StarMate Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and what this covers

StarMate App Inc, a Delaware corporation ("StarMate", "we", "us"), operates the StarMate iPhone application (the "App") and the website at starmate.app (the "Website"; together, the "Services"). We are the controller of the personal data described in this policy. Our postal address is c/o Harvard Business Services, Inc., 16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, DE 19958, United States, and our contact for every inquiry is support@starmate.app.

This policy applies to the App as currently released for iPhone and to the Website. It does not cover third-party websites we link to, or Apple's own services (the App Store, Sign in with Apple, push delivery), which are governed by Apple's terms.

StarMate is being developed for iPhone and Android. This draft was verified against the iPhone implementation (its privacy manifest, purpose strings and backend). Before the Android release, the Android app's data flows, SDKs, permissions and Google Play Data safety form must be verified separately and this policy updated — the iOS privacy manifest does not describe Android behaviour.

2. The short version

• You create an account with an email address (or Sign in with Apple) and a verified phone number. Neither is shown to anyone.
• StarMate needs your birth date, exact birth time and birth place to build your natal profile, StarCast and Cosmic Tea. They are never shown to other users; only your age is.
• Other people see your first name, age, photos, city, an approximate area, interests, languages, prompts and — only if you turn it on — your gender identity. Who you are interested in is never shown.
• Location is coarse by design: your position is rounded to about a kilometre on your phone before it leaves the device, and only when you use Local mode.
• Photos, profile text, Plans, Communities and chat messages are screened by automated moderation, and reports are reviewed by people.
• Some text in cosmic features (StarCast, MATE, Cosmic Tea) is written with the help of a third-party AI language model that receives minimised, structured data — not your email, phone number or raw birth details.
• We do not sell personal data, we do not show advertising, and the App contains no advertising or analytics SDK.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time; deletion is immediate and permanent.

3. The data we collect, and why

For each category below we say what it is, how we get it, why we use it, whether it is required, who can see it, whether a service provider processes it, how long we keep it, and what you control. "Processors" are the providers listed in section 8.

3.1 Account and sign-in

• What: email address; phone number; if you use Sign in with Apple, the identifier Apple gives us and, if you share it, the name Apple passes on; one-time sign-in codes (kept only until they expire or are used); session tokens; an app-generated device identifier (not the advertising identifier); the time of sign-in and sign-out.
• How: you enter them at sign-up; the device identifier is generated by the App.
• Why: to create and secure your account, sign you in without a password, keep bots and duplicate accounts out, recover the account and end sessions on a specific device.
• Required: yes — an email address (or Apple sign-in) and a verified phone number are needed to open an account. Apple's guideline 5.1.1(x) prefers contact details to be optional; the phone requirement is justified as an anti-abuse and recovery measure for a service where people meet in person. Counsel to confirm the wording.
• Who sees it: nobody but you and StarMate. Never shown on your profile.
• Processors: our SMS provider delivers phone codes; our email provider delivers email codes; Apple operates Sign in with Apple.
• Retention: for the life of your account; deleted with it. One-time codes expire within minutes.
• Controls: sign out of a device (You → Account); delete your account.

3.2 Consents and age confirmation

• What: your confirmation that you are 18 or older; your acceptance of the Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy and the Community Guidelines, with the version and time of acceptance; your optional consents (birth data for cosmic features; chat personalisation for MATE) and any later withdrawal.
• Why: to meet our legal obligations and to run features that depend on your permission.
• Required: the age confirmation and the three document acceptances are required to use StarMate; the optional consents are not.
• Retention: for the life of your account. The history of changes to your privacy settings is kept in an internal audit log for the same period.
• Controls: optional consents can be withdrawn at any time in You → Safety & Privacy. Required consents can only be withdrawn by deleting your account.

3.3 Profile

• What: first name; up to six photos (at least one, with a visible face); city of residence; date of birth (see section 5); gender identity, including a self-described option, and whether it is shown; relationship intention; interests; languages; short prompt answers and a free-text "in your own words"; and, privately, who you are interested in.
• How: you enter them during onboarding and in You → Edit Profile. Photos are chosen with the system photo picker or the camera — StarMate does not access your photo library as a whole.
• Why: to show other people who you are, to run Discover, and to match romantic requests by who you are and who you are interested in.
• Required: name, city and one photo are required to appear in Discover and to create Plans. Gender identity and "Interested in" are asked only the first time you take a romantic action; Communities, social Plans and social discovery work without them.
• Who sees it: see section 4. "Interested in" is never shown to anyone. Gender identity is shown only if you switch it on, and is automatically hidden while you are travelling in a country on our identity-risk list.
• Processors: photos are stored with our object-storage provider and screened by an automated image-moderation service; profile text is checked against our moderation term list on our own servers.
• Retention: for the life of your account; photos and text are deleted with it.
• Controls: edit or remove anything in Edit Profile; "Show gender identity" and "Pause romantic Discovery" in Safety & Privacy.

