Privacy Policy
In short
- Pinchly is a private memory utility. We collect the account information, people, preferences, notes, and settings you choose to save so the app can remember and retrieve them for you.
- Typed or dictated text may be processed by business/API artificial-intelligence providers to structure a Pinch, answer your search, or draft gift ideas. Pinchly does not record or store audio; your device's dictation service supplies text.
- We do not combine private preference content across users to build commercial patterns, demographic preference reports, buyer-facing outputs, or cross-user personalized suggestions.
- Product analytics is limited to structural events and excludes names, notes, preference or item text, contact data, precise location, and raw voice. You can turn it off in Settings.
- We do not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, use advertising SDKs, or use Apple's advertising identifier.
- “You Added” entries stay private to their creator unless that creator explicitly shares through an available visibility control. Official content and private content never overwrite one another.
Questions or privacy requests: support@kuhlapps.com. Never send a password, one-time code, full payment-card number, or more private Pinch content than is needed to explain a request.
1. Scope and controller
This policy applies to the Pinchly mobile application and Pinchly websites that link to it. KuhlApps, LLC determines why and how personal data is processed and is the controller or business for applicable privacy law. A formal-notice address and current sub-processor list are available through the contact address above.
2. Eligibility and children
You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. We do not knowingly permit accounts for anyone under 16. If we learn that an under-16 account exists, we suspend and delete it through the verified deletion process, subject only to records lawfully required to be kept.
An adult may privately record a memory about another person, including a family member. That does not create an account for the other person. Do not record sensitive information about a child or other third party that you do not have a lawful reason to keep.
3. Data we collect and why
3.1 Information you provide
| Data | Why we process it |
|---|---|
| Email address and authentication records | Create and secure your account, deliver sign-in codes and account notices, and send the product email described in section 3.5 |
| Self-attested birth information | Confirm the 16+ rule; an exact birth year is discarded after the age check, while a coarse age band may be retained for age-safety and feature eligibility |
| Display name and profile settings | Present your account and apply your choices |
| People, connections, Circles, Pinches, preference options, notes, reminders, gifts, gift lists, exchanges, claims, and visibility choices | Provide the private-memory, retrieval, reminder, gifting, and user-directed sharing service |
| Optional birthday month and day | Provide birthday visibility/reminders only when you turn that feature on; the year is not stored for this feature |
| Support messages and attachments | Investigate and answer your request |
“You Added” content is private to the account that created it unless the creator explicitly chooses an available sharing scope. Another person's Official content remains controlled by that person. Linking an offline person to an Official Profile is viewer-local and does not merge ownership.
3.2 Information generated when you use Pinchly
| Data | Why we process it |
|---|---|
| Consent and preference records, plan tier, limits, and subscription status | Apply the versioned choices and product access that govern your account |
| Content-free milestone timestamps and coarse account-age/Pinch-count buckets | Measure whether the product works without storing the question, answer, person, Pinch, or place |
| Structural product events | Understand whether screens and workflows work; event payloads exclude names, notes, preference/item text, contact data, precise location, and raw voice |
| Crash/error records and device/app metadata | Diagnose reliability and security problems; private content is scrubbed before transfer |
| Standard security logs such as IP address, time, route, and status | Operate, protect, rate-limit, and investigate abuse of the service |
| Push token and delivery state, when notifications are enabled | Deliver the notifications you have turned on (section 3.5) |
| App Store transaction and entitlement records | Confirm paid access, restore purchases, and keep required financial records |
| Links you open from Pinchly | Count which links are used and reconcile commissions |
3.3 AI-assisted capture and retrieval
AI-assisted structuring and retrieval are core parts of the Service. When you ask Pinchly to structure or retrieve a memory, the minimum text needed for that request may be sent to a contracted business/API provider. Pinchly does not send audio, your password, or a one-time authentication code. We contract for business processing rather than consumer-model training. The current provider, purpose, and transfer mechanism are available on request.
Pinchly may also use AI to draft gift ideas, for example before a date you have set for someone; the minimum text needed for that may be sent to the same provider.
