Privacy Policy

Who we are

"We" and "us" are the team that runs house. We decide how and why your information is used, so we are its controller under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and similar laws. For any privacy question or request, email support@tryhouse.app.

What we collect

Your account

• Sign in with Apple. house uses Sign in with Apple only. Apple gives us an identifier that is unique to you and house, and the name you choose to share. We don't ask Apple for your email address, and if one is ever sent to us we discard it. We never see your Apple Account password.
• Your profile. The name people see (you can change it), an optional profile photo and, if you add it, your birthday (see Birthdays).
• Your settings. Your notification choices, the houses you muted, the people you blocked and your time zone. Your time zone is used to send reminders at a sensible local time and is never shown to anyone.

We don't store an email address or a phone number, so we can't recover an account by email: your house account is tied to your Apple Account.

What you share

Everything you create in house is stored on our servers so the people you share it with can see it:

• posts: notes, photos, videos, voice notes, doodles, polls, places, songs, links and map pins, with their captions and, for posts from older app versions, whether they expire after 24 hours;
• your reactions, comments, replies and mentions, and your votes in polls;
• plans (what, when and where), your answers to them, and "up to" statuses;
• the knocks you send, the houses you create (their name and cover photo) and the houses you join.

Who sees it: the people in the house or houses you post to, and no one else in the app. A house has at most 20 people. They see your name and profile photo with what you share. Search covers only the houses you're in.

Invite links: anyone with a standard invite link can see the house’s name, cover, member count, up to four member photos and the inviter’s first name before signing in. When you share the link in a chat, the messaging service can fetch that preview too. If the code comes after a # in the link, the web page shows only a generic invitation. Share invite links with people you know. The house admin can reset the link at any time.

24-hour posts from older versions disappear for everyone at the 24-hour mark and are deleted from our servers right after, normally within a minute.

View-once photos can be opened once by each person. On iPhone the photo is blank in screenshots and screen recordings, and the sender is told when someone takes a screenshot or records the screen while it's open. We record who opened it and when, and whether they took a screenshot or a screen recording while it was open; the sender sees who opened it, never who hasn't. The photo and its caption are deleted from our servers once everyone has opened it, or 24 hours after it was posted, whichever comes first. The post itself stays without them, with the reactions and comments people left on it and the record of who opened it, until it's deleted, like any other post; a 24-hour post goes at its 24-hour mark with everything on it. Your own record of opening it is also deleted when you delete your account. If someone reports it, we keep the photo and its caption for up to 30 days after the report so we can review them, then delete them (a post deleted while it's under review goes, with everything on it, when the review ends). In the app it still disappears as usual; only the people who review reports can see the kept copy. No app can stop someone from photographing a screen with another camera.

Links and songs. When you post a link, our server fetches that page once (it identifies itself as HouseBot) to read its title, description and preview image, or, for a music or video service or X, asks that service for the link's preview. It keeps a small copy of the preview image (at most 600 pixels, without the image file's metadata) with the preview. The website or service sees a request from our server, not from your iPhone. A song card shows the song's title, artist and artwork, taken from the music service page you shared, or from Apple Music when you pick a song in New song. When you search for a song there, the words you type go from your iPhone straight to Apple's iTunes Search, and the covers and your recently played songs load from Apple; house's servers never receive or keep your searches. Only a song you pick goes to house: as you pick it, its Apple Music link is sent to prepare its card and its cover starts uploading, and your houses see it only when you tap Post. When someone opens a link, it leaves house and opens in Safari or in that service's app, which receives the request under its own privacy policy. A song card's play button plays the song inside house, streamed from Apple. If you subscribe and allow Apple Music access, you can play the full track. Otherwise you can listen to a preview when Apple provides one, under Apple's Privacy Policy.

Location

house works without location. It uses your location only in the two ways below, and only when you ask.

Sharing your live location with a house

• It's off by default. You turn it on separately for each house, after a screen that shows who will see you.
• It's approximate by default (an area about 2 km across) and precise only if you choose. Only people in that house who also share their location can see yours, never more precisely than they share theirs.
• If the birth year in your profile shows you're under 18, your location is only ever shared as an approximate area.
• You can pause, hide your location from one person, or stop at any time, from the house's Map or Profile › Location.
• If you allow "Always", iOS wakes house when you move a significant distance or arrive somewhere, and now and then in the background, so your friends' map stays up to date. When someone you share with looks at the map, house can also ask your iPhone for a fresh location, at most once a minute and 60 times a day. There is no continuous tracking.

Places you pick

When you add a place to a post, a plan or a map pin, the place and its coordinates are saved with it and seen by the people who can see that post, plan or pin. While you pick a place, house uses your location to centre the map. Place search and street addresses are looked up from your iPhone through Apple Maps; our server never sends coordinates to a mapping service. A plan's exact address and coordinates are deleted 24 hours after the plan ends; its place name stays.