3.4 Selfie verification

• What: the frames captured during a short live camera check, the head-movement telemetry the check asks for, the result of comparing your face with your profile photos (a similarity score), and your verification status and history.
• How: from your iPhone's front camera when you start verification in You → Verification.
• Why: to confirm that a real person is behind the profile and that the profile photos are of that person, to reduce impersonation and to protect meetings in real life.
• Required: no for browsing, Communities, social Plans and chats; yes to send a romantic request or create a Community.
• Who sees it: other users see a verified badge only. The captures are never shown to anyone.
• Processors: the face comparison is performed by Amazon Rekognition (Amazon Web Services), which compares the capture with your profile photo and returns a similarity score. StarMate does not create or store a biometric template; the comparison result is a number. Under some laws (for example the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, Texas and Washington biometric statutes, and GDPR Article 9) facial comparison may be treated as biometric processing requiring specific notice, consent and a written retention schedule. Counsel to confirm the required notice and whether the verification selfie should be deleted immediately after the check.
• Retention: the reference capture is kept with your account for the verification record and deleted with the account. Confirm whether captures should be deleted on a shorter schedule.
• Controls: verification is optional for social use; delete your account to remove the captures.

3.5 Location, city and travel

• What: your city of residence (chosen from a list); in Local mode, one coarse location fix taken while you use Discover, rounded to about one kilometre on your phone before it is sent; in Travel mode, the destination city and dates you enter.
• How: the city is chosen by you; the coarse fix comes from iOS Location Services only if you allow "while using the app"; travel details are entered by you.
• Why: to show people and Plans around you or where you are going, and to hide your gender identity in countries where showing it can be unsafe.
• Required: a city is required. Location permission is optional — you can browse a city instead.
• Who sees it: other users see your city and, in Local mode, an approximate area label. Nobody ever sees your exact position, and StarMate never receives it either.
• Retention: the latest coarse position is kept only as long as needed to run Discover and is replaced by the next one; travel details expire with the trip.
• Controls: iOS Settings → StarMate → Location; "Show approximate area" in Safety & Privacy; edit or clear a trip in Discover.

3.6 Discovery, requests and Connections

• What: profiles you save (private; they are never told); your Discover filters; Connect requests you send or receive, with their context message; invitations to Plans; requests to join Plans, with their message and any question-and-answer thread; the Connections that result; Together invitations, activation, pause and end events.
• Why: to run the request, confirmation and Connection model, to enforce daily request limits, and to open chats only after something mutual.
• Who sees it: the other person in a request sees your message and your profile; nobody else. Saved profiles and filters are private.
• Retention: for the life of your account; deleted with it. Declined requests disappear from the sender's view.

3.7 Plans

• What: Plans you create — format, activity, title and description, time or window, area and exact place, visibility, capacity, rules — and Plans you request, join, confirm, leave or are removed from; invite links and their use; the private feedback you give after a Plan; the Plan's status history.
• Why: to publish and run Plans, to share the exact place only with approved participants, to expire and renew Plans, and to suggest a next step.
• Who sees it: a Plan's public details are visible according to its visibility setting (public, Community-only, invite-only). The exact place is visible only to approved participants. Post-Plan feedback is private to you — it is used to decide whether to suggest a next Plan and is never shown to anyone.
• Processors: free text is screened by our moderation term list on our servers.
• Retention: for the life of your account; Plans you created are deleted with it.

3.8 Communities

• What: Communities you create — name, description, rules, image, category, access type — your memberships and roles, join requests and their decisions, invite links, and admin actions (kept in an admin audit log).
• Who sees it: a Community's profile is visible according to its access type; members see the member list; admins see join requests.
• Retention: for the life of the Community. If you delete your account, Communities you created pass to another admin or the longest-standing member, or are deleted if you were the only member.

