Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 10, 2026

The short version

Driftless doesn't ask for your name, email, phone number, or location. There is no sign-up form — when you open the app, it creates a random anonymous identity for you (a UUID and a handle like drifter-xxxxxx). We never connect that identity to who you are in the real world. You can optionally add a recovery email in Settings if you want to restore your data on a new device — it's never shown to anyone and never required. You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from Settings.

What we collect

Because Driftless has no accounts in the traditional sense, most "personal data" as commonly understood simply doesn't exist in our systems. What we do store, scoped to your anonymous identity, is:

• An anonymous profile — a randomly generated ID and handle, and app settings (theme, notification preference, whether Dream Space is enabled).
• Private check-ins — the daily grounding check-ins you log (mood slider, trigger tags, optional note). Visible only to you.
• Community posts & replies — content you choose to share to the community feed, tied to your anonymous handle, never your real identity.
• Reactions — which supportive reactions you've left, used only to prevent duplicate reactions (never shown publicly as counts).
• Toolkit activity & intentions — which grounding tools you've completed and the personal intentions you set. Private.
• Dream Space entries — if you opt in to this off-by-default feature, entries you write there. Private by default, and never visible to the Community feed or other users unless you explicitly mark one as shared.
• Reports — if you report a post or user, we store the report so a moderator can review it.
• An optional recovery email — only if you choose to add one in Settings. It exists solely so you can restore your account on a new device via a one-time code. It is never displayed to other users, never used for marketing, never shared or sold, and is deleted along with everything else when you delete your account. A throwaway email works fine if you want extra anonymity, and skipping it entirely ("guest mode") keeps the app fully functional.

What we don't collect

• No real name or phone number. No email is required — the optional recovery email above is the only exception, and it's off by default.
• No contacts or address book access.
• No precise location. (A general region may be used only to show relevant crisis resources, and is never stored against your identity.)
• No advertising identifiers, and no third-party ad or tracking SDKs.
• No content-based analytics — check-in notes, post bodies, replies, and Dream Space entries are never scanned, logged, or analyzed by us, on-device or off, beyond the lightweight on-device heuristic that gently nudges you if a community post leans heavily into fantasy description (see below).

The fantasy-lean nudge

Before a community post is submitted, the app runs a simple, local keyword-and-length check to see if a draft leans into describing fantasy content rather than your experience of it. If so, it shows a gentle prompt to add more about the impact or coping — never a hard block, and this check never leaves your device as a stored analysis of your text.

Crisis-language surfacing

A lightweight, local check may recognize crisis-related language in what you're about to post and surface crisis resources to you supportively. This never results in a notification to anyone else, a report to authorities, or a permanent record — we make no promises of confidentiality beyond what's described here, and this feature exists purely to be helpful in the moment.

Where your data lives

Data is stored on our backend (a small Postgres database, hosted on Railway) and accessed only through an API that enforces per-user ownership — your anonymous account can only ever read or write its own private data. If you add a recovery email, the one-time sign-in codes are delivered through a transactional email provider (Resend), which processes your address solely to deliver that message. These infrastructure providers act as data processors under our instructions and are required to protect your data to the same standard described here. We don't sell data, share it with advertisers, or use it for anything beyond running the app.

Account & data deletion

Open the app → Me → Settings → Delete my data. This permanently and immediately deletes your anonymous profile and every row associated with it — check-ins, posts, replies, reactions, tool history, intentions, journal entries, Dream Space entries, and your recovery email if you added one. This cannot be undone, and we keep no backup copy for you to recover later.

Children

Driftless is not directed at children and is not intended for users under 13 (or the applicable minimum age in your region).

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll update the date above and note the change here. Continued use of the app after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or to report a concern: vasilidimo@gmail.com.