FRIENDS APP — PRIVACY POLICY
Last updated: October 30, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Pacific Interactive LLC ("Pacific," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use the Friends mobile app and the Friends pages on pacific.dev (together, the "Service"). It is part of our Terms of Service at https://pacific.dev/friends-terms.
If you created your account before the date above, the changes in this version take effect for you 30 days after it was posted.
1. WHO WE ARE
Pacific Interactive LLC is a small company based in the United States. For the purposes of U.S. state privacy laws, we are the business responsible for your information, and for the purposes of the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are the data controller. You can reach us through the contact form at https://www.pacific.dev/about or at the mailing address in Section 16.
2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT
2.1 Information You Give Us
• Account information. When you sign in with Apple, we receive an identifier and, if you choose to share them, your name and email address (which may be an Apple private relay address).
• Profile information. Your display name, username, and theme color. Optional details you add, such as your phone number, birthday (month and day only), hobbies, and availability (for example, "available until 6pm" or your weekly availability grid).
• Age confirmation. Before you sign in, we ask for your birthday to confirm you are at least 13. We store only the fact that you confirmed your age, not your birth year.
• Content you create. On My Mind posts, polls and poll votes, reactions, comments, replies, and mentions; events and their details (title, description, location, time, invitees, RSVPs, arrival status, games and potluck contributions, polls, and updates); groups, group names, and announcements; and requests you send asking friends to post or update.
• Friends and connections. Friend requests, friends, close friends, group memberships and invitations, and people you block.
• Location you choose to share. When you pin your location for friends, we collect your device's location at that moment, either precise or approximate depending on your choice, along with any note and the expiration time you set. The app does not track your location in the background.
• Reports and support requests. Reports you submit about content or accounts, and anything you send us through our contact form.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
• Device and app information. Device model, operating system version, app version, language, time zone, and IP address.
• Identifiers. A Firebase installation identifier, a push notification token, and App Check attestation data that helps confirm requests come from the genuine Friends app.
• Usage, crash, and performance information. Through Google Analytics for Firebase, Firebase Crashlytics, and Firebase Performance Monitoring, we collect information such as app opens, screens viewed, crash reports, and app performance measurements. We do not access your device's advertising identifier (IDFA).
2.3 Information That Stays on Your Device
• Calendar. If you allow calendar access, the app reads your Apple Calendar events to show them alongside your Friends calendar. These events stay on your device and are not uploaded to us, unless you choose to add one to Friends as an event.
• Contacts. The app does not access your contacts.
• Microphone and dictation. If you tap the microphone in Friends Assistant, the app uses your microphone and Apple's on-device speech recognition to turn what you say into text in the message box. The audio stays on your device and is not recorded or sent to us.
2.4 Information From Other Users
Other people may share information about you, for example by inviting you to an event or group, mentioning your username, or reporting your content.
2.5 Friends Assistant
Friends Assistant is an optional beta feature on iPhones that support Apple Intelligence. To answer you, it uses your messages in the current chat and information you can already see in the app, such as your friends' names, interests, availability, and birthdays, and the plans, posts, and comments you have access to. This information is processed by Apple's models, either on your device or on Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers. Apple states that information sent to Private Cloud Compute is used only to fulfill your request, is not stored, and is not accessible to Apple.
We do not receive, store, or use your Friends Assistant conversations, and the app does not save them: a chat is cleared when you start a new one or close the app. Friends Assistant does not post, send, or change anything on its own. When you confirm something it prepared, such as a post, plan, comment, RSVP, or location pin, it is saved and shared the same way as if you had made it yourself, and the rest of this Policy applies to it.
3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION
We use information to:
• Provide the Service, including your profile, friends, posts, events, groups, calendar views, location pins, and notifications;
• Keep the Service safe, including detecting, reviewing, and removing content that breaks our Terms, handling reports and blocks, and preventing spam, fraud, and abuse (see Section 6);
• Send push notifications and in-app activity updates, such as friend requests, comments, invitations, reminders, and notices about moderation decisions involving your account;
• Fix bugs, monitor performance and reliability, and improve the Service;
• Respond to support requests and appeals;
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.
Legal bases (EEA and UK users). We process information to perform our contract with you (providing the Service), for our legitimate interests (keeping the Service safe and secure, and understanding and improving it), with your consent (for example, location, calendar access, microphone, and notifications, which you can withdraw at any time in your device settings), and to comply with legal obligations.
4. WHO CAN SEE YOUR INFORMATION
• Your friends can see your profile, posts, availability, and the events you share with them. If you add your phone number or birthday, your friends can see them. If you pin your location, your friends can see it until it expires or you remove it.
• Event and group participants can see the events, comments, RSVPs, and contributions within the events and groups they belong to, according to each event's visibility settings.
• Other people signed in to Friends can see your name, username, and online status, for example when they search for your exact username to send you a friend request.
• Anything you share with others can be screenshotted or copied by them. Please share thoughtfully.
5. HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted (cross-context behavioral) advertising. We share information only in these situations:
• Service providers that process information on our behalf and under contractual obligations, including:
– Google (Firebase and Google Cloud) for sign-in, database hosting, cloud functions, push notification delivery, remote configuration, app integrity checks, analytics, crash reporting, and performance monitoring;
– Apple for Sign in with Apple, push notifications, maps, App Attest, and, if you use Friends Assistant, Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute (see Section 2.5);
– OpenAI, which checks the text of posts, comments, events, and similar content for harmful material. Under its API terms, OpenAI does not use this data to train its models;
– a team messaging service that we use to receive private moderation alerts, which may include the reported or flagged text and the usernames involved.