3.9 Chats and messages

• What: text messages and photos you send in personal, Plan, Community and Together chats; replies; read state; the Plan pinned to a chat; system messages about Plan changes; your mute state.
• Why: to deliver messages to the people in the chat, to show what has been read, and to keep group chats consistent with their Plan or Community.
• Who sees it: the members of that chat. StarMate staff can access message content only for safety reviews of a report, for legal compliance, or to fix a technical problem, under access controls and an audit trail.
• Processors: chat photos are stored with our object-storage provider and screened by the automated image-moderation service; message text is checked against our moderation term list on our servers before it posts. With both members' consent, MATE may send a conversation's recent text messages to our AI provider to word a suggestion (section 6).
• Retention: messages stay in the chat for its life. Deleting your account removes your messages everywhere and removes your personal one-to-one chats entirely.
• Controls: mute, leave, report and block from any chat; chat personalisation for MATE in Safety & Privacy.

3.10 Cosmic features

• What: your natal profile; Daily Opening and StarCast records (one per local day, with a short history); MATE suggestions and whether you used, edited or ignored them; Cosmic Tea readings for a pair (the shared reading, your private "Your Side", your Ask MATE questions and answers); the deterministic pair calculations behind a Tea; Together's shared StarCast.
• Why: to provide the features described on the product page. See section 5 for what is calculated and section 6 for what is written with AI.
• Who sees it: your natal profile, Daily Opening, StarCast and MATE suggestions are private to you. A Cosmic Tea's shared parts are visible to the two people in the pair; your "Your Side" and your Ask MATE answers are visible only to you and are not present in the other person's data at all.
• Retention: StarCast history is kept for 60 days on a rolling basis; the rest for the life of your account. A Cosmic Tea is revoked immediately if either person blocks the other.

3.11 Reports, blocks and moderation

• What: reports you file (target, reason, details, the message reported); reports filed about you; your block list; moderation cases, decisions, warnings, suspensions, restrictions and appeals; and the audit trail of those actions.
• Why: to keep StarMate safe, to enforce the Community Guidelines, to handle appeals, and to meet legal obligations.
• Who sees it: our safety team. The person you report is not told who reported them; the person you block is not told.
• Retention: reports you filed are kept without your account attached after you delete your account; moderation actions are kept with the account reference removed. Set a maximum retention period for closed moderation cases.

3.12 Notifications

• What: a push registration token for your device; your notification preferences by category (requests, Plans, messages, Together invitations, account warnings, and marketing news, which is off unless you opt in); a delivery log.
• Processors: Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) and Apple Push Notification service deliver notifications. Google receives the registration token and a Firebase installation identifier for that purpose.
• Controls: You → Notifications; iOS Settings → Notifications → StarMate.

3.13 Support and privacy requests

• What: what you send us by email, your Support ID if you include it, and our replies.
• Retention: as long as needed to handle the request and to keep a record of it. Set a retention period for support correspondence.

3.14 Device, security and diagnostic data

• What: server logs with the IP address, time, requested endpoint, app version and outcome of each request; rate-limit and daily-limit counters; internal audit logs (privacy-setting changes, verification attempts, AI usage recorded as token counts and timing — not the content); crash-free operation data that iOS may share with us through App Store Connect according to your iOS analytics settings.
• Why: to run and secure the Services, to detect abuse, to enforce limits and to diagnose problems.
• Not collected: the App includes no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting SDK, does not use the advertising identifier, does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and does not request App Tracking Transparency permission because it does not track. A pull request adding Firebase Analytics (swift #282) is open. If it ships, this section, the privacy manifest and the App Store privacy labels must add Product Interaction and Other Usage Data, and consent handling must be reviewed.
• Retention: Confirm server-log retention with the operator and state it here.

3.15 Purchases

The current release of the App contains no in-app purchases and collects no purchase or entitlement data. If paid features are introduced, they will be sold through Apple's in-app purchase system; Apple would process the payment, and a subscription-management service would process purchase and entitlement records so that access can be restored across your devices. We will update this policy before any such feature launches.

4. What other people can see

Hidden inputs stay hidden: a Cosmic Tea may say that two people's rhythms differ, but it never reveals something one of you entered privately.

5. Birth data, astrology and numerology

StarMate asks for your date of birth, your time of birth to the minute and your place of birth. From these, our own software calculates your natal chart (planetary positions, signs, houses, aspects) in the Western or Vedic tradition you choose, daily transits for StarCast, pair-level factors for Cosmic Tea, and numerology values (life path, expression, personal year) derived from your birth date and name. These calculations are deterministic: the same inputs always give the same numbers, and no language model is involved in producing them.

