Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 6, 2026

Sevgi Pusulam (“the app”) is made by an independent developer in Türkiye (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what the app collects, why, how long it is kept, which services help us run it, and what it never does. It also covers the sevgipusulam.app website and the emails you send us. It is also our information notice under Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK).

1. Who is responsible for your data

Under KVKK, the data controller (veri sorumlusu) is the developer of Sevgi Pusulam, Türkiye. You can reach us at support@sevgipusulam.app.

2. What the app does

The app shows a compass needle pointing from you to one other person you have chosen to pair with, and the distance between you. It also gives the two of you a private chat, a Places mode that points the needle at a fixed place, and, with Compass Club, widgets and a Live Activity on your Lock Screen.

3. What we collect and why

Account and profile

You sign in with Apple or Google. We store the identifier Apple or Google gives us, your email address (Apple lets you hide it behind a relay address) and, if you choose to share it, your name. We never see your Apple or Google password.

You can change your name on the Profile tab and add a profile photo from your photo library. We also store the language you chose for the app (so notifications reach you in that language), whether “Read receipts” is on, and when you joined. Your name and profile photo are shown to your partner, and to someone you send a pairing request to or receive one from.

Your profile photo is stored as one file at an address that contains a long random identifier. Nobody can list the stored photos, so the photo can only be opened by someone who already has its address: the app shows it to your partner, and to someone you send a pairing request to or receive one from. When you change your photo, the old one is deleted.

Precise location

While the app is open, it reads your device’s location and sends your latest position (latitude, longitude, accuracy, speed, battery level and Low Power Mode state) to our server. This is the only way the needle can work. The app asks only for “While Using the App” permission and never reads your location in the background.

Your battery level and Low Power Mode let the app tell your partner why your position may be less precise (for example “Elif’s phone is saving battery”). When your position is old, your partner can ask your phone for a fresh one; your phone answers only if the app is open on it at that moment, and the request itself carries no location.

Pairing

To pair, one of you shares a six-character code (it works for 7 days and only once), the other enters it, and the person who shared the code accepts. We store the pairing (who is paired with whom, when it started, whether it is paused and who paused it) and the codes. When a pairing ends, its record, which contains no location and no messages, stays until either of you deletes your account.

For each pairing the app also keeps two numbers: the closest you have been to each other and the farthest apart (shown under “Together”). They contain no place and no time, only the two of you can see them, and they are deleted when the pairing ends.

Place search

When you search for a place in Places mode, the words you type are sent to Apple’s geocoder and to komoot’s Photon service (photon.komoot.io, which searches OpenStreetMap data) so the app can show you matches; if the app already has your position, a rounded version of it (to about a kilometer) goes with the search so that nearby places come first. Nothing else goes with it — no account, no name, no record of what you searched for — and the place you save is kept on your phone only.

Messages

If you and your partner write to each other in the app, the text of your messages, who sent each one, when it was sent, and whether it was edited or unsent are stored on our server so both of your phones can show the conversation. A message can be edited for 15 minutes after it is sent, and only the latest text is kept. We also store how far each of you has read (this is what shows you that you have unread messages); your partner sees it only while you both keep “Read receipts” on, and never for messages you read while yours was off. While one of you is typing, the other sees “typing…”; that signal is sent live and never stored.

Messages are encrypted on the way to our server and while stored there, but they are not end-to-end encrypted: the server could technically read them. We do not read them, except messages that you or your partner report to us (below).

Messages are kept until the pairing ends: when either of you unpairs, or either of you deletes your account, the whole conversation disappears from the app for both of you at once and is deleted from our database. When you unsend a message, its text is erased from our database at once and both of you see “Message deleted” in its place; that marker stays until the pairing ends. In both cases, a phone that is offline at that moment removes its copy as soon as it is back online with the app open. Copies can remain in our hosting provider’s encrypted storage and backups for up to 7 days before they are overwritten. The last 200 messages are also kept on each phone so the conversation opens instantly and works offline; they are removed from the phone when you sign out, unpair or delete your account (until then they are also part of that phone’s own backup).

Photos in the chat

You can send photos from your photo library, up to 10 at a time. Before a photo leaves your phone, the app makes a new copy of it, at most 1600 pixels on its longest side, without the hidden details a camera adds, such as where and when the photo was taken or which camera took it; our server refuses any photo that still carries them. Photos are kept in private storage that only you and your partner can open, and only while your pairing lasts. We also store each photo’s size and a tiny blurred preview that is shown while it loads.

A photo can be opened for 30 days after it is sent. After that it disappears from both phones, its file is deleted from our server within 24 hours and its blurred preview is removed; the conversation keeps only a “This photo has expired” note until the pairing ends. A photo is deleted sooner, within 24 hours at the latest, when its sender unsends it, when the pairing ends, or when either of you deletes your account. As with anything shown on a screen, your partner could still take a screenshot, and expiry cannot take back a copy made that way.