• Websites you link to. When you share a link, your device may load a preview of that website, which means the website can receive your device's IP address.
• GIFs. When you search for a GIF, your device sends your search terms to GIPHY, and when you view a GIF, your device loads it from GIPHY. In both cases GIPHY receives your device's IP address and handles it under its own privacy policy.
• Legal and safety reasons. When we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law, regulation, or legal process, or is necessary to protect the safety, rights, or property of anyone, including reporting child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and to law enforcement.
• Business transfers. As part of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy.
• With your consent, for any other purpose we describe when we ask.
6. CONTENT MODERATION AND AUTOMATED DECISIONS
To keep Friends safe, we check new and edited content using automated tools, including the OpenAI moderation service described above and a list of offensive words for usernames. We also review reports from users. Content that appears to break our Terms may be removed automatically, a username may be reset, and repeated violations may lead to an automatic account suspension. When we remove your content or suspend your account, we let you know in the app.
You can ask for a human review of any automated decision by contacting us through https://www.pacific.dev/about.
We keep records of reports, blocks, removed content, and enforcement actions to keep the Service safe, handle appeals, prevent people from evading enforcement, and meet legal obligations.
7. HOW LONG WE KEEP INFORMATION
• Account and profile information: for as long as your account exists.
• Posts: until you delete or replace them, or until the expiration time you set.
• Location pins: until the expiration time you set or until you remove the pin. We keep only your current pin, not a location history.
• Events, comments, and other content: until you or the event or post owner deletes it, or until your account is deleted. Comments or contributions you made on other people's posts or events may remain until their owner deletes them.
• In-app activity notifications: 30 days.
• Reports, blocks, and moderation records: for as long as needed for the safety and legal purposes described in Section 6.
• Analytics, crash, and performance data: according to the retention settings of the Google services that process it.
When you delete your account in the app (Settings > Delete Account), we delete your profile, private details, posts, events, notifications, friend connections, group memberships, and username. Deleted information may remain in backups or system logs for a limited time.
8. YOUR CHOICES AND RIGHTS
8.1 Choices in the App and on Your Device. You can edit your profile, delete your posts, events, and comments, remove location pins, block people, manage notifications, and delete your account in the app. You can turn off location, calendar, microphone, and notification permissions at any time in your device settings. Friends Assistant is optional, and you can turn off Apple Intelligence in your device settings.
8.2 Your Rights. Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
• give you a copy of your personal information;
• correct inaccurate information;
• delete your information (you can also delete your account yourself in the app);
• explain how we use your information.
8.3 Additional Rights for U.S. State Residents. Depending on where you live (for example, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and other states with consumer privacy laws), you may also have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information or targeted advertising (we do neither), to limit the use of sensitive personal information (we use it only to provide the Service), to not be discriminated against for exercising your rights, and to appeal if we deny your request.
8.4 Additional Rights for EEA and UK Residents. You may also object to processing based on our legitimate interests, ask us to restrict processing, receive your information in a portable format, withdraw consent at any time (without affecting earlier processing), and lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
8.5 How to Make a Request. Send requests through the contact form at https://www.pacific.dev/about. We may need to confirm your identity, for example by asking you to send the request from the email linked to your account or to confirm your Friends username. We will respond within 30 days, or within 45 days where the law allows. You may use an authorized agent where the law allows, and we may ask for proof of their authority.
9. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
Friends is not intended for children under 13, or under the higher minimum age that applies in some countries. We ask for a birthday before sign-in and do not knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. If we learn that we have, we will delete the information and the account. Parents or guardians who believe their child has used Friends can contact us through https://www.pacific.dev/about.
10. SECURITY
We protect information using industry-standard measures, including encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest provided by Google Cloud, access rules that limit who can read and change each piece of data, and app integrity checks. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
11. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS
We store information on Google Cloud servers in the United States. If you use the Service from outside the United States, your information is transferred to and processed in the United States. Where required, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses included in our service providers' data processing terms.
12. COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
The app does not use browser cookies. It stores small amounts of data on your device, such as a sign-in session, settings, a Firebase installation identifier, and a list of content you reported so it stays hidden for you. Our website at pacific.dev is hosted by Wix, which may use cookies and similar technologies; you can control cookies in your browser settings. We honor Global Privacy Control signals as a request to opt out of sale or sharing where the law requires.
13. THIRD-PARTY SERVICES AND LINKS
The Service works with and links to third-party services and websites, such as Apple Calendar, Apple Intelligence, GIPHY, and websites shared in posts. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, not this one.
14. "DO NOT TRACK"
Some browsers send "Do Not Track" signals. Because there is no common standard for these signals, the Service does not respond to them, except for Global Privacy Control as described in Section 12.
15. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date. For material changes, such as collecting new kinds of information or sharing it in new ways, we will give at least 30 days' notice through an in-app notice or by email before the changes take effect.
16. CONTACT US
Pacific Interactive LLC
548 Market St, PMB 797753
San Francisco, CA 94104
USA
Contact form and privacy requests: https://www.pacific.dev/about