• Your date of birth is required because StarMate is for adults only. Your time and place of birth are required for the natal chart; the App asks for the exact time and states that accuracy matters.
• Astrology and numerology on StarMate are personalised reflection. They are not scientific, medical or psychological assessments, they are not evidence about you or anyone else, and they are not used to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Cosmic compatibility appears only as a soft ranking signal in romantic Discover, never as a filter that hides people.
• The optional consent "birth data for cosmic features" is recorded in the App. At the time of this draft, the cosmic features run for accounts regardless of that optional consent (App Store Review audit 2026-09-15, finding 12). Either the features must honour the consent, or the App's row must be reworded as an acknowledgement and this paragraph updated to match. Do not publish until resolved.
• Birth data and all calculated results are deleted with your account. Changing your birth details recalculates everything from the new values.

6. AI-assisted features

Some text in StarMate is written with the help of a third-party large language model ("AI provider"): the wording of Daily Opening and StarCast, MATE's suggestions (request messages, Plan titles, profile prompts, next-step lines, post-Plan replies), and the written parts of Cosmic Tea (Connection Signature, Quick Sip, dynamics, First Date Playbook, Timing, "Your Side", Ask MATE answers).

• Provider. Our active AI provider is OpenAI (API). Google (Gemini API) and xAI are configured as inactive fallback providers and receive no data while inactive. Confirm the providers active in production and that data-processing terms are in place with each. Under OpenAI's published API data-usage policy, API inputs and outputs are not used to train OpenAI's models by default; confirm the retention period that applies to StarMate's account.
• What is sent. Structured, minimised payloads: derived chart data and dimension results (not your raw birth date, time or place), the Plan's activity, format and timing, the profile text you wrote (prompts, interests, intention, city), a first name where the suggestion concerns a conversation, your draft text when you ask MATE to improve it, your locale, and — only when both people in a chat have switched on "Chat personalisation for MATE" — the recent text messages of that conversation.
• What is not sent. Your email, phone number, exact location, photos, verification captures, device identifiers, and any message from a chat without both members' consent.
• Safeguards. The model does not calculate scores; it writes words around numbers we computed. Every output is checked against a schema and length limits, screened by our moderation term list and a fixed list of forbidden claims, and discarded if it fails. System prompts require the model to identify as an assistant and forbid statements about what the other person secretly wants or intends, sexual instructions, predictions of marriage, pregnancy, infidelity or break-ups, and medical or therapeutic claims.
• Retention on our side. We keep the generated text as part of the feature (section 3.10) and a usage log with token counts and timing — not the prompts. Confirm whether provider-side logs are retained and for how long.
• Your choices. Chat personalisation for MATE is off unless you turn it on, and can be withdrawn at any time. MATE only suggests; nothing is sent to anyone unless you send it.

7. Purposes and legal bases

We do not use personal data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to build profiles for any purpose other than the Services described here. We do not make automated decisions about you that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Cosmic ranking signals and moderation screening are reviewed by people where they affect your access.

8. Who we share data with

We share personal data only with service providers that process it on our instructions, with other users as described in section 4, and where the law requires. We never sell it and we never share it with data brokers or advertisers.

We may also disclose data to comply with a law, regulation, legal process or lawful government request; to enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines; to protect the safety of a person; or, if StarMate App Inc is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, to the successor, who will be bound by this policy for the data transferred.

9. International transfers

StarMate App Inc is based in the United States and our providers operate in the United States and the European Union. If you use StarMate from outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States and in the countries where our providers operate. Where the law of your country requires a transfer mechanism (for example, for the EEA, UK and Switzerland), we rely on standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision with our providers. Confirm the transfer mechanism for each provider and whether StarMate App Inc participates in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

10. How long we keep data

• Account, profile, birth data, verification, discovery, Plans, chats, cosmic features and settings: for the life of your account, and deleted immediately when you delete it (see Account Deletion).
• StarCast history: 60 days, rolling.
• One-time sign-in codes: until used or expired (minutes). Sign-in sessions: until you sign out or they expire (refresh tokens expire after 30 days of inactivity).
• Reports you filed: kept with your account reference removed. Moderation actions: kept with the account reference removed. Deletion record: an internal identifier and date only. Maximum retention periods to be set.
• Server logs and backups: to be confirmed with the operator.
• Support correspondence: to be set.

