Privacy Policy

Last updated May 2026

Who We Are

Nudge is an invite-only community for in-person meetups. This policy describes what data we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have. It is written to match what our code actually does — every claim below can be verified against our source.

Eligibility

Nudge is for adults 18 and older. When you sign in, you confirm that you are at least 18 and accept our Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. We record the timestamp of your acceptance.

What We Collect

Identity. When you sign in with Apple we receive your Apple user identifier and, depending on your Apple settings, your name and email address. We do not collect or store passwords.

Profile. Your display name, profile photo (optional), and Instagram handle (optional). You set and edit these in the app.

Location. When you are live, your device sends GPS coordinates to our server so we can compute proximity to other members. Coordinates are temporarily cached for up to 45 minutes and are not stored permanently on our database. Your current city and state are persisted to your profile so the app can show who is nearby.

Co-location history. When two members are within ~100 meters, we increment a counter that tracks how often the two of you have been near each other. This is used internally to suppress redundant notifications. We do not store the location of these co-locations — only that you and another member were near each other on a given day.

Push notification token. Your device's Expo push token, so we can deliver friend-nearby and chat notifications.

Activity. Nudges you send and receive, accept and decline events, and chat messages within accepted meetups.

Safety reports. If you report another member, we store the reason, an optional note, and a timestamp.

We do not access your device contacts. We do not access your camera. We do not access biometric data, microphone, motion sensors, or browsing history.

How We Use It

We use your information only to operate Nudge:

• Computing proximity between you and other approved members
• Sending push notifications when a member is nearby
• Displaying your profile to other approved members
• Delivering chat messages within accepted meetups
• Detecting and responding to abuse reports

We do not sell your data. We do not use your data for advertising. We do not perform tracking across other apps or websites.

Who Else Sees Your Profile

Nudge operates as a single, invite-only community. Other approved members can see:

• Your name and profile photo
• Your Instagram handle, if you provide one
• Your current city and state
• Whether you are currently live or offline

Other members cannot see your email address, Apple identifier, push token, or precise location. Only your distance to a specific other member is exposed, and only when proximity rules say a match should be surfaced.

Service Providers

Supabase. Our database, authentication, file storage, and serverless function provider. Your profile, messages, reports, and avatar photos live on Supabase infrastructure.

Apple — Sign in with Apple. Verifies your identity when you sign in. We never see your Apple password.

Expo Push Service / Apple Push Notification Service. Deliver push notifications to your device.

Upstash Redis. Holds short-lived proximity state, including your most recent coordinates for up to 45 minutes.

We do not share your data with any other third parties. We do not share your data with advertising networks, data brokers, or analytics platforms.

Location Data

Background location access is requested only when you enable live mode. While live, your device reports its location to our server roughly every 100 meters of movement or every minute. Coordinates are written to a short-lived cache (Upstash Redis) with a 45-minute time-to-live, then expire automatically.

Your derived city and state are persisted to your profile so other approved members in the same area can find you. Raw coordinates are not persisted to our database.

You can revoke location permission at any time in iOS Settings, or pause live mode in the app. Doing either will stop proximity detection.

Chat Messages and Content Moderation

Chat messages exchanged inside an accepted meetup are stored on Supabase. We apply an automated profanity filter at the time you send a message; messages containing prohibited content are rejected before they are saved.

Profile display names and Instagram handles are filtered the same way.

You can report any member by tapping the menu on their profile, nudge, or chat. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours. A member who receives three or more open reports is automatically suspended pending human review.

You can also block any member. Blocking is bidirectional: a blocked member can no longer see you, contact you, or be matched with you.

Data Retention

Profile data is retained for as long as your account is active.

Precise location coordinates live in our short-lived cache for at most 45 minutes.

City and state are updated each time you go live and are kept until you delete your account.

Chat messages are retained for the lifetime of the meetup thread; expired threads are subject to scheduled cleanup.

Safety reports are retained indefinitely so that we can investigate repeat behavior.

Operational logs may contain a truncated user identifier and event metadata, but do not contain raw GPS coordinates.

Your Rights and Account Deletion

You can delete your account from inside the app at any time. When you do, we:

• Delete your profile, sent and received nudges, and chat messages
• Delete your avatar from file storage
• Cancel your Sign in with Apple link to Nudge so the app no longer appears in your Apple ID account

You may also request access to or correction of your data by emailing the address below.

Children's Privacy

Nudge is not directed to children under 18 and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a user is under 18, please report them through the in-app reporting flow.

Your U.S. State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain U.S. states have specific rights regarding their personal information. This section explains those rights and how to exercise them. These rights apply to residents of California (CCPA/CPRA), Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Utah (UCPA), Texas (TDPSA), Oregon (OCPA), Montana (MCDPA), and Florida (FDBR), with variations by state.

Categories of personal information we collect. In the past 12 months we may have collected the following categories, as defined under the CCPA:

• Identifiers — Apple user identifier, email address, name, device push notification token
• Geolocation data — precise location coordinates (temporarily, up to 45 minutes in a short-lived cache), city, and state
• Visual information — profile photo, if you upload one
• Internet or network activity — app usage events (when you go live, send a nudge, accept a meetup)
• Other user content — chat messages, profile fields, abuse reports

Sources. All categories above are collected directly from you, except (i) device push tokens, which come from Apple, and (ii) co-location counters, which are derived by our server from your reported location and that of other members.

Purposes. We use each category solely to operate the Nudge service, as described in "How We Use It." We do not use personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, profiling for automated decision-making with legal effect, or any purpose materially incompatible with the disclosure at collection.

We do not sell or "share" your personal information. We do not sell personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration. We do not "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined under the CCPA. We have not done so in the past 12 months.

Your rights. Subject to verification and applicable law, you may:

• Know what personal information we hold about you
• Receive a copy of your personal information in a portable format
• Correct inaccurate personal information
• Delete your personal information (the fastest path is the in-app "Delete Account" action, which removes your profile, content, and Sign in with Apple link immediately)
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information (not applicable; we do neither)
• Limit our use of sensitive personal information (we do not use sensitive information for any purpose beyond what is necessary to operate the service)
• Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights

How to exercise. Email privacy@nudgenyc.com with your request and the email address associated with your Nudge account. For deletion, the fastest path is the in-app "Delete Account" action.

Authorized agents. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may require proof of authorization and verification of your identity.

Verification. To protect your information, we will ask you to confirm your account email and, in some cases, recent activity that only the account holder would know. If we cannot verify your identity, we may decline the request.

Appeals (Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and similar states). If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying to our response email within 30 days. We will respond to your appeal within 60 days.

California "Shine the Light." California residents may request a list of third parties to which we have disclosed personal information for those third parties' direct marketing purposes during the prior calendar year. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

International Users

Nudge is operated from the United States, and our service providers (including Supabase and Upstash) store data in the United States. If you access Nudge from outside the U.S., your information will be processed in the U.S., which may have different data-protection laws from your country.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom and believe we hold your personal information, you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of that information by emailing privacy@nudgenyc.com. Nudge does not currently market the service outside New York and has not designated an Article 27 representative; we will respond to good-faith requests on a best-efforts basis.

Security

All data is transmitted over HTTPS. Database access is gated by row-level security policies that scope each query to the signed-in user. Server-side keys are stored as encrypted secrets and never shipped in the mobile app.

Changes to This Policy

We will update this page when material changes are made. Continued use of Nudge after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.