Privacy Policy

1. The short version

• TimeLine is a public social app. Your profile and the moments you post can be seen by anyone who uses TimeLine, and by anyone you share a link with.
• We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
• There are no ads in TimeLine and no third-party analytics or advertising trackers in the app.
• Your phone's photos, microphone, location, contacts and Apple Health data are only used when you choose a feature that needs them.
• You can delete your account and everything in it at any time.

2. Information you give us

• Account details. Your first and last name, username, email address, password and birthday. We use your birthday to confirm you are 18 or older. Passwords are stored hashed by our sign-in provider, never in plain text. If someone invited you, we also keep the referral code you used.
• Your profile. Your profile photo, bio, TimeVault card and its style, chips, links, Top 5 Friends, pet and anything else you add to your TimeVault.
• Moments and other content. Everything you post or save: text, photos, videos, audio recordings, captions, polls, reviews, rankings, games and scores, beats and lyrics, drawings, the place you attach to a moment, scheduled moments, TimeCapsules, and items you share to a community library.
• Social activity. Who you follow, your BFFs, likes, dislikes, votes, comments, reactions, bookmarks, the groups you join, and the direct messages you send.
• Safety reports and blocks. Reports you file about moments, comments or people, and the people you block.
• Messages to us. Anything you send through our contact form or to our support email.

3. Information from your phone, only when you use a feature

TimeLine asks for each permission the first time a feature needs it. You can say no, or turn a permission off later in your phone's settings, and the rest of the app keeps working.

• Photos and camera. We only receive the photos and videos you pick or capture. When a photo is prepared for upload it is re-saved, which removes the location stored inside the file. We keep basic camera details, such as the date and exposure, for the optional photo overlays.
• Microphone. Used to record audio moments, videos and voice comments. Recordings are uploaded only when you post or send them.
• Speech captions. On iPhone, captions use Apple's speech recognition, which runs on the phone itself where your device supports it. On Android, captions run entirely on the phone with a speech model downloaded once from Hugging Face. Your audio is not sent to us for captioning.
• Location. Only while you are using the app, never in the background. We use your approximate location to suggest nearby places when you tag a moment, and to centre the map when you draw a workout route. We store the place you attach to a moment, not your phone's position.
• Contacts. Only if you use Find Friends. Phone numbers are turned into one-way codes (SHA-256 hashes) on your phone, and only those codes are sent to us. We compare them with the codes of people who chose to make their own number findable, and we do not keep codes that don't match. Names and other contact details never leave your phone. If you add your own number so friends can find you, we store only its code, not the number.
• Apple Health (iPhone only). Only if you import a workout. We read the workouts you pick, with their type, duration, distance, average heart rate and route, and recent daily step counts. Only what you put in a moment is uploaded. We never write to Apple Health, and Health data is never used for advertising or sold.
• On your phone only. Calendar reminders are scheduled on your phone, and drafts stay on your phone until you post them.

4. Information collected automatically

• Push token. If you allow notifications, Apple (on iPhone) or Google (on Android) gives your phone a token. We store it to send the notifications you have turned on.
• Technical logs. Our hosting providers record your IP address, device type, operating system and app version when the app talks to our servers. We use these logs for security, to prevent abuse and to fix problems.
• Activity used to run features. We count things like the moments you post, your streaks and your game results to run Charts, medals, quests, rewards and rate limits.
• Crash reports. If you have agreed to share diagnostics with Apple or Google, they may pass crash reports from TimeLine on to us.

TimeLine does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

5. Signing in with Apple or Google

If you choose Sign in with Apple (iPhone) or Continue with Google, that company shares your name and email address with us, and Google also shares your profile photo. Apple may give us a private relay email instead of your real one. We never receive your Apple or Google password.

6. How we use your information

• To create your account, sign you in and keep it secure.
• To show your profile and moments, and to build your TimeLine feed, Explore, Charts and TimeVault.
• To deliver messages, comments and the notifications you have turned on.
• To run the features you use, such as groups, TimeCapsules, scheduled moments, games, Daily Bots, rewards, the Shop and community libraries.
• To find and stop spam, abuse, cheating and content that breaks our Terms of Service.
• To answer support requests, fix bugs and improve TimeLine.
• To meet legal obligations and enforce our terms.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the UK, we rely on these legal bases: our contract with you to provide TimeLine, our legitimate interest in keeping it safe and improving it, your consent for optional permissions such as location, contacts and Apple Health, and our legal obligations.

