Privacy Policy

Echoes App Last Updated: April 2, 2026 Effective Date: April 2, 2026

1. Introduction

Echoes ("we," "our," or "us") is a social wellness application that connects people through anonymous emotional letters. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use the Echoes mobile application and related services (collectively, the "Service").

We are committed to protecting your privacy and maintaining the anonymity that makes Echoes meaningful. Please read this policy carefully. By creating an account or using Echoes, you agree to the practices described here.

If you have questions about this policy, contact us at privacy@echoesapp.live.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

When you create an account, we collect:

Display name (first name only): Used to personalize your in-app experience (e.g., "Good morning, Sarah"). Your name is never shown to other users.
Email address: Used for account authentication, password recovery, and essential service communications. Your email is never shared with other users.
Date of birth: Used solely to verify you meet our minimum age requirement (13 years). Your date of birth is never shared with other users.
Password: Stored in encrypted (hashed) form. We never have access to your plaintext password.
Region (optional): If provided, your state or region (e.g., "New York," "Ontario") may be displayed on letters you write to give recipients a sense of geographic connection. Only the state/region level is ever shown — never your city, address, or precise location.

2.2 Information You Create

When you use Echoes, you create:

Emotional check-ins: Your selected emotion, intensity level, optional context text, and responses to leading questions (temporal, social context, intent).
Letters: The text content of letters you write. Letters are processed for safety and matching before delivery (see Section 3).

2.3 Information We Generate

We use artificial intelligence to process your check-ins and letters. This generates:

Themes: General topic tags extracted from your text (e.g., "relationships," "work," "self-worth"). Used for matching.
Sub-emotions: More specific emotional tags derived from your text and selected emotion (e.g., "grief," "nostalgia"). Used for matching.
Sentiment scores: A numerical measure of the emotional tone of your letter. Used for matching quality.
Safety classifications: Every letter is screened for harmful content before delivery.

2.4 Information Collected Automatically

Device information: Device type, operating system version, and app version for troubleshooting.
Push notification tokens: Used to deliver letter notifications. Stored on our servers and deleted when you disable notifications or delete your account.
Usage data: Anonymized and aggregated interaction data (e.g., screens viewed, check-in frequency) to improve the service. This data cannot be linked back to individual users.

2.5 Information We Do Not Collect

We do not collect your precise location (GPS, IP-based geolocation).
We do not collect contacts, photos, or files from your device.
We do not use cookies or third-party tracking pixels.
We do not collect biometric data.
We do not collect financial or payment information (Echoes is free).

3. How We Use Your Information

3.1 Core Service

Account management: Authenticating your identity, managing your session, and enabling password recovery.
Personalization: Displaying your name in greetings and your region on letters you write.
Emotional matching: Using your check-in data, themes, sub-emotions, and sentiment scores to match you with letters from other users who may resonate with your emotional experience.
Letter delivery: Scheduling and delivering matched letters with adaptive timing based on your emotional state.
Safety: Screening every letter for harmful content, personally identifiable information, and content that may indicate a user is in crisis, before it reaches another user.

3.2 AI Processing

We use third-party AI services (Anthropic's Claude API) to process letters and check-ins for:

Safety classification (identifying harmful content)
PII detection and removal (scrubbing names, phone numbers, emails, and addresses from letters)
Theme extraction (identifying general topics)
Sub-emotion derivation (identifying specific emotional nuances)
Sentiment analysis (measuring emotional tone)

Your letter text is sent to these AI services for processing. The AI providers do not store your data beyond the processing request. We do not use your data to train AI models.

We also use on-device machine learning for preliminary sentiment analysis. This processing happens entirely on your phone and no data leaves your device for this purpose.

3.3 Communications

We may use your email address to send you:

Account-related notifications (password resets, security alerts)
Service updates that materially affect your use of Echoes

We will never send you marketing emails, promotional content, or share your email with advertisers.

3.4 Safety and Legal

We may access and review flagged content when:

Our automated systems flag a letter for manual review
We receive a report from another user about a letter
We are required to do so by law or legal process
We believe in good faith that access is necessary to prevent imminent harm

4. How We Protect Anonymity

Anonymity is fundamental to Echoes. Here is how we protect it:

Letters are anonymous: When you receive a letter, you see only the letter text, the writer's emotion, and their state/region (if they provided one). You never see their name, email, profile, photo, or any identifying information.
No user profiles: Echoes does not have public profiles, usernames, avatars, or follower systems.
No direct messaging: You cannot send a letter to a specific person. Letters are matched by our algorithm and delivered one-directionally.
PII scrubbing: Before a letter enters our matching pool, AI systems scan it for personally identifiable information (names, phone numbers, emails, addresses) and replace them with neutral placeholders.
Database isolation: Our database enforces access controls at the row level. The system that delivers letters to you physically cannot access the author's identity. This is enforced by our database architecture, not just application code.

