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Privacy policy

Version 0.2-beta

This is the privacy policy for the beta of the Kinnect app, version 0.2-beta. It describes what this version does with your data. When our full policy is ready, we will show it to you and ask you to agree again.

1. Who we are

The organisation responsible for your data (the "data controller") is KINNECT CODE (a business name registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, BN 6983270), of 15 Godwin Omene Street, Lekki 1, Lagos, Lagos State. Our Data Protection Officer is our founder, Ifeanyi Maduka.

To ask about your data, or to use any of your rights, write to support@kinnectapp.net. A person reads every message.

Nigeria's data protection law, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, applies to how we handle your data.

2. The short version

  • We collect what we need to run your account, and nothing about how you look.
  • Sensitive details, like religion, are optional, and only used if you agree.
  • Kiki's coaching is off unless you turn it on. If you do, your messages to Kiki go to Anthropic outside Nigeria, so Claude can write her replies (section 4).
  • We don't sell your data, we don't use it for advertising, and we don't send marketing emails.
  • You can see, download, correct or delete your data. Deleting your account deletes it.

3. What we collect, and why

  • Your email address: to create your account and send your sign-in codes. There are no passwords.
  • Your nickname, date of birth, gender, who you'd like to meet (women, men or both), your city and your stage of life: for your profile, and to check you are 18 or over. You choose your city from a list. We never ask for your device's location.
  • Your prompts, up to three answers in your own words: for your profile.
  • Sensitive details, such as religion and faith practice: only if you choose to add them, and only with your agreement (section 5).
  • Reports, blocks and emails you send us: to keep people safe and to answer you.
  • A record of each agreement you give or withdraw: the version of the words you saw, when, and which app version you used.
  • Your account ID and signed-in sessions: to keep you signed in.
  • Crash reports and how you use the app: only if we switch these on during the beta (section 6).

In this version we don't ask for photos, your contacts, your precise location or advertising data. We don't track you across other companies' apps or websites.

4. Kiki and AI

Kiki is an AI coach, not a therapist. Her coaching is off unless you turn it on, and we ask for your separate agreement first. Until then Kiki stays in guide mode: there is no chat with her, and nothing about you goes to an AI.

If you agree, Kiki's coaching runs on Claude, made by Anthropic. When you chat with her:

  • each message you send her, with up to the last 20 turns of the same conversation, goes to Anthropic outside Nigeria so Claude can write a reply;
  • nothing else about you goes with them: not your profile, your sensitive details or anything about your introductions;
  • a message that Kiki's safety check finds says you may not be safe is not sent to Anthropic, and Kiki shows you helplines instead;
  • Anthropic may hold your conversations for up to 30 days.

Kinnect keeps your Kiki conversations for up to 24 months. You can delete any conversation, or all of them, at any time.

You can turn Kiki's coaching off at any time in Account. That stops Kiki at once and deletes your Kiki conversations and what she remembered. A report you've already filed keeps the messages it was about, so we can look into it.

5. What you agree to

When you join, you make two choices. Nothing is ticked for you.

  • 18 or over, our terms and this policy. We need this to hold an account for you.
  • Use my answers to introduce me. This covers any sensitive details you choose to add. Introductions aren't in the beta, so we don't use your answers to introduce you yet. You can switch this off in Account at any time. If you do, any sensitive details you added are deleted straight away.

We also ask, separately, whether you'd like Kiki's coaching (section 4). You can say no, and change your mind later in Account. We don't ask you to agree to marketing in this version, because it doesn't happen in it. Before it starts, we will ask you separately.

We keep a record of each choice. If we change the words in a way that matters, we ask you again.

6. Who else handles your data

We use a small number of companies to run Kinnect. Each works for us under a written agreement, and may only use your data to do that work.

  • Railway hosts our servers and database, in its EU West region in the Netherlands. It holds everything we store.
  • Resend sends our emails to you, such as sign-in codes. It sends them from Ireland, and keeps its records of the emails it sends, including your email address, in the United States.
  • Apple and Google run the app stores you get Kinnect from.
  • Sentry (crash reports) and PostHog (how the app is used), both in the EU. They are switched off for now, and we may switch them on during the beta. If we do, Sentry receives crash and device details with your member ID, and PostHog receives a set list of app events with your app user ID. Neither records your screen or receives what you write in the app, and both are set to discard your IP address.

We don't sell your data, and no one on this list may use it for their own advertising.

If you turn on Kiki's coaching, Anthropic also receives your messages to Kiki, as section 4 describes. Anthropic runs Claude, the AI behind Kiki's coaching. It receives them outside Nigeria, and may hold them for up to 30 days.

7. Where your data is kept

Your data is stored outside Nigeria: in the Netherlands (Railway), in the United States (Resend's email records) and, if we switch them on, in the EU (Sentry and PostHog). If you turn on Kiki's coaching, your messages to Kiki also go to Anthropic outside Nigeria, and Anthropic may hold them for up to 30 days.

8. How long we keep it

  • Your account and profile: while you have an account.
  • Sensitive details: while you have an account. Deleted straight away if you withdraw your agreement or delete your account.
  • Reports and their evidence: for the life of the case and any appeal, then deleted. A minimal safety record is kept.
  • Records of who changed what in your account: at least 12 months, with your details removed if you delete your account.
  • Kiki conversations: up to 24 months, and you can delete them at any time. Anthropic may hold them for up to 30 days.
  • App use and crash reports, if switched on: up to 12 months for app use, and up to 90 days for crash reports. Your ID is deleted or made unlinkable when you delete your account.

These periods are still being confirmed. Where we haven't set a period yet, we keep data only as long as we need it to run your account, and we will tell you the period before our full policy takes effect.

9. Your rights

You can:

  • see your data, and download a copy: ask for it in Account, and we email you a link;
  • ask us to correct anything that's wrong;
  • delete your account (section 10);
  • withdraw an agreement in section 4 or 5, as easily as you gave it;
  • take a break, which pauses your account for a while. Taking a break is not deleting;
  • complain to us, and to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (ndpc.gov.ng).

10. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, in Account. We send a code to your email first, to check it's you. Then your sessions end, your sensitive details are deleted straight away, and the rest is deleted within 30 days. While the deletion is pending, you can sign in and cancel it.

What we keep, and why:

  • Blocks are kept with your side made anonymous, so the other person's block still works.
  • A report you made is kept with your name removed. A report about you is kept with your details minimised once the case closes. A safety case can't disappear because someone left.

If you can't sign in, write to us from the email address on your account. We confirm it's you with a code sent to that address, then delete the account.

11. Safety

Kinnect is not a crisis service. If you are not safe, use the helplines in the app straight away, or contact your local emergency services.

12. Kinnect is for adults

Kinnect is for people aged 18 and over. We check your date of birth when you join. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we close it and delete their data.

13. Keeping your data safe

There are no passwords to steal: you sign in with a code sent to your email, and codes are stored scrambled. Sensitive details can only be read by the parts of Kinnect that need them, and only after you agree. If a breach is likely to affect your rights, we tell the Nigeria Data Protection Commission within 72 hours.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we tell you before it takes effect, and ask you to agree again where the change needs it. Each version is dated and kept. Our full policy, when it's ready, will be one of those changes.

15. Contact

Questions about your data, or anything else, including safety: support@kinnectapp.net.