Birthdays

Adding your birthday is optional. If you add your birthday, people who share a house with you see the day and month, get a morning reminder on the day (unless they turned it off) and see it in the house's plans. The year is optional and visible only to you. Your time zone is used to send reminders at a sensible local time and is never shown to anyone. You can remove your birthday from your profile at any time.

Streaks and weekly recaps

When more than half the members counted for a streak have posted since the last time it was kept, the house gets another 24 hours. We keep records of which members and posts counted for 10 days. House members can see who has posted. We keep a history of when the house’s streak grew or ended, without names, for as long as the house exists. We delete daily participation totals from the older streak system after 40 days. Weekly recaps are built from the week's posts and the stars you give your own posts; stars are kept for 9 weeks.

To see whether features like streaks help, we also keep counts such as how many houses posted on a given day. They are stored under a pseudonym, without names or account IDs.

Your device and technical information

• Devices. The model, iOS version, app version and language of each iPhone you sign in on, and an identifier house creates for it, so you stay signed in securely and can see your devices in Profile › Privacy & security › Signed-in devices. For each iPhone we also keep when you last opened house, when it was last on screen and when it last went to the background, with each new time replacing the last so there is no history; only our team can see these times, they are never shown to anyone in the app, and they are deleted with your account.
• Notifications. A push token for each iPhone lets Apple deliver your notifications. Older versions also registered tokens for streak Live Activities. We use those tokens to end existing activities and retire them when you upgrade.
• IP addresses. We don't store IP addresses in our database. Our servers use your IP address briefly to limit abuse, and our security records keep only a one-way code made from part of it that changes every day and can't be turned back into the address. Our hosting and network providers process IP addresses to deliver traffic and protect the service.
• Security records. For actions that matter for security, such as signing in, deleting a post or changing who is in a house, we record the action, the time, your account ID, the app and iOS version and the one-way code described above.
• Logs. Our servers log technical events, such as which feature was used, whether it worked and an account ID, never what you wrote or posted. Logs are kept for 30 days. The one exception is a report: what the reviewer looks at, including the reported content, is kept in a log only they can read, for up to 7 days.

Usage counts and crash reports

The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to learn which features are used and why the app crashes.

• Usage counts: events such as "a post was created", with fixed values like its kind (photo, note…), a range (for example "2–3 photos") or yes and no; app opens and time spent in the app; the iPhone model, iOS and app version and language; the country Google works out from the IP address (Google Analytics doesn't store the IP address); and an app instance identifier.
• Crash reports: what the app was doing when it crashed, with the iPhone model, iOS and app version and an installation identifier.

They never include your posts, names, house names, places, coordinates, links, invite codes or account ID. house doesn't use the advertising identifier and doesn't track you; Google's ad features are off, and signing out resets the analytics identifier. Google keeps the usage events for 2 months and crash reports for 90 days.

Your choice: the app asks once, after you sign in, whether to share usage data, and sends nothing until you say yes. You can change your answer at any time in Profile › Privacy & security › Share usage data. Turning it off stops both at once, and crash reports written while it's off are deleted, never sent.

Statistics

To understand what works in house and make it better, we count overall totals from the information we already keep to run house. For example: how many posts are made each day and of which kind, how many new accounts come back a week later, how many houses posted this week, or which iPhone models and app versions are in use. Next to them we show the totals Google Analytics for Firebase gives us (see Usage counts and crash reports), which only cover people who chose to share usage data.

The totals cover everyone who uses house, together. They are counts, not records about you: they contain no names, account IDs, house names, posts, places or anything else about one person, and we keep only the totals, never a record per person. Only the people who run house can see them. We also count, per day, how many invite links are opened and how many people join through them, and how an invite reached the app (a tapped link, a pasted link or a typed code). These are totals only. Nothing else new is collected from the app for this. App Review's demo accounts are left out.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in understanding how house is used and improving it. We keep the totals for up to 400 days.

Reports and blocks

When you report a post, a comment, a plan, a status or a person, we store the report: what or whom you reported, the reason, your optional note and the time. A post, comment, plan or status you report is hidden for you right away. We review every report within 24 hours, and to do so we look at the reported content and the report. A reported view-once photo is kept for that review for up to 30 days, then deleted. The person you report is never told who reported them.

When you block someone, we store the block, so their posts, comments, plans, statuses, reactions, knocks, mentions and notifications stop reaching you. They aren't told.

When someone breaks the Terms of Use, we may remove them from a house or suspend their account. For a suspended account we keep a one-way code made from its Apple identifier, the date and our reason for as long as the suspension lasts, also after the account is deleted, so the same Apple Account can't sign up again.

