Privacy policy

Effective October 17, 2026

Ground Rules is an app published by Kindred Kode Studios ("we"). This policy explains what the app collects, why, who can see it, and how to delete it. Ground Rules is only for adults aged 18 and over.

What we collect

• Account: your email address, used only to sign you in with a one-time code. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your email address, name and Google account ID with us. Nobody in the app sees your email or Google account.
• Profile: display name, handle, date of birth, gender, who you're open to being paired with, anatomy (used only to decide which questions apply), and optionally a bio, body type and height. Your date of birth is never shown to anyone; others see your age.
• Photos you add. They are resized on your phone and re-encoded, which removes location and other metadata, before they are uploaded.
• Boundaries and answers: what you're open to, and your answers to event questions.
• Connections, events and messages: who you're connected with, events you create or join, chat messages, blocks and reports.
• Browse (optional): if you turn on a browse profile, your ZIP code and an approximate location (rounded to about 1 km) so people nearby can find you. Your ZIP code is never shown; others see a distance in 5-mile steps.
• Notifications: a device token from Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, so we can tell your phone about new messages, requests and invitations. Notifications never include message text.

We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking tools, and we don't collect your contacts or precise location.

Who can see what

• Your connections see your profile, your open photos and your boundaries. Private photos are visible only to connections you choose.
• People in an event you've both accepted can see your profile and boundaries.
• Your event answers are visible only to you. Once everyone has answered, the group sees combined results (for example, that something is off limits), never who answered what.
• Chat messages are visible to the people in that chat.
• Strangers see only the browse profile you choose to publish (one photo, a headline and the details you pick), and only if you turn it on.
• Blocking someone hides you from each other everywhere in the app.
• Moderators can see reported content and photos waiting for review, to keep the app safe.

Service providers

We use these companies to run the app. They process data only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: database, file storage and sign-in (hosted in the United States).
• Resend: sends the sign-in code emails.
• Google: Google sign-in (if you use it), Firebase Cloud Messaging for notifications, and Cloud Vision to check new photos for explicit content when automatic photo screening is switched on.
• Cloudflare: this website and our email routing.

We never sell or rent your data, and we don't share it with anyone else unless the law requires it.

How long we keep it, and deleting it

We keep your data while you have an account. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Delete account). This permanently deletes your profile, photos, boundaries, answers, connections, events you created and your messages straight away. Copies in our hosting provider's backups are removed as those backups expire. You can also delete individual photos, remove connections and change your answers at any time.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit. Access rules are enforced by the database itself, so the app can only read what you're allowed to see. Photos are stored privately and are never publicly accessible.

Children

Ground Rules is not for anyone under 18. Sign-up requires confirming you're 18 or older and a date of birth that shows it. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we delete it.

Your rights

You can see and change your information in the app, and delete it all by deleting your account. For anything else, such as a copy of your data, email us and we'll respond within 30 days.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date above, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.

Contact

Email [email protected].