Pinchly stores the structured Pinch you choose to save and the data needed to retrieve it. To measure and improve the quality of answers, Pinchly may also keep the text of an AI request and the answer it produced for up to 30 days, after which it is deleted. These records are used only for that purpose: never for advertising, never for cross-user patterns, and never to train a model.
3.4 Voice, contacts, places, and location
- Voice is optional. Your device turns speech into text; Pinchly does not record, receive, or store audio. Typing provides the same capture and retrieval paths.
- Contacts are optional. The app reads contact names on your device to show a picker. It does not upload your address book, phone numbers, or contact emails. Only a person you choose is saved.
- Place search is optional. Search text is sent to a place provider. If you separately allow location bias while actively searching, an approximate foreground location may be sent for that search. Pinchly does not store device location or use background location. Public place details may be cached without recording who searched for the place.
- Birthday visibility is optional and off by default. When on, month and day—not year—may be shown to accepted connections. Turning it off removes the stored birthday month/day used by that feature.
3.5 Email and notifications
Every account receives sign-in codes and account notices by email. In the United States we may also send product email—for example, short guides to using Pinchly. Every product email carries a one-tap unsubscribe link that works without signing in, and our postal address. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and other places whose law requires consent, we send product email only if you ask for it.
Notifications are one switch in the app, off until you turn them on. A notification may name the person it is about—for example, that a reminder you set for someone is due—so that it is useful on its own. You can turn notifications off at any time in the app or in your device settings.
4. How we do not use your content
Pinchly uses preference content only to provide, secure, support, structure, and retrieve the service you asked for. We do not use private preference content to create:
- cross-user preference patterns or demographic preference slices;
- external trend reports or buyer-facing outputs;
- advertising, targeted-advertising, or data-broker products;
- cross-user personalized suggestions; or
- commercial models trained on users' Pinches, notes, contacts, or people.
If we ever propose to do any of these things, we will publish a new version of this policy and of our Terms and ask for a separate, prospective opt-in that is not bundled with ordinary service acceptance. Continued use of the app alone is not consent to that different purpose.
5. Data we do not collect or use
- We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- We do not use advertising or attribution SDKs and do not request Apple's advertising identifier or App Tracking Transparency permission.
- We do not record or store voice audio.
- We do not upload your address book.
- We do not store background or precise device-location history.
- We do not collect payment-card credentials; Apple handles App Store payments.
- We do not intentionally use private content to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about a person.
- We do not intentionally ask users to store government identifiers, account credentials, payment data, health records, or other highly sensitive data in notes.
6. Legal bases for EEA/UK processing
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Account, private-memory, retrieval, sharing chosen by the user, subscription access, and requested support | Contract — GDPR/UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b) |
| Security, fraud/abuse prevention, and required records | Legitimate interests — Article 6(1)(f), balanced against user rights |
| Product analytics, optional location bias, optional birthday visibility, and future marketing | Consent — Article 6(1)(a), withdrawable at any time |
| Tax, accounting, lawful process, and regulatory duties | Legal obligation — Article 6(1)(c) |
We do not intentionally infer or analyze special-category data from private content. Do not place health, religion, politics, sexuality, biometric data, credentials, or other sensitive information in free-text notes.
7. Product analytics and your choice
Product analytics tells us whether screens and workflows work. Event payloads carry no names, notes, preference or item text, contact data, precise location, or raw voice.
- In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and other places whose law requires consent, product analytics stays off unless you turn it on.
- Elsewhere, including the United States, product analytics is on by default and you can turn it off at any time in Settings → Privacy → Product analytics. Turning it off stops collection going forward.
8. Service providers and disclosures
We use providers only for the contracted functions needed to operate Pinchly. The categories may include:
| Provider category | Data involved |
|---|---|
| Hosting, database, authentication, bot protection, storage, and email delivery | Account and service data needed to operate Pinchly, and the email address and first name needed to deliver email |
| Business/API AI processing | Minimum capture or retrieval text needed for the request |
| Place search | Search text and optional approximate foreground location bias |
| Product analytics | Structural events without private content |
| Crash/error monitoring | Scrubbed technical diagnostics |
| Subscription management and Apple | Store identifiers, receipts, plan, and entitlement state |
| Build and push infrastructure | Build inputs, device push token, and notification delivery payloads |
Providers act on our instructions under their applicable data-processing terms. We may disclose data when lawfully required or to address an imminent safety or security threat, and we notify affected users where law permits.
