This policy explains what Familiar collects, why it collects it, where it is kept and what you can ask us to do with it. Familiar is an app for private conversations between the people closest to you, and it is built to hold as little of your data as it can.
Overview
Familiar is built and operated by Halo Lab. When you use the app or this website, a small amount of information passes through our hands, and this page sets out exactly what that is.
Two decisions shape everything below. First, your meetings belong to you: what you write during a conversation is saved on your own device and synced only to your own account. Second, Familiar has no social layer — no shared spaces, no public profiles, no way for one account to reach another. Nothing leaks between users because nothing is ever connected between them.
Information we collect
We collect only what the app needs to work:
- Account details. The email address you sign in with, and the display names you and the person you meet with choose. Signing in with Google gives us your email address and nothing more.
- Meeting content. The topics you select, the moods you record, the notes and plans you write during a meeting, and the summaries built from them.
- Preferences. Your reminder schedule, the topics you have switched on or off, and whether summaries should be emailed to you.
- Technical data. App version and basic diagnostic information needed to keep the app working on your device.
We collect no advertising identifiers, we build no profile of you, and we never record or transcribe the conversation itself. When you dictate a note, the speech is turned into text by your phone’s keyboard, not by Familiar.
How we use your information
Your information is used for these purposes and no others:
- to sign you in and keep your account working;
- to store your meetings and show them back to you;
- to send the reminders you have asked for;
- to email you a summary after a meeting, if you have turned that on;
- to answer you when you write to support;
- to find and fix faults in the app.
We do not use your information for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not pass it to data brokers.
Where your data is stored
Everything you write during a meeting is saved on your device first, which is why a meeting works with no connection at all.
When your phone is online, a copy is synced to our backend, which runs on Supabase. That copy is what brings your history back when you sign in on a new phone. Access to it is restricted at the database level: an account can read and write only its own rows. Supabase acts as our processor and stores the copy on its own infrastructure under its agreement with us.
Sharing and disclosure
We share your information in three situations only:
- With service providers that make the app work — Supabase for the database and authentication, and the mail provider that delivers your sign-in codes and summaries. They act on our instructions and may not use your data for their own purposes.
- With the people you name, when you ask for a summary to be sent to the email addresses you entered.
- Where the law requires it, such as a valid order from a competent authority.
There is no fourth situation. We do not sell personal data, and there is no advertising or analytics network inside the app.
How long we keep your data
Your account and its meetings stay with us for as long as the account exists. Deleting the account from Settings removes the account and the synced copy of your history; the data held on your own device goes with the app when you uninstall it.
Backups may hold residual copies for a short period before they are overwritten. Correspondence with support is kept for as long as it is useful in answering you.
Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the data we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive a copy in a portable form. Much of this you can do yourself:
- names and the account email are editable in Settings;
- topics and reminders can be changed or switched off at any time;
- a meeting summary can be sent to you by email and kept outside the app;
- the whole account, and the synced history with it, can be deleted from Settings.
For anything the app does not cover, write to irina.i@halo-lab.team and we will answer within 30 days.
Children’s privacy
Familiar is not directed at children. You must be at least 18 years old, or have the consent of a parent or guardian, to use the app.
We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us their data, write to us and we will remove it.
Security
Traffic between the app and our backend is encrypted in transit. Access to the production database is limited to the people who need it, and row-level rules keep each account’s data separate from every other.
No system is perfectly secure and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach affects your data, we will tell you without undue delay and explain what happened.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when the app changes. The date at the top of this page always shows the current version, and material changes are announced in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use Familiar after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact us
Questions, requests and complaints go to irina.i@halo-lab.team.
Familiar is built and operated by Halo Lab. If you are in the EU or the UK and are not satisfied with our answer, you may also complain to your local data protection authority.