinary request information that infrastructure providers may process to deliver, secure, and troubleshoot the service.

Information you send for help, safety, or feedback

• Support notes and data-copy requests submitted while signed in.
• Product feedback and its category.
• Reports about an account, post, or message, including your reason, optional details, names at the time of the report, and limited source evidence needed for review.

Feedback includes only a fixed diagnostic snapshot: app version and build, platform, major operating-system version, broad phone-size class, network category, a fixed screen label, and a coarse error category. It does not include raw errors or private content.

Information kept only on your phone

Drafts, selected photos that have not finished uploading, unsent delivery state, cached media links, and some recovery information can remain locally on your phone. This local information may be lost if you uninstall the app or change phones.

4. Privacy-bounded product analytics

Product analytics is off until you explicitly opt in inside GentleHello. If you opt in, GentleHello sends one allowlisted event type to PostHog so we can understand speed and reliability. This analytics is pseudonymous, not anonymous. The event can contain:

• A broad operation, stage, and outcome, such as a post upload succeeding.
• Duration, item counts, image dimensions or byte counts, and retry counts.
• A coarse error category such as network, timeout, or validation.
• App version, build, platform, release channel, event time, and analytics SDK version.
• A random, pseudonymous analytics identifier that is not your GentleHello account ID.

You can change this choice at any time under Profile → Settings. Turning performance sharing off stops future analytics events; it does not automatically remove events that PostHog already received.

The public website does not currently run product analytics, advertising scripts, or session replay, and it does not set an analytics cookie. Cloudflare may still process ordinary request information to serve and protect the website.

5. How we use information

We use information to:

• Create and secure your account, verify your phone number, and restore access on another phone.
• Create mutual connections and show each person the other’s currently shared post history.
• Store, deliver, and synchronize posts, photos, messages, reactions, and notifications.
• Honor archive, mute, block, report, data-copy, and deletion choices.
• Answer support requests, review safety reports, prevent abuse, and enforce our Terms.
• Measure and improve product reliability using the bounded analytics described above.
• Comply with law, protect rights and safety, and maintain records needed for security and accountability.

Depending on the context and applicable law, we process information to provide the service you request, with consent, for legitimate service-improvement and safety purposes, or to comply with legal obligations.

6. When we share information

We do not sell personal information. We do not use it for targeted advertising.

We disclose information only in these circumstances:

• With your connections. To provide the sharing and messaging features you choose. See “Who can see content” below.
• With service providers. Providers help us run database, authentication, SMS verification, file storage, server functions, push notifications, product analytics, website delivery, email routing, and security. Current infrastructure providers include Supabase, Expo, Apple, Google, PostHog, and Cloudflare. A selected SMS provider will also process phone-verification information once production SMS is configured. Each provider processes information for the service it provides to us.
• For safety and legal reasons. We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to valid legal process, investigate fraud or abuse, protect someone’s safety, or defend legal rights.
• During a business change. If GentleHello is reorganized, financed, acquired, or transferred, information may be disclosed as part of that transaction, subject to appropriate protections and applicable law.

7. Who can see content

• Connections are mutual and are added through an in-person nearby flow.
• Active connections can see your currently shared posts, including older posts from before you connected.
• Archived or deleted posts are not shown in the normal shared feed.
• Messages, post responses, and reactions appear only in the one-to-one conversation between the two participants.
• Blocking or removing a connection ends normal sharing access, subject to retained messages and safety records described below.

People who can see content can save it or capture a screenshot. Please share only with people you trust. GentleHello’s private access controls are not a promise of end-to-end encryption.

8. Retention and account deletion

We keep information while your account is active and as needed to provide the service, keep it secure, resolve disputes, and meet legal or operational obligations. Different records have different lifecycles:

• Expired pairing and temporary operational records are removed or become unusable according to their short technical lifecycles.
• Archived posts and photos remain stored but are hidden from the normal shared feed until you restore or delete the post.
• Deleting a post removes it from normal shared views. In the current service, its private stored media may remain until account deletion or a backend cleanup process removes it.
• Product analytics is kept according to the retention configured for our PostHog project.
• Reports, limited safety evidence, and audit records may remain after content or account deletion when needed for review, safety, fraud prevention, legal obligations, or accountability.
• Restricted support or data-request text and product feedback remain in their request records after completion, closure, or account deletion. These records do not currently have an automatic deletion schedule.

What happens when you delete your account

You can start deletion in the app under Profile → Settings → Delete account. After a fresh phone-code verification, your account stops working immediately and durable cleanup continues if the app closes.

• Your profile becomes “Deleted account,” your connections end, and notification devices are revoked.
• Your posts and stored post media are marked for permanent deletion.
• Your authentication identity and phone number are removed as cleanup completes.
• Messages you already sent remain in the other person’s private conversation under “Deleted account,” preserving the shared conversation.
• Reports and limited safety evidence may be retained as described above.
• Open support, feedback, and data-copy requests close and cannot receive follow-up or delivery afterward.

See the account deletion guide for step-by-step instructions and help if you cannot access the app.

9. Your choices and rights

You can use the app to:

• Update your display name and profile information.
• Archive or delete posts.
• Mute, remove, block, or report a connection.
• Control photo, Bluetooth, local-network, and notification permissions through your phone settings.
• Request a copy of your data from Profile → Settings → Help & safety.
• Permanently delete your account from Profile → Settings → Delete account.

Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or information about disclosures; to object to or withdraw consent for certain processing; and to appeal a declined request. Singapore residents may have rights under the Personal Data Protection Act. Residents of certain U.S. states may have additional state-law rights.

Email hello@gentlehello.com to exercise a right that is not available in the app, including an objection to product analytics. We may need to verify that you control the account before fulfilling a request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.

GentleHello does not currently respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals. The website does not run advertising or analytics tracking, and the mobile app does not use personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

10. Security and international transfers

We use access controls, private storage, narrow server operations, phone verification, revocable notification registrations, and restricted support and safety records. We also limit analytics fields before events leave the app. No service can guarantee absolute security.

GentleHello is operated from Singapore, while service providers may process information in the United States, Singapore, or other countries where they operate. Those places may have different data-protection laws. GentleHello is still in development; before opening the service publicly where transfer safeguards are required, we will confirm and document the applicable provider terms, regions, and safeguards.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the product, providers, or law changes. We will post the new policy here and update its effective date. If a change materially affects how we handle information, we will provide additional notice in the app or by another appropriate method.

12. Contact us

GentleHello
Operator: Wong Jin Quan
Singapore
Email: hello@gentlehello.com

For urgent danger, contact local emergency services. GentleHello is not an emergency service.