Your device encrypts it
Answers, messages, media, memories, and conversation backups are encrypted before sync.
Last updated: 21 July 2026
Privacy Policy
Closer Couples is built so that the people who run it cannot read what you write. This page explains where that is true and, just as importantly, where it is not.
Privacy at a glance
Your relationship content is private because it is encrypted before it reaches our database, and the key needed to read it stays with your couple. The security diagram shows how that flow works.
The database stores ciphertext
Firebase/Firestore stores encrypted private content, not readable relationship text.
Your couple holds the key
The private content decryption key stays with your couple's devices and recovery flow, not Closer's servers.
What we can still see
We still need service metadata to run Closer Couples: your email and display name, who you are paired with, account and activity timestamps, notification settings, subscription status, privacy-preserving public website analytics, app analytics if you enable them, and crash or operational metadata.
Contents
1. The short version
Your private content is end-to-end encrypted. Answers, messages, media, memory capsules and date reflections are encrypted on your device with a couple-held private content decryption key. We store the encrypted result. We cannot decrypt your private content, and neither can Google, whose infrastructure we run on.
Some service details stay visible. We can see that your account exists, the email and name on it, who you are paired with, and when you were last active. Your private relationship content stays encrypted, but Closer Couples still needs basic metadata to run the service. If you need a tool where the operator cannot tell that a relationship exists at all, Closer Couples is not that tool.
2. What is end-to-end encrypted
The following are encrypted on your device before they are sent anywhere, using the couple-held private content decryption key that our servers never receive:
- Your answers to daily and pack questions
- Messages and reactions between you and your partner
- Photos and media you attach
- Memory capsules
- Post-date reflections
- Your encrypted conversation backup
Because the private content decryption key never reaches us, we cannot recover this content for you if both partners lose access. That is the direct cost of the guarantee. Your recovery phrase and partner-assisted restore are how you get back in. Read more about recovery in plain words.
3. What we store about you
This is the complete list of what is readable on our side. It is short on purpose.
| Data | Why we hold it |
|---|---|
| Email address | Sign-in, account recovery, and essential service email |
| Display name and profile photo | So your partner sees who they are talking to |
| Gender | Selecting question wording that fits the two of you |
| Whether you confirmed you are 18 or older, and when | Age gate. We do not store your date of birth. See section 4 |
| Who you are paired with | Delivering your couple's shared content to both of you |
| Time zone and quiet hours | Not sending a notification at 3am. Enforced on our servers, not just in the app |
| Notification token and preferences | Delivering the reminders you asked for |
| Subscription status | Unlocking what you paid for. Card details never reach us; see section 6 |
| Account created and last active timestamps | Operating the service and preventing abuse |
4. What we deliberately do not collect
- Your date of birth. Sign-up asks for it to check that you are 18 or older, and then discards it. We keep only the verdict and the timestamp, never the birthday itself.
- Your contacts, calendar, or location. Closer Couples does not ask for them and has no feature that uses them.
- Anonymous accounts. There are none. Every account is an email or Google sign-in, which is how we keep an unknown third party out of a two-person space.
- Advertising identifiers. There is no advertising in Closer Couples and no ad SDK.
Your partner cannot read the rest of your account record either. The app shows them a minimal profile card (name, photo, gender) and the server enforces that; the rest of your record is not theirs to see.
5. Analytics and crash reports
Privacy-preserving public website analytics are enabled on closercouples.app. We use Umami-style analytics to understand which public pages are visited and whether the website is working. Website analytics can include page URLs, referrers, browser and device details, timestamps, and network metadata. They do not include private app content, answers, messages, media, memories, recovery phrases, or couple encryption keys.
In-app analytics and crash reports are off unless you turn them on. One switch, Settings → Privacy → "Share anonymous usage data", controls both, and both are also disabled when the app starts, so nothing is collected before your choice has been read.
When it is on, we record which features are used, never what you wrote. Those events carry no identifier for you, your partner, or your couple, and no topic or category, so they cannot be tied back to you or to what you were talking about. An automated test fails our build if an event is ever declared with a field that could carry your content.
Crash reports contain technical information about the state of the program when it failed. Before any report leaves your device we strip document paths and long identifiers out of it, so a crash in the part of the app that handles your answers cannot carry a fragment of them with it.
6. Who else processes your data
| Provider | What they handle |
|---|---|
| Google (Firebase) | Accounts, database, servers, push notifications, crash reporting, analytics, and anti-abuse. They hold encrypted private content without the key to read it, but they do process account, device, activity, and operational metadata. |
| RevenueCat | Subscription status. They tell us what you are entitled to, not who you are. |
| Apple / Google Play | Payment. We never see or store your card details. The app stores handle payment entirely. |
Our servers and database run in the United States (Google Cloud
us-central1). If you use Closer Couples from elsewhere, your data is processed there.
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers.
7. Keeping and deleting your data
You can delete your account from inside the app. Doing so removes your account record and the couple data associated with it.
Data export does not exist yet. We would rather say that here than imply a feature we have not built. It is planned, and this page will change when it ships.
8. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, and to object to certain processing. Contact us at [email protected] and we will respond within the period required by applicable law.
One honest limitation: for end-to-end encrypted content, we cannot produce a copy for you, because we cannot read it. That content lives on your devices.
9. Age requirement
Closer Couples is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, because the app includes adult intimacy content. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if you believe a minor has an account, contact us and we will remove it.
10. Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle your data, we will update this page and change the date at the top. For changes that materially affect you, we will also tell you in the app.
11. Contact
The data controller is Privacy LLC, a Mississippi limited liability company. For privacy questions or to exercise the rights above, contact [email protected].
For the product philosophy behind this privacy model, read Why Closer Couples.