If you email us, we receive your email address and what you write, and use them to answer you. We keep support emails only as long as we need them to help you and to keep a record of what we did.

What stays on your iPhone

• Suggestions. Your iPhone can suggest a plan from a comment or answers for a poll, using Apple Intelligence where available. The suggestions are processed on your iPhone. We receive the content you choose to post. In older versions, photo caption ideas were also generated on your iPhone.
• App lock. Your iPhone handles Face ID, Touch ID and passcode checks. Your biometric data and passcode stay on your iPhone. App lock and Hide previews are settings on your iPhone.
• Photos, camera, microphone and music. house uploads only the photos and videos you choose to share: you pick them in Apple's photo picker, and house never reads your photo library. If you tap Save, house asks only to add to your photos. The camera and microphone are used only while you take a photo, record a video or record a voice note. If you allow Media & Apple Music, New song shows the song you're playing and your recently played songs when it opens; they are read on your iPhone and stay there unless you pick one to share, which sends that song to house as described in "Links and songs". house never accesses your contacts, and Add to Calendar hands a plan to iOS without house reading your calendar.
• Saved content. house keeps recent content on your iPhone so it opens quickly, including in widgets, and deletes it when you sign out. Older versions also used saved content for streak Live Activities.
• Ratings. house may show Apple's rating prompt. A rating or review goes to Apple and the App Store, not to us.

How we use information, and why

To provide house

Accounts, houses, posts, notifications, sync, search, plans, reminders, streaks and recaps. Legal basis: our contract with you (the Terms of Use).

Features you turn on

Live location sharing, birthdays and Now playing. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by turning the feature off.

Safety and security

Reports, blocks, moderation, abuse limits and security records. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in keeping house and its members safe, and our legal obligations.

Usage counts and crash reports

Keeping house working and making it better. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Profile › Privacy & security › Share usage data.

Overall statistics

Counting totals across everyone, such as posts per day, to understand what works and improve house. The totals hold nothing about any one person. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in understanding how house is used and improving it.

Legal requirements

Complying with the law, answering lawful requests and defending legal claims.

We don't sell personal information, don't share it for advertising, don't build advertising profiles and don't make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Who we share it with

The people in your houses

As described above: your name and photo, what you share in a house, your birthday's day and month and, if you turn it on, your location, with the people in that house.

The companies that help us run house

They process information only on our instructions, under contracts that require them to protect it at least as well as this policy does.

Google Cloud

Hosts our servers, database and caches, in the European Union (Belgium).

Cloudflare

Protects and delivers the traffic between the app and our servers, serves this website, and stores photos, videos, voice notes and other media in Cloudflare R2, in the European Union.

Google Firebase

Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics, for the usage counts and crash reports described above.

Apple

Sign in with Apple, and the Apple Push Notification service, which delivers notifications that can include a name, a short preview and, for a photo, a link to a small copy of it that works for an hour at most, so your iPhone can show the photo in the notification (turn on App lock with Hide previews in Profile › Privacy & security › App lock to keep them off your screen; your iPhone then doesn't fetch the photo). If you chose in iOS to share analytics with app developers, Apple also gives us crash logs and overall statistics.

Apple services on your iPhone

The map, place search, addresses and directions come from Apple Maps, which your iPhone uses directly, under Apple's Privacy Policy. Apple Intelligence suggestions are made on your iPhone.

When the law requires it

We disclose information only when the law requires it, in response to a valid legal request, or to protect someone from serious harm, and where we're allowed to, we tell the person concerned first. Child sexual abuse material is the exception: we report it, with the account it came from, to the authorities, such as the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), without telling the account, and we keep a copy of that material and the account's details, out of everyone's reach, for as long as the law requires (a year, unless the authorities ask for longer), even if the account is deleted.

If house changes hands

If house is transferred to another organization, your information goes with it only under this policy, and we'll tell you before anything about it changes.

Where your information is processed

Our servers, database and media storage are in the European Union. Some of our providers, including Apple, Google and Cloudflare, also process information in other countries, such as the United States. When information leaves the EU, the UK or your country, it is protected by legal safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

Your account and profile

Until you delete your account.

Posts, comments, reactions, votes and pins

Until you delete them or your account. Posts shared for 24 hours using older versions are deleted after those 24 hours, normally within a minute.

Link previews

A web page's preview (its address, title, description and a small copy of its image) is stored once and shared by every post that links to that page, with nothing about who posted it. The copy of the image is deleted when no post uses the preview any more (usually within a day); the address, title and description can stay.

When you leave a house

What you posted there stays for its members until it expires or you delete your account. Delete anything you don't want to leave behind before you leave.