Reports

You can report a message your partner sent. A report by either of you sends us a copy of the reported message and up to ten messages before it, from both of you, with the reason you chose, so we can review it; the other person is not told. If the reported message is a photo that can still be opened, the report also keeps that one photo; photos among the ten earlier messages are not copied, and an expired photo is not sent at all. That copy is kept even if the pairing ends, until we have handled the report, and is deleted 90 days after that, and in any case no later than 180 days after the report (90 days if both of you have deleted your accounts). It is used only to deal with the report (for example to remove content or close an account that breaks our Terms of Use).

Notifications

When your partner writes, your phone may show “Elif sent you a message”. The notification contains your partner’s name only, never the text. You are also notified when someone asks to pair with you, when a request is accepted, declined or withdrawn, and when your partner pauses, resumes or ends the pairing. These notifications are delivered through Expo’s push service and Apple Push Notification service.

To deliver notifications (and, if you use it, to keep the Lock Screen distance up to date), we store your phone’s notification address (a push token issued by Apple and Expo) with your account. It is removed when you sign out, when someone else signs in on that phone, and when you delete your account; if your phone is offline at that moment, it is removed the next time the app is opened with a connection.

Lock Screen and widgets

With Compass Club, the app can show the distance to your partner in Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets and in a Live Activity on your Lock Screen. The widgets are drawn on your phone from what the app already knows. To keep a Live Activity current while the app is closed, our server works out the distance when your partner’s position changes and sends it, with your partner’s name and how long ago their position was taken, to your phone through Apple Push Notification service. Your partner’s position itself is not sent, and the distance is not recorded.

Compass Club purchases

Purchases are made through Apple; we never see your card or payment details. RevenueCat, the service that manages subscriptions for us, receives your account identifier and the details of your Apple purchase, and tells our server whether you have Compass Club, which plan (Solo or Couple) and until when. We keep only that current status, not a purchase history. Your partner’s app can read it, so that a Couple plan can open Compass Club on their phone too.

Diagnostics

App log. When something goes wrong, the app sends a short technical event to our own database: for example that the app started, that it crashed the last time, or that a request failed, with the type of error and a short error code. Each event carries the app version, the iOS version, the phone model, your account identifier and the time. It never contains your location, distances, places, searches, messages, photos, names, email address or notification addresses; our server rejects any event that looks as if it does. Events are kept for 14 days, only the developer can read them, and they are deleted with your account.

Limits against abuse

To protect the app from abuse, we keep a few small counters with your account. Within a set period (a few seconds, an hour or a day), they count how many times you typed a wrong or expired pairing code, how many times you sent a pairing request, accepted one or resumed sharing, how many messages you sent, edited or unsent, how many photos you sent, and how much text you wrote in total. So that notifications do not reach you too often, we also keep when you were last sent a message notification or a Lock Screen update, and how many message notifications you received that day. The counters contain no code, message, photo or location; they are used only to check whether a limit has been reached, and they are deleted with your account.

Kept only on your phone

Some things never reach our server; they stay only on your phone and in your iPhone’s own backup: the places you save in Places mode, your compass design, and your compass photo (a photo you choose as the compass face). Your phone also keeps the last 200 messages and the photos you have opened (until they expire) so the chat works offline, and what the widgets show. Signing out removes the messages from the phone but keeps your compass design and photo; deleting your account removes those too.

The website and emails you send us

The sevgipusulam.app website uses no cookies, keeps no visitor statistics and has no forms. Cloudflare hosts it; while delivering the pages and protecting the site from attacks, it briefly processes technical details such as your IP address under its own terms. We keep no record of these visits.

When you write to support@sevgipusulam.app, your email is forwarded through Cloudflare to our Gmail (Google) inbox. We use your email address, your name, what you write and anything you attach only to answer you and to do what you ask; we keep it for at most 1 year after the conversation closes, then delete it.

4. Who can see your location

Exactly one person: the partner you paired with, and only while your pairing is active. Pairing requires both of you to accept. Either of you can pause or end the pairing at any time, and sharing stops immediately; only the person who paused can resume. While the pairing is paused, neither of you sees the other’s location, but you can keep writing to each other.

Nobody else — not other users, not advertisers, not us as a matter of routine — can read your location. This rule is enforced by our database, not just by the app, and is tested automatically before every release.

You can turn off location and notification access at any time in your iPhone’s Settings app, under Sevgi Pusulam. If you turn off location, the app sends no new position; your partner keeps seeing your last one, with how long ago it was taken, until either of you pauses sharing or ends the pairing. The app does not ask for access to your photo library: you pick photos in the iPhone’s own picker, and the app receives only the ones you choose.

5. What we never do

• We do not keep location history. The server stores only your latest position, replacing the previous one. There is no trail, no log, no map of where you have been.
• We do not sell or share your data with third parties for advertising, and the app shows no ads.
• We do not track you across other apps or websites.
• We do not read your location in the background in this version of the app.