Links you open from Pinchly, such as buy links on gift ideas, take you to other companies' sites, which follow their own privacy terms.
9. International transfers
Pinchly is operated from the United States and may use providers in the United States or other countries. Where required, transfers from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland rely on an adequacy mechanism, Standard Contractual Clauses, UK addendum, or another lawful transfer method plus appropriate safeguards. Current transfer details are available on request.
10. Retention and deletion
We keep personal data for as long as it is needed to provide and secure the Service, and for as long as applicable law requires or permits. In practice that means:
| Data | Retention rule |
|---|---|
| Account, people, Pinches, notes, Circles, reminders, gifts, gift lists, exchanges, claims, and settings | Until deleted by the user or the account is deleted, subject to the recoverable/archive behavior shown in the product |
| Exact birth year | Used for the age check and then discarded |
| Coarse age band | Until account deletion |
| Optional birthday month/day | Until the setting is turned off or the account is deleted |
| Consent and preference records | As needed to prove which version and choice governed processing, and as law requires |
| Security logs, crash reports, product analytics, and link counts | As long as needed to operate, secure, and improve the Service, and as law requires |
| AI request content | Request and answer text may be kept for up to 30 days to measure and improve answer quality, then deleted; provider retention follows that provider's contracted term |
| Place search | No user-linked query history; a cache may be used to return results |
| Content-free cost and operations records | As long as needed for billing, capacity, abuse prevention, and required records. These records never contain prompts, answers, voice, preference text, names, place queries or identity, precise location, or contact data |
| Subscription and financial records | Subscription duration plus the period required for accounting, tax, disputes, and law |
| Support cases | As long as needed for the request, security, legal deadlines, and defensible records |
We act on a verified account-deletion request within the time applicable law requires. We delete or de-identify account data and send required processor requests. A narrow record may be retained when law requires it, to prevent fraud or abuse, or to prove completion; it is isolated and not used for product or marketing purposes.
11. Your choices and rights
Subject to applicable law, you may request access, correction, a copy of your data, deletion, restriction, objection, or withdrawal of consent, and you may complain to a privacy regulator. California and other US-state residents may also exercise applicable rights concerning sale, sharing, targeted advertising, and profiling. Pinchly does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
You can stop product email with the unsubscribe link in any such email. Where the law allows, a copy of your data does not include what other members have saved, even when it mentions you. You can delete your account and its data yourself in Settings → Account. For any other request, use the in-app controls where available or email support@kuhlapps.com. We verify identity before disclosing, changing, copying, or deleting account data. We do not ask for a password or one-time code, and we do not discriminate against a person for exercising a privacy right.
12. Security
Pinchly uses encrypted network connections, managed encryption at rest, server-enforced database access rules, least-privilege service access, content-minimized analytics payloads, and incident and deletion procedures. No security program eliminates all risk. Report a suspected vulnerability to support@kuhlapps.com without including unnecessary personal data or exploit details in an ordinary message.
If a personal-data breach is likely to risk individuals' rights, we notify affected people and regulators as required by applicable law.
13. Cookies and identifiers
The mobile app does not use browser cookies. Our websites use only cookies strictly necessary to serve and protect the pages. The app uses limited identifiers for authentication, consent, analytics where allowed, diagnostics, subscriptions, push delivery, and place-search sessions. Pinchly does not use those identifiers for third-party advertising or cross-context behavioral tracking.
14. Changes and prior versions
We version this policy. Before a material change takes effect, we provide notice and request new consent where law or the changed purpose requires it. Approved prior versions and their effective periods are archived through versioned publication records.
15. Contact
KuhlApps, LLC Email: support@kuhlapps.com
Use this address for general privacy questions, rights requests, a current sub-processor list, transfer safeguards, or the formal-notice address.