Seen — Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 17, 2026

Seen ("Seen," "we," "us") is a closed pilot app that lets people who are physically present at the same real-world venue see and message each other for the duration of their visit. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and how it's handled. Seen is currently distributed only to a small group of invited testers via TestFlight and is not on the public App Store.

What we collect

• Account info: your email address (used for sign-in via a one-time code) and the first name you choose.
• Photo: an optional selfie you take when joining a venue, shown to other people at that venue as your avatar.
• Location: your device's GPS coordinates, used to find real nearby venues (via the Google Places API) and to sort people by approximate proximity. We do not show your exact location or distance to anyone.
• Venue activity: the venue you check into, the "thought" or poll you post, reactions, and messages you send in the venue-wide room chat or in private one-to-one chats after a message request is accepted.
• Blocks: if you block someone, we record that so both of you stop seeing each other for that venue visit.

Why we collect it

All of the above exists solely to run the app's core feature: showing you who else is at the same real-world place right now, and letting you interact with them while you're both there. We do not use this data for advertising, and we do not use any third-party analytics or ad SDKs.

How long we keep it — ephemerality

Seen is built around venue sessions being temporary. When you leave a venue: your session stops showing you to others, your room chat messages for that venue are hidden from other users, and any open private message threads end. Returning to a venue later starts a fresh session with no carried-over history. For this closed pilot, some records (like an ended message request) are kept in our database rather than immediately hard-deleted, so we can debug issues or review reports during testing — they are not visible to other users and are not used for any purpose beyond operating and improving the pilot.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your data or share it with third parties for advertising. Data is processed by our backend infrastructure provider, Supabase (which stores the database, authentication, and photos), and by the Google Places API (queried server-side with your approximate coordinates to find nearby venues — Google does not receive your identity or contact info as part of that lookup).

Your choices

You can edit or remove your "thought," leave a venue at any time, block another user, or delete your account entirely by contacting us at the address below. Because this is an unmoderated closed pilot, please report any concerning behavior to us directly as well.

Age

Seen is intended for testers 17 years of age or older. Chat content between users is not pre-moderated.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the pilot evolves. Material changes will be reflected with a new "Last updated" date above.