6. Services that help us run the app

Each of these services receives only what it needs for its task:

• Supabase: our server (database, sign-in, file storage, live updates and server functions). Our server is hosted by Supabase in the European Union; everything this policy says is stored “on our server” is stored there.
• Apple (United States; Ireland for App Store purchases): Sign in with Apple, in-app purchases, notifications and Live Activity updates (Apple Push Notification service), and address search in Places mode.
• Google (United States): Sign in with Google, if you choose it; the emails you send us are also stored in Gmail.
• Expo (United States): delivers notifications. It receives your notification address and the notification text, which is your partner’s name and a fixed sentence.
• RevenueCat (United States): manages subscriptions. It receives your account identifier and the details of your Apple purchase.
• komoot Photon (Germany): place search. It receives the words you type and, if available, your position rounded to about a kilometer.
• Cloudflare (United States): hosts the sevgipusulam.app website and forwards the emails you send us to our inbox.

These services use your data only for the jobs listed above, and the data-processing agreements or privacy commitments they have accepted bind them to protect it at least as well as this policy does.

Authorities. If a court, a prosecutor or another public body with legal power to ask makes a lawful order or written request, we give it only the data it asks for that we actually hold. We also pass reported illegal content to the authorities where the law requires it. We keep no location history, so our database holds only your latest position (and the hosting backups keep it for at most 7 days).

Transfers abroad. Our server and these services are outside Türkiye, so using the app or emailing us means your data is transferred abroad. The country of each service is named above.

If the app changes hands. If we transfer the app to a company we set up or to someone else, your data passes to the new owner with the protections in this policy; we will announce it in the app at least 30 days before, and if you do not accept it, you can delete your account.

7. Why we may use your data

We collect this data electronically, through the app and the emails you send us, partly by automated means. Under KVKK Article 5 we rely on:

• performing our agreement with you (Article 5(2)(c)): your account, pairing, location sharing, the chat and its photos, notifications, widgets, the Live Activity, place search in Places mode, purchases, and our answers to your emails about your account, pairing or subscription;
• our legal obligations (Article 5(2)(ç)): answering lawful requests from authorities, passing illegal content to them where the law requires it, and reporting a data breach to the Personal Data Protection Board and the people affected;
• our legitimate interest (Article 5(2)(f)), without harming your fundamental rights: handling reports, the counters that limit abuse, the app log (crashes included) we use to fix problems, delivering the sevgipusulam.app website safely, and answering your other emails.

8. How long we keep it

9. Deleting your account

You can delete your account from inside the app: Profile tab → Delete account. This removes your profile, profile photo, pairing and position immediately, and your messages and chat photos for both of you at once (a phone that is offline at that moment removes its copy as soon as it is back online with the app open); your partner is told that the pairing has ended. It also removes your notification addresses, your Compass Club status, your app log events and, on that phone, your compass design and compass photo. If you signed in with Apple, the app also asks Apple to end the app’s access to your Apple Account.

Copies can remain in our hosting provider’s encrypted storage and backups for up to 7 days before they are overwritten. If a message was reported, by you or your partner, the copy kept for that report is deleted later, as described under Reports. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription: cancel it in your Apple Account settings.

10. Your rights

Under KVKK Article 11 you have the right to:

• learn whether your personal data is processed;
• ask for information about it if it is;
• learn why it is processed and whether it is used for that purpose;
• know who it is transferred to, in Türkiye or abroad;
• ask for it to be corrected if it is incomplete or wrong;
• ask for it to be deleted or destroyed under the conditions of KVKK Article 7;
• ask that such a correction or deletion be passed on to those it was transferred to;
• object to a result against you that comes only from automated analysis of your data;
• claim compensation if unlawful processing of your data causes you harm.

To use these rights, or to ask for a copy of your data, email support@sevgipusulam.app from the email address your account uses, so we can be sure the request is yours; if Apple hides your email, tell us how you signed in and we will agree a way to confirm it. We answer free of charge within 30 days at the latest. You can also use the other ways of applying that the law and the Personal Data Protection Board (Kişisel Verileri Koruma Kurulu) allow. If your request is refused, you find our answer insufficient or we do not answer in time, you can complain to the Board within 30 days of learning our answer, and in any case within 60 days of your request.

11. Children

The app is meant for people 18 or older and is not intended for anyone younger. If you think a child is using it, contact us and we will close the account.

12. Security

Everything the app sends travels encrypted, and our hosting provider encrypts the data it stores. The rules that decide who can read what live in our database, and automatic tests check them before every release. If a breach ever puts your data at risk, we will tell the Personal Data Protection Board and the people affected, as the law requires.

13. Changes

If this policy changes, the app will tell you before the change takes effect.

14. Contact

Questions about your data or this policy? Write to us at support@sevgipusulam.app.