Privacy Policy

1. About Connection

Connection (“Connection”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is a social application that helps users discover people nearby and build connections. This Privacy Policy explains what information the app handles, why it is used, how it may be shared, and how account deletion works.

2. Information We Handle

Depending on how you use Connection, we may handle the following information:

• Account information: information needed to create and access your account, such as your registered mobile number and authentication information.
• Profile information: name, profile picture, gender, age, Instagram username (when provided), and your description and bio.
• Location information: device location used to provide nearby-user functionality.
• Connection information: connection requests, accepted connections, and connection status.
• Chat information: messages you send and receive through the Connection chat feature.
• Information you voluntarily submit through forms: information you choose to provide through our Google Forms, such as business, investment, general-contact, or account-deletion requests.

3. How We Use Information

• To create and maintain your Connection account.
• To display your profile to other users and support profile settings.
• To provide nearby-user discovery and location-based features.
• To process connection requests and maintain connection status.
• To provide chat functionality after a connection is established.
• To respond to support, business, investment, and account-deletion requests.
• To maintain the security and operation of the service.

4. Location Information

Connection uses your device’s location to help show people nearby. Your location is used for the nearby-user feature and is associated with your account while the feature is being used. Your exact location is not shared with other users. Instead, Connection uses approximate latitude and longitude coordinates on the map to help protect your precise location. Connection does not currently use continuous background movement tracking.

5. Profile Visibility

Information you place on your profile may be visible to other Connection users as part of the app’s social features. Your Instagram username is optional, and its visibility is controlled by the profile setting you choose in the app.

6. Chat and Connections

Connection stores information required to support connection requests and chat between connected users. These records may remain during the account-deletion retention period described below.

7. Account Deletion and Data Retention

You can request deletion of your Connection account through the in-app account-deletion flow or through our external account-deletion request form on the Forms & Contact page.

When an account-deletion request is processed, the following user profile information is deleted immediately:

• Profile picture
• Age
• Description
• Bio
• Location details

Chat and connection records associated with the account may be retained for up to 90 days as part of the deletion process. At the end of that retention period, those retained chat and connection records are deleted.

The deletion timelines above describe Connection’s current implementation. If applicable law requires a particular retention period for specific records, those requirements may take precedence.

8. Information Shared With Other Users

Connection is a social application. Depending on the settings and features you use, other Connection users may see profile information such as your name, profile picture, gender, age, description, bio, and your Instagram username when you have chosen to make it visible.

9. Service Providers and Third Parties

We use third-party technology and infrastructure providers to operate Connection. Based on the current production architecture, these providers include:

• Supabase: database and related application data services used by Connection.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS): hosting infrastructure used for the Connection backend.
• Google Maps: the current mobile map implementation uses the Google Maps provider/SDK through the app's mapping library. Map and location-related information may be processed by Google as necessary to provide map functionality, subject to Google's applicable policies.
• Google Forms: external forms used for business/investor enquiries and account-deletion requests. Information you submit through a Google Form is processed by Google according to Google's applicable policies.

Third-party services may process information on our behalf or as part of their own service operation. We review and update this section when the production third-party configuration changes.

10. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures intended to protect information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. No internet-based service can guarantee absolute security.

11. Children

Connection is not intended for children under 13. The app’s registration flow requires users to meet the minimum age requirement used by the service.

12. Your Choices

You can update certain profile information in the app, control optional profile visibility settings, and request account deletion using the available account-deletion path.

13. Privacy Questions and Contact

For privacy questions, data-related enquiries, or other general contact requests, use the contact mechanism provided on our Forms & Contact page. You may also add a dedicated privacy contact email before publishing this policy.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our app, data practices, or legal requirements change. When we make a material change, we will update the effective date shown on this page.

This page is intended to describe Connection’s current data practices for users and app-store review.