Privacy Policy

Effective Date: July 5, 2026

Kindred ("we", "our", "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights.

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

• Phone number (phone sign-up only): Used solely for SMS verification during sign-up. Encrypted at rest and never shared with other users.
• Email address (Sign in with Apple only): If you create your account with Sign in with Apple, we receive the email address associated with your Apple ID — which may be Apple's private relay address if you choose "Hide My Email." It is used solely for authentication, stored securely by our authentication provider (Firebase), never shared with other users, and never used for marketing.
• Date of birth: Collected to verify you are 18 or older. Encrypted at rest and never displayed to anyone, including Kindred staff.
• Nickname: A display name you choose during setup, visible to conversation partners.

Usage Data

• Session metadata: Duration, number of prompts discussed, conversation mode. Used to improve matching and prompt selection.
• Analytics events: Collected via Firebase Analytics to understand app usage patterns (e.g., session starts, queue times). No personally identifiable information is included in analytics events.
• Approximate location: Firebase Analytics derives a coarse, city-level location from your IP address for analytics purposes only. This is not precise (GPS) location, is not linked to your identity, and is never shared with other users.
• Crash reports: Collected via Firebase Crashlytics to identify and fix bugs. Crash reports include device model, OS version, and stack traces. They do not include message content or personal information.

Communication Data

• Live conversation audio: Real-time voice conversations are transmitted via WebRTC (LiveKit) using encrypted peer connections. Audio is never recorded or stored — it is transmitted live between participants and discarded when the conversation ends.
• Text conversation messages: In text conversations, the messages you exchange are stored temporarily so both participants can read the conversation while it is active. Messages are ephemeral: they are deleted automatically within about 48 hours and are not proactively read or scanned. If you or your conversation partner files a report, the messages from that conversation may be used as safety evidence to review the report, then deleted after review — the same process as voice transcripts below.

Conversation transcripts (safety)

During voice conversations, your device creates a text transcript of what is said using on-device speech recognition. We do not record or transmit audio. Transcripts remain on your device and are deleted automatically, typically within 24 hours. If you or your conversation partner files a report about a conversation, the text transcript of that conversation may be uploaded to Kindred and used to review the report.

To review a report we may use automated tools, including an AI-assisted review that helps our safety team assess whether a conversation violated our rules. When automated review is used, the transcript is processed by a third-party AI provider (Anthropic) under a zero-data-retention agreement — the provider does not retain the transcript and does not use it to train its models. After the automated review produces its assessment, the raw transcript is deleted immediately; we retain only the outcome of the review (and a non-reversible hash of the reviewed text for audit purposes), not the conversation itself. Transcripts are never used for advertising, model training, or any purpose other than safety review.

Session Reviews

After each conversation, you can record a short structured review — a feeling rating and an optional decision to share your profile with your partner. Session reviews are stored privately in your user account, never shared with other users, conversation partners, or Kindred staff, and visible only to you in the History tab.

2. How We Use Your Data

• Matching: Queue position and conversation mode preference are used to pair you with another user.
• Prompt selection: Aggregate engagement scores (not tied to individuals) help us choose effective conversation prompts.
• Safety: Reports, blocking, and automated moderation — including AI-assisted review of report evidence — help us maintain a safe environment. To keep moderation fair and resistant to abuse, reports and blocks may be weighted according to a user's reporting history, so that coordinated or bad-faith reports carry less influence.
• Improvement: Anonymized, aggregated analytics help us improve the app experience.

3. What We Never Do

• We never share your phone number, email address, date of birth, or real identity with other users.
• We never sell your data to third parties.
• We never use your data for targeted advertising.
• We never allow conversation partners to see your user ID, device information, or location.

4. Third-Party Services

• Firebase (Google): Authentication, database, storage, analytics, crash reporting, and push notifications. See Firebase Privacy.
• LiveKit: WebRTC infrastructure for real-time voice conversations. See LiveKit Privacy.
• Anthropic: AI-assisted review of conversation transcripts submitted as report evidence, used only for safety moderation and under a zero-data-retention agreement (no retention, no model training). See Anthropic Privacy.
• Apple Push Notification service (APNs): Delivers push notifications to your device.

5. Data Retention

• Account data: Retained while your account is active.
• Conversation transcripts: Held on your device and auto-deleted (typically within 24 hours). If uploaded as report evidence, deleted as soon as the safety review is complete — we keep only the review outcome, not the transcript.
• Text conversation messages: Deleted automatically within about 48 hours of being sent. If a conversation is reported, its messages may be included in the report evidence and are deleted as soon as the safety review is complete — we keep only the review outcome, not the messages.
• Safety records: When a chat is blocked or reported, the conversation record may be archived (rather than immediately deleted) for a limited period so we can investigate abuse and enforce our rules.
• Analytics data: Retained for up to 14 months per Firebase Analytics defaults.
• Crash reports: Retained for 90 days.

6. Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time by contacting us at support@chatkindred.com. Upon request:

• Your account will be deactivated immediately.
• All personal data (phone number or email address, date of birth, session reviews, connections) will be permanently deleted within 30 days.
• If you signed up with Sign in with Apple, we also revoke Kindred's Sign in with Apple authorization with Apple as part of deletion.
• Anonymized, aggregated analytics data may be retained as it cannot be linked back to you.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data
• Object to or restrict processing of your data
• Data portability

To exercise any of these rights, contact support@chatkindred.com.

8. Children's Privacy

Kindred is not intended for anyone under the age of 18. We verify age during sign-up and do not knowingly collect data from minors. If we learn that a user is under 18, their account will be immediately terminated and their data deleted.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes via in-app notification or push notification. Continued use of Kindred after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact Us

For privacy questions or concerns, contact us at support@chatkindred.com.

See also our Terms of Service and End User License Agreement.