7. Who can see what

• Public by default. TimeLine has no private accounts. Your username, name, profile photo, bio, TimeVault and moments are visible to everyone on TimeLine. A shared link lets anyone who has it preview that moment on the web.
• Activity. Other people can see likes, votes, comments, follows and BFF connections.
• Groups. Moments posted in a group are visible only to its members.
• Direct messages. Visible only to the people in the conversation. Messages are encrypted in transit but are not end-to-end encrypted. We look at them only to investigate a safety report, protect someone's safety or comply with the law.
• TimeCapsules and scheduled moments. Hidden from everyone else until the date you choose.
• Blocking. People you block can't see your content or contact you.

8. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising. We share it only in the cases below.

Service providers that run TimeLine for us. They may use your information only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: our database, sign-in, file storage, server functions and account emails such as password resets.
• Expo: app builds, app updates and push notification delivery.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, iPhone push notifications, the App Store, and speech recognition for captions.
• Google: Sign in with Google, Android push notifications through Firebase Cloud Messaging, Google Play, and Google Maps on Android.
• Cloudflare: hosting for our website and email.
• Anthropic: the optional lyric writer in Studio. When you ask it to write lyrics, the topic and details you type and your track's length, tempo and style are sent to Anthropic's AI model, which writes them. Your name and account details are not sent.

Other sharing:

• Lookup and content services, when you use a feature. Some features fetch information from outside services. They receive the search, place or link involved and your IP address, but not your account details. They are OpenStreetMap Nominatim for place search, Open-Meteo for weather, Radio Browser for radio stations, The Movie Database, Open Library and Apple's iTunes Search for movies, books, music and podcasts, ESPN for sports scores, Imgflip and Memegen for meme templates, jsonlink.io for previews of links people post, and GitHub and Hugging Face for sound and speech-model downloads.
• Embedded players. When you play a YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Twitch, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, X, TikTok, Bluesky or Reddit item inside a moment, it loads from that service, which may collect information under its own privacy policy.
• Other people on TimeLine. As described in "Who can see what" above.
• Legal and safety. When the law requires it, or to protect the safety, rights or property of our users, the public or TimeLine. This includes reporting illegal content to the authorities.
• A change of ownership. If TimeLine App LLC is merged, acquired or sells its assets, your information may transfer to the new owner under this policy.

9. How long we keep information, and deleting it

We keep your information while your account is open. You can delete any moment or comment at any time, and it is removed from TimeLine. To delete other data, such as direct messages, without deleting your account, email us. See Delete some of your data.

To delete your account, open TimeVault, tap the settings cog, open Account and tap Delete account. Your profile, moments, comments, messages, media and other account data are deleted from our database right away, and copies in our backups are removed within 30 days. You can also ask us to delete your account without the app. See Delete your account.

We may keep a small amount of information longer when the law requires it, or to deal with fraud, abuse or a legal claim.

10. Your choices and rights

• Edit your profile, and delete your moments and comments, at any time in the app.
• Turn notifications on or off in Settings, or in your phone's settings.
• Turn off photo, camera, microphone, location, contacts or Apple Health access in your phone's settings.
• Remove your phone number from Find Friends by turning off phone discoverability on the Find Friends screen.
• Block or report anyone, and hide Daily Bots, in Settings.

Depending on where you live, including California, other US states, the EEA and the UK, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, get a copy of it, correct it, delete it, limit or object to how we use it, and withdraw your consent. We do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. We will not treat you differently for using these rights.

To make a request, email [email protected] from the address on your account. We will reply within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires. If you are in the EEA or the UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

11. Security

Every connection between the app and our servers is encrypted. Access rules in our database limit each person to what they are allowed to see. Group, direct message and TimeCapsule media are kept in private storage that can only be reached through short-lived links. No system is perfectly secure, so if you think your account has been compromised, contact us right away. If a breach affects your information, we will tell you as the law requires.

12. Age requirement (18+)

TimeLine is for adults 18 and older. We ask for your birthday when you sign up and do not let anyone under 18 create an account. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, email [email protected] and we will delete it.

13. Where your information is stored

TimeLine is run from the United States. Your information is stored and processed there and wherever our service providers operate. Where the law requires it, we use appropriate safeguards for these transfers.

14. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when TimeLine changes, and change the date at the top when we do. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

15. Contact us

TimeLine App LLC, Texas, United States. Email [email protected] with any question or request about your privacy.