Privacy Policy

DSCO is a location-based social app for adults 18 and over. This policy describes what we collect, why, and the control you have over it. The short version: location sharing is the core of the product, you decide who can see you, and we don't sell your data.

What we collect

• Account information — email address or phone number, username, display name, avatar, and profile details you choose to add (bio, linked Instagram or Spotify).
• Location — your device location while you use the app, and optionally in the background if you enable background sharing. Location powers the map, nearby discovery, and location-based notifications. Location is precise, meaning it identifies where you are to within a few metres.
• Contacts — only if you opt in to contact matching, and only as one-way hashes of phone numbers computed on your device. See "Contacts" below for exactly what happens to them.
• Content — photos, videos, stories, messages, pins, and notes you create.
• Device and diagnostics — push notification tokens, device identifiers, and crash/performance data so we can fix problems.
• Usage analytics — which screens and features you use and in-app events (for example, that you sent a message or created a pin), tied to a pseudonymous app-install identifier, so we can understand how the app is used and improve it. This is interaction data, not the content of your messages, photos, or notes.
• Waitlist sign-ups — only if you join the launch waitlist on our website: your email address, your city if you choose to give it, the kind of device you signed up from, and the link that sent you. See "Launch waitlist" below.

Age

DSCO is for adults only. You must be at least 18 to create an account or use the app.

We ask for your date of birth at signup and block the account if it puts you under 18. We check this on our servers, not just in the app. We do not keep your date of birth — we record only that the check ran and passed, and when.

We want to be precise about what that is and isn't: it is a self-declared date of birth, not identity verification. We do not check it against a government ID or any outside source, and we do not describe it as verification.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we will remove it and delete the associated data promptly. If you believe a minor is using DSCO, email jacob@dsco.dev.

How your location is shared

Your visibility is controlled by your discoverability setting (everyone, friends only, or hidden). On "friends only" you're visible to your friends and to people you share a group or boundary with. When hidden, you don't appear on anyone's map. Blocking someone makes you invisible to each other throughout the app, in both directions, until you unblock them.

Your location is shared with other DSCO users according to that setting. It is not shared with advertisers, data brokers, or anyone else for their own purposes.

How long we keep it

• Location — your current location row expires 24 hours after your last update. We do not build a long-term location history.
• Stories — expire 24 hours after posting.
• Map notes — expire 24 hours after posting.
• Account information, profile, and social graph — kept while your account is active, and deleted when you delete your account.
• Messages — kept while your account is active. Messages you sent in group chats remain visible to those groups.
• Crash and diagnostic data — retained by our crash reporting provider on their standard schedule, generally up to 90 days.
• Waitlist entries — kept until you ask us to remove yours, or until we no longer need the list for the launch announcement.
• Safety and moderation records — if you're reported, or if we take a moderation action on your account (a warning, suspension, or ban), we keep the report and the record of that action, including after your account is deleted, so we can enforce our rules, handle appeals, and meet legal obligations.

Backups and logs may hold copies for a short period after deletion while they age out on their normal cycle.

Who we share data with

We use service providers to run the app:

• Amazon Web Services — hosting, database, and media storage.
• Google Firebase — chat, push notifications, crash reporting, and usage analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase). We have configured Firebase Analytics not to use your data for Google's advertising, and we do not enable Google's ad-personalization features.
• Mapbox — map rendering and place lookup.
• Spotify — only if you link your Spotify account, and only to show what you're listening to.

These providers process data on our behalf under their standard data processing terms, and are contractually required to protect it to a standard at least equivalent to this policy and to use it only to provide their service to us. They do not get to use your data for their own purposes.

We do not sell personal data, we do not share it with advertisers, and we do not use it to train machine learning models.

Legal process and emergencies

We may disclose information to law enforcement or other government authorities when we are required to by valid legal process — a subpoena, court order, or warrant — or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent death or serious physical injury.

Outside those two situations we do not hand your data to government authorities voluntarily. If we receive a request that we think is overbroad or improper, we push back on it. We will try to notify you when we receive a request for your data unless we're legally barred from doing so or notifying you would create a risk to someone's safety.

Contacts

Contact matching is optional. If you decline the contacts permission, nothing from your address book leaves your phone.

If you opt in, the app converts each phone number in your address book into a one-way hash on your device and uploads only those hashes, so we can tell you which of your contacts are already on DSCO. We never receive or store the numbers themselves, and we do not upload names, email addresses, photos, or any other field from your contact records. Before storing anything, our servers hash each value again with a secret key, so a stored value cannot be turned back into a phone number without that key.

Your own phone number is handled the same way. When you turn on contact matching, the app sends us a hash of your number, never the number, and we store only the keyed form of that hash. It exists so that people who already have your number in their address book can find you, and for nothing else.

We keep the hashes from your address book for up to 90 days from your last upload so that if someone in your contacts joins DSCO later, we can let you know that they joined. That means a hash derived from the number of someone who is not a DSCO user may sit in our system as a result of you sharing your address book. We do not text, email, or otherwise contact those people, and we do not use these values for anything except matching. You can turn off contact matching in Settings, which deletes the hashes we hold from your address book and the hash of your own number.

Launch waitlist

If you join the waitlist on dsco.dev, we collect the email address you enter, your city if you choose to give it, the kind of device you signed up from (iPhone, Android, or computer, read from your browser rather than asked), and the link or site that sent you to the page. We do not record your IP address, and a waitlist entry is not connected to a DSCO account.

We use your email only to tell you when DSCO launches on the App Store, and the city and device only to understand where people want DSCO and on which phones. Every email we send will include a way to unsubscribe. To be removed from the list at any time, email jacob@dsco.dev.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit, and our database and media storage are encrypted at rest by the platforms we run on. Access to production data is limited to the people who operate the service. No system is perfectly secure, and we don't claim ours is.

Your controls

• Set your discoverability to everyone, friends only, or hidden.
• Turn background location on or off, or switch between While Using and Always in iOS Settings. Location access is required for DSCO to work — if you revoke it, the app won't function until you grant it again. To use DSCO without appearing on anyone's map, set your discoverability to hidden.
• Turn contact matching off, which deletes the hashes we hold from your address book and the hash of your own number, so nobody can match you from theirs.
• Block anyone, in both directions, at any time.
• Delete your account and its data from inside the app (Settings → Account), or by emailing us. Deletion removes your profile, content, location, and social graph. Messages you sent in group chats stay in those groups; your one-on-one conversations are removed for both people. Safety and moderation records are kept as described above.

Do Not Track

We do not track you across other companies' apps or websites, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to turn off. We do not respond to DNT signals because we don't do the thing they're designed to stop.

If DSCO is sold or transferred

If DSCO is acquired, merged, or its assets are transferred, your data may transfer as part of that. We'll note it here before it happens, and the new owner remains bound by this policy until they give you notice of a different one.

Changes

If this policy changes materially we'll note it here with a new version and date, and tell you in the app. Old versions are kept so you can see what applied when.

Contact

Questions or requests: jacob@dsco.dev