View-once photos

The photo and its caption: deleted once everyone has opened it, or 24 hours after posting. The post, its reactions, its comments and the record of who opened it and when: until the post is deleted, like any post (a 24-hour post: at its 24-hour mark); your own record of opening it also goes when you delete your account. A reported view-once photo and its caption are kept for review for up to 30 days after the report, then deleted.

Plans

90 days after they end; the exact address and coordinates 24 hours after they end. Cancelled plans until their time has passed.

Statuses

Deleted within minutes after they end. A status lasts at most 14 days.

Live location

Only your latest location, hidden after 8 hours and then deleted. It's deleted at once when you stop sharing with every house, pause it everywhere or sign out.

Notifications

Up to 90 days; read ones up to 30 days.

Streak records and recap stars

We keep records of who and what counted toward a streak for 10 days, and streak history without names for the life of the house. Daily participation totals from the older streak system are deleted after 40 days. Recap stars are kept for 9 weeks.

Counts under a pseudonym

70 days for each house's counts, 400 days for totals across house.

Statistics

Totals across everyone, with nothing about any one person: up to 400 days.

Reports

As long as needed to keep house safe. When an account is deleted, its reports stay without any link to the account.

Suspensions

As long as the suspension lasts, also after the account is deleted: a one-way code made from the Apple identifier, the date and our reason.

Sign-in sessions

Deleted at the latest 30 days after they expire.

Push tokens

Deleted when you sign out, when Apple tells us a token no longer works, or after 90 days without use.

Security records

Up to 400 days.

Server logs

30 days.

Short-lived technical records

Up to 24 hours (abuse limits and protection against duplicate requests).

Usage counts and crash reports

2 months and 90 days, at Google.

Backups

Up to 30 days. Deleted information is gone from backups within that time.

Deleting your account

Delete your account in the app: Profile › Privacy & security › Delete account. You confirm with Apple, and then:

• your account, profile, posts, photos, videos, voice notes, comments, reactions, votes, plans and answers, statuses, location, birthday, devices, sessions, push tokens and notifications are deleted from our active systems right away or within 24 hours at the latest;
• the houses you're the admin of pass to the person who has been in them longest, and a house where you're the only member is deleted;
• we revoke house's Sign in with Apple authorization with Apple;
• copies in backups are gone within 30 days.

If we reported child sexual abuse material to the authorities, we preserve that material and the associated account details as described under When the law requires it.

If we suspended your account, you can't sign in to delete it. Email us at support@tryhouse.app and we'll arrange the deletion within a month.

To confirm the deletion and investigate past abuse, we keep a one-way code made from your Apple identifier with the date of deletion. We also keep security records for up to 400 days and retain reports without a link to your account. Security records contain your account ID and exclude anything you shared. Deleting the app doesn't delete your account. If you sign in again with the same Apple Account after deleting it, you start a new, empty account, unless we had suspended your account for breaking the Terms of Use.

Security

• Every connection between the app, this website and our servers uses HTTPS.
• Sign-in tokens are stored only as one-way codes that can't be used if copied.
• Access to our production systems is limited to the people who run house.
• If a security breach affects your information, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Your choices and rights

In the app

• Change your name and photo, and add or remove your birthday.
• Delete your posts and comments, and leave a house.
• Pause or stop location sharing, or hide your location from one person.
• Choose your notifications in Profile › Notifications.
• Turn off Profile › Privacy & security › Share usage data.
• Report and block.
• Sign out one device or every device in Profile › Privacy & security › Signed-in devices.
• Delete your account.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, including the EU, the UK and California, you have the right to ask us to give you access to your information and a copy in a portable format, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, and to withdraw your consent at any time. Email support@tryhouse.app. We answer within one month, or sooner if the law requires. We'll need to confirm that a request comes from the account holder, so we may ask for details that show the account is yours. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live or work.

California. We collect identifiers (account and device identifiers), your name, precise location (only if you share it), photos, videos and voice notes, other content you post, and app activity (usage counts), for the purposes above. We don't sell or share personal information as the California Consumer Privacy Act defines those terms, and we use sensitive information only to provide the features you ask for. You have the right to know, delete and correct your information, to have an authorized agent ask for you, and not to be treated differently for using these rights.

Children

house is for people aged 13 and older, or older where local law requires (see the Terms of Use). It isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 is using house, email support@tryhouse.app and we'll delete the account.

This website

tryhouse.app sets no cookies and runs no analytics or advertising. The invite page reads the invite code from its own address in your browser and sends it nowhere; it only opens the app. Cloudflare delivers this website and processes your IP address to do so.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change matters, such as a new kind of information or a new provider, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Email: support@tryhouse.app