Privacy Policy | Tap Tidings

1. Introduction

Tap Tidings ("we," "us," or "our") is a relationship-care application that helps you send personalized digital tidings and stay meaningfully connected with the people who matter most to you. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our application, available on the web, Google Play, and the Apple App Store.

By creating an account or using Tap Tidings, you agree to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the application.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account Information

When you register, we collect:

Full name
Email address
Password (stored encrypted — we never store plaintext passwords)
Account creation date

2.2 Contact Vault Data

You may voluntarily add personal information about people in your life, including:

Names, relationships, and email addresses
Birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates
Notes, interests, favorite colors, and tone preferences
Photos (via URL reference)
Life events (promotions, new babies, moves, etc.)
Location (city or region)

Important: This information is about third parties (your contacts). You are responsible for having appropriate consent or a legitimate personal purpose for storing this information. Tap Tidings is a personal-use tool, not a commercial data platform.

2.3 Occasion & Reminder Data

We store occasions (events with dates) and reminders you create or that are automatically generated based on your contacts' dates. This includes reminder delivery history, read/dismissed status, and tiding creation records linked to reminders.

2.4 Tiding Data

When you create a tiding, we store:

Recipient name, relationship, and occasion type
AI-assisted message text and any edits you make
AI-generated card image (stored as a URL)
Tiding status (draft, sent, downloaded)
Tone and style preferences you selected
Personal details you entered to personalize the message

When you share a tiding with a recipient, Tap Tidings may record when the recipient opens or views the shared tiding for product operation and analytics. This helps us understand whether your tiding was received and improve delivery reliability.

When a recipient opens a tiding you sent, they may see your name as the sender. This is necessary for the recipient to know who the tiding is from.

2.5 Usage & Billing Data

We track usage for plan enforcement, including the number of AI messages and card designs generated per billing cycle. Subscription and billing transactions are handled by third-party payment processors (such as Stripe or Apple/Google in-app billing). We do not store full payment card numbers.

2.6 Notification Preferences

We store your notification preferences including email reminder settings, timezone, and whether you have opted into browser push notifications. Push notification permission status is stored to respect your preferences.

2.7 Interaction History

We log meaningful touchpoints with contacts — such as when a tiding was sent or a reminder was acknowledged — to power relationship health features and help you track your connection history. You can delete interaction records at any time.

2.8 Technical Data

We may collect standard technical data such as device type, operating system version, browser type, and IP address for security, debugging, and analytics purposes. This data is not sold or shared with advertisers.

3. How We Use Your Information

To deliver the service: Create tidings, schedule reminders, and maintain your contact vault.
To send reminder emails: We use your email address and the dates stored in your contact vault to send you timely, opt-in reminder notifications.
To generate AI content: Personal details you provide (interests, relationship, occasion) are sent to AI providers to generate personalized messages and tiding images. See Section 5 for details.
To manage your subscription: We use your plan data to enforce usage limits and process billing events.
To improve the app: Anonymized usage patterns help us improve features and fix bugs.
To communicate with you: Service announcements, security alerts, and support responses.

We do not use your data for behavioral advertising. We do not sell your data to third parties.

4. Email Delivery

Tap Tidings sends reminder emails on your behalf when you have email notifications enabled. These emails include:

Upcoming birthday and anniversary alerts
Custom occasion reminders
Gentle warm nudges to stay close

Every reminder email includes the ability to unsubscribe from future emails. You can also disable email reminders at any time in Settings → Notifications.

Emails are sent via our email infrastructure partner. Recipient email addresses for tiding delivery (your contacts' emails) are used solely to deliver the tiding you explicitly send and are not added to any marketing list.

When you choose email delivery for a tiding, the email may include your email address so the recipient can reply directly to you. Your email address is visible to the recipient as the sender of the email.

5. AI-Assisted Content

Tap Tidings uses third-party AI services to generate personalized tiding messages and artwork. When you generate content, we send the following context to the AI provider:

Recipient name and relationship type
Occasion type and tone preference
Any personal details you optionally provide

We do not send contact email addresses, birthdates, or other sensitive identifiers to AI providers. AI-assisted content is returned to us and stored in your account as part of the tiding record.

AI-assisted messages are suggestions only. You can always edit or entirely replace any AI-generated text before sending. The final tiding content is your responsibility.

Our AI providers operate under their own privacy policies and data usage terms. We select providers that do not use submitted prompts to train models without explicit consent.

6. Data Sharing

We share data with the following categories of third parties solely to operate the service:

AI content providers: Contextual data to generate messages and images (see Section 5)
Email delivery providers: Your email address and reminder content to deliver notifications
Payment processors: Billing data to process subscriptions (Stripe, Apple, or Google)
Hosting and infrastructure: Cloud providers who host our database and backend

We do not share data with data brokers, advertisers, or analytics networks that track you across other apps.

We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or to protect the safety of users or the public.

7. Data Retention

Active accounts: Your data is retained for as long as your account is active.
Dismissed reminders: Retained for the life of your account. You can delete individual reminders at any time, or delete your account to remove all reminders permanently.
Deleted contacts: Removed immediately, including associated tidings and interactions.
Account deletion: When you delete your account, your personal data — including contacts, tidings, reminders, interaction history, and profile — is permanently removed immediately. Your account and login credentials are also deleted at that time, preventing further access. Anonymized, non-identifiable analytics data may be retained.
Backups: Encrypted backups may retain data for up to 60 days after deletion for system recovery purposes.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
Correction: Update or correct your personal information through the app.
Deletion: Request deletion of your account and all associated data.
Portability: Request your contact and tiding data in a portable format.
Opt-out: Disable email reminders, push notifications, or warm nudges at any time in Settings.
Withdraw consent: You may stop using the service and request account deletion at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@taptidings.com. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Children's Privacy

Tap Tidings is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the European Union). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us immediately and we will delete it.

10. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encryption in transit (TLS), encrypted storage, access controls, and regular security reviews. However, no system is perfectly secure. We encourage you to use a strong, unique password and to contact us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.

11. Subscription Billing

Tap Tidings offers free and paid subscription plans. Paid subscriptions are processed through Stripe (web) or in-app purchase systems (Apple App Store, Google Play). Subscription terms, pricing, cancellation, and refund policies are governed by the payment platform you used to subscribe. We do not store full payment card information.

Subscription data (plan type, usage counts) is stored in your user profile to enforce plan limits. Monthly usage counters reset at the start of each billing cycle.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and notify you via email or an in-app notice for material changes. Continued use of the app after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

Tap Tidings

Email: hello@taptidings.com