CLOSE
Privacy Policy
Effective 6 May 2026
1. Who we are
Close is operated by Better Together Technologies Ltd. (“Better Together”, “we”, “us”). We are the data controller for the personal information described in this notice.
2. What this notice covers
This notice covers the Close mobile app and the supporting service at the domain we host the app’s API on. It does not cover sites or services we link out to.
3. Personal data we collect
Account information
When you create an account, our authentication provider (Clerk) collects the email address or phone number you sign in with, your first and last name (if you grant them via Apple or Google sign-in), and a profile photo URL (if your sign-in provider exposes one). Close stores only an internal user identifier from Clerk, your chosen display name, and your timezone. The profile photo URL is referenced but the image itself is hosted by Clerk.
Couple and relationship information
Once you join or start a couple, we store information you and your partner provide: relationship type (romantic or friends), proximity and distance status, cohabitation status, an optional next trip date, an optional “sexy content” opt-in flag, and your answers to the onboarding quiz. Quiz responses are stored alongside your couple membership and are never shared with anyone outside your couple.
Activity content
When you create or complete activity inside the app, we store the content you write: challenge titles and prompts, optional completion notes, reward names and descriptions, redemption records, season scores, and partner letters (free text up to 8,192 characters). Letters are gated — the recipient cannot read them until the season unlock threshold is reached, and the author cannot read them back.
Push notifications
If you enable push notifications, we store the Expo push token issued by your device, an optional device identifier, and the time you last opened the app. We also store your push preferences (per-event toggles, daily prompt time).
On-device preferences
Some preferences (text size, haptic intensity, the active couple selector) are stored only on your device, encrypted via the operating system’s secure storage. They are not transmitted to us.
Product analytics, error reporting, and session replay
We use PostHog (EU cloud, hosted in Frankfurt) to understand how the app is used and to catch errors quickly during the beta. PostHog receives:
- Anonymised product events: which screens you view, which buttons you tap, the labels (not contents) of the controls you interact with, and the timing between taps so we can detect repeated unsuccessful presses (“rage clicks”).
- Crash and error reports: the JavaScript error type, message, and stack trace, plus device model, OS version, and app version. We omit any text you have typed into a form when reporting an error.
- Session replays of your interaction with the app, with all text inputs masked by default. The replay shows the layout you saw and the gestures you made, but not the characters you typed. We use replays only to investigate reported issues and crashes.
- Your Clerk user identifier as the PostHog distinct ID once you sign in, so events from the same person can be linked across sessions and devices.
See PostHog’s privacy notice for their handling of this data.
What we do not collect today
- Photos. Photo upload is not yet available in the app. When it is launched, this notice will be updated to describe how photos are stored, who can see them, and how to delete them.
- The contents of any text input. Notes, partner letters, challenge titles, and other free-text fields are masked in session replays and never sent to PostHog or any other analytics provider.
- Other third-party trackers. We do not run Google Analytics, Facebook SDK, Amplitude, Segment, or advertising trackers.
- Messaging integrations. Telegram and other messaging integrations are not active.
4. Why we use your data and our lawful basis
We process your personal information to provide the service you have signed up for — pairing you with your partner, remembering your preferences, displaying activity to your partner, and delivering notifications you have opted into.
Our lawful bases are:
- Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR) for the core service: account, couple membership, challenges, rewards, seasons, letters.
- Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) for push notifications and the “sexy content” opt-in. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings.
- Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) for fraud prevention, security logging, and keeping the service running reliably.
5. Who we share your data with
We share personal information only with service providers we use to run Close. Each is bound by contract to use your data only as instructed.
- Clerk — authentication. Receives your email, phone (if used), name, and profile data when you sign in. See Clerk’s privacy notice.
- Inngest — background job runner. Receives event payloads (couple ID, user ID, event type, and the minimum fields needed to send a push, e.g. a challenge title or a letter ID) when activity in your couple triggers a notification.
- Expo (and through Expo, Apple Push Notification service and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging) — push notification delivery. Receives your push token plus the notification title, body, and deep-link data.
- Railway — hosting and database. Stores all server-side data described in this notice.
- PostHog — product analytics, error reporting, and session replay (EU cloud, Frankfurt). See the dedicated section above for what is and isn’t shared.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.
6. International transfers
Some of our service providers (Clerk, Inngest) operate from the United States. PostHog is hosted in the EU (Frankfurt). Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on the UK’s International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK’s addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, depending on the recipient.
7. How long we keep your data
- Active accounts: kept for as long as your account is active.
- Deleted accounts: when you delete your account from Settings, your account is marked as deleted immediately. You have a 30-day window to restore it by signing back in. After 30 days, an automated job permanently deletes your account record.
- Ended couples: if a couple ends, the couple-scoped data (challenges, rewards, letters, scores, etc.) is retained for 30 days and then permanently deleted.
- Push tokens: deleted when you sign out of a device, when your account is hard-deleted, or when the push provider rejects the token as expired.
8. Your rights
You have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you;
- have inaccurate information corrected;
- have your information erased;
- restrict or object to certain processing;
- receive a portable copy of your data;
- withdraw consent at any time.
You can delete your account yourself from Settings → Account. For any other request, email us at angusbuttar@gmail.com and we will respond within one month.
If you believe we have mishandled your data, you can complain to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
9. How we protect your data
Connections to our service are encrypted in transit using TLS. Data is encrypted at rest by our hosting provider. Authentication tokens are short-lived and refreshed automatically.
10. Children
Close is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe a child has registered, please contact us at angusbuttar@gmail.com and we will delete the account.
11. Changes to this notice
If we make changes that affect how we process your personal information, we will update the effective date above and notify you in the app before the changes take effect.