App Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 30, 2026

This policy covers the Pulse app itself — the iOS app and the web app at pulse.equalnorth.dev, both made by Equal North ("we," "us," "our"). It's separate from the website privacy policy, which only covers this marketing site and the waitlist. By continued use of the app, you agree to this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service.

What we collect

Account info: your email address, or your Apple ID if you use Sign in with Apple.

Profile info: your username, an optional profile photo you upload, and status tile.

Circle activity: the circles you're part of, your daily prompt responses (kept blind from other members until everyone in the circle has answered), any reactions you leave on revealed answers, how many days in a row you've answered (your streak), and the ordinary posts you share with a circle — optionally including a photo, a location tag, a mood tag, and what you're listening to.

Wide activity: posts you share publicly (with the same optional photo/location/mood/listening-to tags), which posts you've been randomly assigned to see, and which posts you've opened.

Comments: if you comment on a post, we store who you are and what you wrote.

Location (opt-in, per circle): if you turn on "share my location" for a specific circle, we store your device's current location and a place name for as long as sharing stays on for that circle. This is off by default, one circle at a time, and never tracked continuously in the background — turning it on takes one location reading, not ongoing tracking.

Push notifications (opt-in): if you turn on notifications, we store a device/browser push token so we can notify you about things like a new friend request, a comment on your post, or your circle's daily prompt going live or revealing. We don't use this token for anything besides sending you those notifications.

Device and usage data: basic analytics (via Google Analytics) — things like session length, general usage patterns, and device/browser type — so we can see how the app's actually being used and fix what's broken. We don't build advertising profiles from this.

How we use it

• To run the app: show your circles, deliver the daily prompt, assign fair Wide rounds, show the circle map, and so on
• To understand usage and improve the app, via analytics
• To keep things working: diagnose bugs and prevent abuse

We don't sell your information, and we don't use it to build an advertising profile on you.

Who we share it with

Only the services that help us run Pulse:

• Firebase / Google Cloud — hosts our database and files, handles sign-in, runs the server-side logic behind the daily prompt and Wide's fair rounds, and delivers push notifications if you've turned them on
• Google Analytics — basic usage analytics, described above
• Apple — if you choose Sign in with Apple, Apple handles that authentication
• OpenStreetMap (web app only) — if you add a location tag or share your location with a circle on the web, your coordinates are sent to OpenStreetMap's free lookup service to turn them into a place name, and circle maps load their map imagery from OpenStreetMap

None of these providers get to use your data for their own purposes — they're processing it on our behalf.

Your choices

• Turn off location sharing for any circle, anytime, from that circle's map card — it's per-circle, not all-or-nothing.
• Turn off push notifications anytime from your device or browser's own notification settings.
• Delete a post you've made, anytime, from your profile.
• Delete your account or ask what data we have on you by emailing [email protected] — there's no in-app "delete my account" button yet, so this goes through us directly for now.

Circle stays private

What you post to a Circle — including comments, location shares, and tags — is only ever visible to that circle's own members. It's never part of the public Wide feed, and sharing location with one circle never shares it with another circle or with the app at large.

Kids

Pulse isn't intended for anyone under 13. If we learn we've collected information from a child under 13, we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If this changes in a meaningful way, we'll update the date at the top and let active users know.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email [email protected].