Privacy policy
Effective 9 November 2026
Sealed is an app for writing messages to strangers, like messages in bottles. It is built to be anonymous: you don’t need an email address or phone number, and other people only ever see what you choose to put in your profile and your bottles.
This policy explains what the Sealed app and its servers (“Sealed”, “we”) collect, why, who can see it, and how to delete it. Questions: support@sealedbottle.app.
What we collect
Your account
- An anonymous account. When you first open the app we create an account with a random ID and a random session key. The key is stored in your phone’s secure storage; our servers keep only a scrambled (hashed) version of it.
- Google account ID, if you choose “Save with Google”. We store only the anonymous identifier Google gives us, so you can restore your account on another phone. We do not store your Google name, email address or photo.
What you choose to share
- Profile: a nickname, up to four photos, and optionally your country, gender, age and a short bio.
- Bottles: the messages you write, and the paper colour you pick.
- Conversations: the messages you exchange with people who found your bottle, or whose bottle you found.
How you use the app
- Which bottles you found, kept, released or reported; your search filters; who you’ve blocked.
- Your pearl balance and pearl history, including store transaction IDs for purchases.
- Your phone’s time zone, so daily limits reset at your local midnight, and when you were last active.
Technical data
- IP address: used to limit how many accounts and sign-ins can be created from one network, to stop abuse. We count attempts in 10-minute windows and delete those counts within a day. Our hosting provider also records IP addresses in its server logs for security and reliability, kept for a short time under its own policies.
What we don’t collect: your email address, phone number, contacts, precise or approximate location, or advertising ID. Sealed has no advertising and no third-party analytics or tracking.
Who can see what
- Strangers who find your bottle see the bottle and your profile (nickname, photos, and whichever of country, gender, age and bio you filled in).
- People you’re talking with see your profile, your messages to them, and the bottles you’ve written (your “diary”).
- Nobody else sees your bottles until someone finds them, and nobody sees your pearls, filters, blocks, reports or Google account ID.
- Photos are served from links that can’t be guessed, so the app can display them; anyone who has a photo’s link can open it.
Please keep contact details (phone numbers, social handles, emails, links) out of your profile and bottles. The app filters many of them out automatically.
Why we use it
- To run the app: deliver bottles, show profiles, keep conversations, apply daily limits and keep your pearl balance.
- To restore your account when you sign in with Google.
- To keep Sealed safe: handle reports, block abusive users, prevent spam and fraud.
We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or share it with data brokers.
Service providers
We use a few providers to run Sealed. They process data only on our behalf:
- Vercel: hosts our servers and this website.
- Neon: hosts our database, on Amazon Web Services in Sydney, Australia.
- Google: “Save with Google” sign-in, and Google Play for app distribution and purchases. Payments are handled entirely by Google Play; we never see your card or bank details.
Your data may therefore be stored and processed in Australia and the United States.
Security
All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS). Session keys are stored hashed, photos are checked to be real images, and access to the database is restricted.
How long we keep it
- We keep your account and content until you delete your account.
- When you delete your account, everything listed above is deleted immediately: profile, photos, bottles, conversations (including the other person’s copy), finds, pearls and history, blocks, sessions and your Google account ID.
- If you were reported or reported someone, a record that a report happened is kept for safety, but its link to your account and content is removed.
- Our database provider keeps a short restore history (currently up to 6 hours) to recover from failures. After that, deleted data is gone for good.
Deleting your account
In the app, open Profile, scroll down and tap Delete my account, then tap again to confirm. Without the app, see Delete your account.
Your choices and rights
- You can view and change your profile at any time in the app, and leave optional fields empty.
- You can delete your account at any time.
- Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your data, or object to how it’s used. Email support@sealedbottle.app and we’ll respond within 30 days.
Age
Sealed is for adults only. You must be 18 or older to use it. We don’t knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if you believe a minor is using Sealed, contact us and we’ll delete the account.
Changes
If we change this policy, we’ll update the date above, and for significant changes we’ll let you know in the app.