CirclePrivacy Policy
The short version. Circle moves photos between the people in a private room. We collect what we need to do that: your account, the rooms you are in, and what you send. Photos are saved on your device; the cloud copy that feeds the widget is deleted after 30 days. We do not sell your data, show ads or share your photos with anyone outside the room you sent them to.
1. Who we are
This policy covers the Circle mobile app (package name com.circlecanvas.app) and this website. Circle is provided by the Circle team (“we”, “us”), New Delhi, India. We are the data controller for the personal data described here.
Contact us about privacy at [email protected].
2. What we collect
Account information
- If you sign in with Google: your email address, and the name and profile picture on your Google account, provided by Google Sign-In.
- If you sign in with Apple (where available): the email address Apple gives us, which may be a private relay address, and your name if you choose to share it.
- If you continue as a guest: no email address. We create an anonymous account so the app can work.
- In every case, a unique account ID and the display name shown to people in your rooms.
What you send
- Photos. A resized copy of each photo you send is uploaded so it can reach the other people’s widgets. The full-size original stays on your phone.
- Doodles. The drawing data for each doodle you send.
- Reactions and comments you add inside a room.
- The record of each moment: who sent it, which room and which recipients it went to, when, and its delivery state (Sending, Delivered, Seen).
Rooms
- The rooms you create or join, their names, their invite codes, who hosts them and who is a member.
Device and service data
- A push notification token for your device, so we can tell your phone a new moment has arrived and refresh its widget.
- Your widget settings, so the widget shows the room and look you chose.
- Your subscription status, if you buy Plus. Payments are handled by Google Play or the App Store; we never receive your card or bank details.
Analytics
The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how Circle is used, for example which screens are opened, when a photo is sent or a room is created, and whether something failed. This includes your account ID, an app instance ID, your device model, operating system and app version, and an approximate location (country or region) that Google derives from your IP address. We have turned off advertising personalization signals, and we do not use analytics for advertising.
You can turn analytics off at any time in Settings → Share usage data.
Permissions on your phone
- Camera, to take photos inside the app.
- Photos / media library, only when you choose to save a photo to your phone’s gallery.
- Notifications, to tell you when something arrives. This is optional.
What we do not collect
We do not read your contacts, we do not collect your precise location, we do not show ads, and we do not sell or rent personal data to anyone.
3. How we use it
- To run the service: sign you in, deliver what you send to the right room or person, update widgets, and show delivery states.
- To keep rooms private: to check membership, so that only people in a room can see what is in it.
- To provide Plus to people who buy it.
- To fix problems and improve the app, using analytics you have not turned off.
- To reply when you contact us, and to meet our legal obligations.
Where the law asks for a legal basis, we rely on performing our contract with you (running the app you signed up for), our legitimate interest in keeping the service working and secure, and your consent for analytics, which you can withdraw in Settings.
4. Who can see it and who processes it
- People in your rooms. What you send to a room is visible to the people in that room, or to the one person you sent it to. Your display name and profile picture are visible to people you share a room with. Nobody outside a room can see anything in it.
- Google Firebase (Google LLC and its affiliates) is our processor. We use Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Firebase Cloud Messaging and Google Analytics for Firebase to store and deliver data on our behalf. Our main database is located in Google Cloud’s India region (asia-south2); some Firebase services may process data in other countries.
- Apple delivers push notifications to iPhones through the Apple Push Notification service.
- Google Play and the App Store handle Plus purchases under their own privacy policies.
- Legal requests. We may disclose data if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of people using Circle.
We do not share personal data with advertisers or data brokers.
5. How long we keep it
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Photos saved on your device | Under your control. They stay until you delete them or remove the app. |
| The cloud copy of a photo that feeds the widget | Deleted 30 days after it is sent. |
| The record of each moment, doodles, reactions and comments | Kept while the room exists, so the room’s history still makes sense after photos leave the cloud. |
| A deleted room | The invite code stops working immediately. Members have a 30-day grace period to save what they want; then the room’s records, comments and any remaining cloud images are deleted. |
| Your account and profile | Until you ask us to delete your account. A guest account is deleted when you sign out of it. |
| Analytics | Event data linked to your account or device is kept for 14 months, then deleted by Google Analytics. |
6. Deleting your data
To delete your Circle account and the personal data linked to it, email [email protected] from the email address on your account, with the subject “Delete my Circle account”. We will confirm the request and complete it within 30 days. We delete your account, your profile and what you have sent, except where we must keep something by law.
- If you use a guest account, signing out deletes it immediately.
- You can leave any room at any time. If you host a room, you can delete it; members then have 30 days to save what they want.
- Photos that other people have already received are saved on their own devices. We cannot delete copies on someone else’s phone.
7. Your choices and rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export your personal data, to object to or restrict some processing, and to withdraw consent. Email us to use any of these rights; we will respond within the time the law requires. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
8. Security
Data travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections, and Google encrypts data stored in Firebase. Access to a room’s content is checked against room membership on the server. Links to cloud photos are short-lived. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and will notify you and the authorities of a breach where the law requires it.
9. Children
Circle is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. Where local law sets a higher age for consenting to data processing, that age applies. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
10. This website
This website runs no scripts, sets no cookies and uses no analytics. It is hosted on Firebase Hosting, which processes standard request information such as your IP address and browser type in order to deliver the pages.
11. Changes and contact
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page, and tell you in the app if the change is significant.
Questions: [email protected] · New Delhi, India.