11. Security

We protect personal data with technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk: connections between the App, the Website and our servers are encrypted in transit (HTTPS), sign-in uses one-time codes rather than passwords, session tokens are short-lived and can be revoked per device, photos are uploaded to storage through short-lived signed URLs, staff access to message content is limited to safety, legal and technical needs and is logged, and privacy-sensitive changes are recorded in an audit log. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a breach affecting your data, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.

12. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy;
• Correct inaccurate data — most of it directly in the App;
• Delete your data — you can delete your account in the App at any time (You → Account → Delete account), or ask us;
• Portability — receive the data you provided in a structured, machine-readable format;
• Restrict or object to certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests;
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent (optional consents in Safety & Privacy; marketing notifications in Notifications), without affecting processing before withdrawal;
• Opt out of marketing — marketing notifications are off unless you turn them on, and we send no marketing email or SMS;
• Complain to a supervisory authority (section 14) or appeal our decision on a request (section 13).

To exercise a right that you cannot exercise in the App, email support@starmate.app from the address registered to your account. We will verify your identity — usually by confirming control of that email — and respond within the time the applicable law allows (30 days for most requests; 45 days under US state laws, extendable once). You may use an authorised agent where the law permits; we will ask for proof of authorisation. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

Some data cannot be removed on request without deleting your account (for example, data another user needs to see the Plan you both confirmed), and some may be retained after deletion as described in section 10.

13. United States state privacy rights

If you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana or another state with a comprehensive privacy law, you have the rights in section 12 as provided by your state's law, including the right to know the categories of data collected and the purposes, to delete, to correct, to obtain a copy, and to appeal a refusal. We do not sell personal data, we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we do not process it for targeted advertising or for profiling with legal or similarly significant effects, so there is nothing to opt out of in those categories. We process sensitive personal information — sexual orientation in the form of "Interested in", gender identity if you choose to enter it, and the face comparison used for verification — only to provide the Services you request, with your consent where required. Counsel to confirm the list of applicable states, the sensitive-data consent language, and whether a "Notice at Collection" for California should be separated out. Also confirm whether StarMate meets any state's applicability thresholds.

To appeal a decision on a request, reply to our response or write to support@starmate.app with "Appeal" in the subject. If we deny your appeal, we will tell you how to contact your state attorney general.

14. EEA, UK and Swiss residents

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, StarMate App Inc is the controller of your data and the legal bases in section 7 apply. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced them against your rights; you can object at any time. Where we process special-category data — sexual orientation ("Interested in"), gender identity you choose to enter, and the face comparison in verification — we do so with your explicit consent, which you can withdraw as described above. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority; the UK authority is the Information Commissioner's Office. Confirm whether an EU/UK representative under GDPR Article 27 / UK GDPR is required for StarMate's launch markets, and name them here if so.

15. Mobile messaging (SMS) privacy

When you provide your mobile phone number to StarMate, we may use that information to deliver account authentication, security verification, and other account-related SMS messages.

Mobile phone numbers collected for SMS messaging purposes are processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

StarMate does not sell, rent, share, transfer, or otherwise disclose mobile opt-in data, SMS consent records, or mobile phone numbers to third parties for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

Any third-party service providers used to facilitate SMS delivery act solely on our behalf and are contractually required to protect user information and use it only for the services requested by StarMate.

SMS consent is not shared with third parties for marketing purposes. See the SMS messaging program terms for message frequency, rates and how to opt out.

16. Children

StarMate is for adults 18 and older. The App refuses sign-up for anyone whose date of birth shows they are under 18, and every account confirms being 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if we learn that we have, we delete the account. If you believe a minor is using StarMate, email support@starmate.app.

17. This website

starmate.app is a static website served through Cloudflare. It sets no cookies, loads no analytics, advertising or social-media scripts, and embeds no third-party content. The only thing it may store on your device is your language choice, if you make one, in your browser's local storage — an essential setting that is never sent to us. Cloudflare records standard server logs (IP address, time, requested page, browser type) to serve and protect the site. See the Cookie Policy.

18. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy in a way that matters, we will publish the new version here with a new effective date, and the App will ask you to accept the new version before you continue. Earlier versions are available on request.

19. How to contact us

All inquiries — privacy, legal, general and customer support: support@starmate.app.
Post: StarMate App Inc, c/o Harvard Business Services, Inc., 16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, DE 19958, United States.