5. Data Sharing

5.1 What We Share With Other Users

Only the following is ever visible to another user who receives your letter:

The text of your letter (after PII scrubbing)
The emotion you selected when you wrote it
Your state/region (if you provided one)

Nothing else. Ever.

5.2 Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate Echoes:

Supabase (database, authentication, serverless functions): Processes and stores your account data and content. Supabase's privacy policy applies to their handling of data.
Anthropic (AI processing): Processes letter text for safety, themes, and sentiment. Anthropic does not retain data from API calls beyond the processing request.
Expo / EAS (build and notification services): Delivers push notifications. Receives your push token but not your letter content.
Apple App Store / Google Play Store: Manages app distribution. Their respective privacy policies apply to your use of their stores.

5.3 What We Never Do

We never sell your personal data.
We never share your data with advertisers.
We never use your data for targeted advertising.
We never share your identity with other Echoes users.
We never provide your data to data brokers.

5.4 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, subpoena, court order, or governmental request. We will notify you of such requests when legally permitted to do so.

6. Data Retention

Account data (name, email, DOB, region): Retained as long as your account is active.
Check-in history: Retained as long as your account is active to improve matching quality over time.
Letters: Active letters remain in our matching pool for up to 30 days. After that, they are marked as expired and excluded from matching. Letter text is retained for safety review purposes as long as your account is active.
Match records: Retained as long as your account is active.
Safety-flagged content: Content flagged for safety reasons may be retained for up to 90 days after account deletion for abuse prevention.

When you delete your account, all your data is permanently removed within 30 days, except for safety-flagged content as noted above.

7. Your Rights

7.1 All Users

You have the right to:

Access your data: View your profile information, check-in history, and letters you've written within the app.
Correct your data: Update your display name and region in Settings.
Delete your account: Permanently delete your account and all associated data from Settings. This action is irreversible.
Disable notifications: Turn off push notifications at any time through your device settings.

7.2 Users in the European Economic Area (GDPR)

If you are in the EEA, you additionally have the right to:

Data portability: Request a copy of your data in a machine-readable format.
Restrict processing: Request that we limit how we use your data.
Object to processing: Object to certain types of data processing.
Lodge a complaint: File a complaint with your local data protection authority.

To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@echoesapp.live. We will respond within 30 days.

7.3 Users in California (CCPA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, request deletion, and opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information. To make a request, contact privacy@echoesapp.live.

8. Children's Privacy

Echoes is designed for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Age verification: We require date of birth during signup. Users under 13 cannot create accounts.
Users aged 13-17: Users between 13 and 17 may use Echoes. Their accounts are flagged internally, and letters delivered to these users undergo additional content filtering to ensure age-appropriateness. We do not apply different data collection practices for users aged 13-17 beyond this content filtering.
Parental notice: If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has created an Echoes account, please contact us at privacy@echoesapp.live and we will promptly delete the account and all associated data.

We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and equivalent international regulations.

9. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data:

Encryption in transit: All data transmitted between your device and our servers uses TLS (HTTPS) encryption.
Encryption at rest: Sensitive data including passwords and authentication tokens are encrypted at rest.
Password hashing: Passwords are hashed using bcrypt. We never store or have access to plaintext passwords.
Session security: Authentication tokens are stored in your device's encrypted secure storage (Keychain on iOS, Keystore on Android).
Row-level security: Our database enforces access controls that prevent any user from accessing another user's data, even in the event of an application-level vulnerability.
Access controls: Employee access to production data is restricted, logged, and reviewed.

No system is 100% secure. If you become aware of a security vulnerability, please report it to security@echoesapp.live.

10. International Data Transfers

Echoes is operated from the United States. If you use Echoes from outside the United States, your data may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or other countries where our service providers operate. By using Echoes, you consent to this transfer. We ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place for international data transfers in compliance with applicable laws.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will:

Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy.
Notify you via in-app notification or email for significant changes.
Give you the opportunity to review changes before they take effect.

Your continued use of Echoes after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, contact us at:

Email: privacy@echoesapp.live Subject line: Privacy Inquiry — [Your Topic]

We aim to respond to all inquiries within 30 days.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on April 2, 2026.