This policy explains what Yalu LLC (“Yalu”, “we”, “us”) does with your information when you use the Yalu app. Yalu is offered only in the United States and its territories.
1. What we collect, and what we use it for
What you give us
- Your phone number. This is how you sign in. It is required, and it is the only way into your account.
- Your email address, confirmed at signup. We use it for account notices, not marketing.
- Your name and username, shown to other people.
- Your date of birth, to confirm you are 18 or older. It is never shown on your profile.
- Your profile photo, if you add one, plus any optional bio, pronouns, general location and interests.
- What you create and send: Sessions, comments, direct messages, group and Session chats, Circle posts, reactions, polls, shout-outs and notes.
- Feedback you send us, including an optional screenshot. Feedback also carries your app version, device model, operating system version and platform, so we can reproduce the problem.
- Reports you file about other people, including a copy of the reported content so we can review it after the fact.
What your device gives us
- A push notification token, plus your platform and device name, so we can send you notifications and you can manage your devices.
- Your location, while you are using the app. See the next section, because the detail matters.
- Calendar access, only when you choose to add a Session to your calendar. We look at the list of your calendars to pick one to write to, and we can update an entry we created. We do not read your other calendar entries.
- Your app version, build number, operating system version and platform, when you open the app, so we can tell when an old version needs updating. We keep the last few versions you have used while your account exists.
What we work out
Whether you are a Plus subscriber, how many Sessions you have hosted or attended, and similar facts that follow from how you use the app. Interests come from a fixed list we maintain. It contains no health, medical or mental-health categories, and we do not ask for or infer health information.
We use all of this to run the app: to sign you in, show you Sessions near you, deliver your messages, keep people safe, handle subscriptions, and answer you when you get in touch.
2. Location
To show you Sessions near you, we ask for your location while you are using the app. We request it at reduced accuracy, but we treat it as precise location in our store disclosures, and we do not round it before sending it to Google to draw the map and find places. We use it in the moment and we do not store it on our servers. Your device keeps your last known position and the places you recently searched so the Sessions list loads faster, and both are cleared when you sign out.
When you check in to a Session, we use your precise location once, to confirm you are within about 200 metres of the venue. We record only that you checked in and when. We never store the coordinates.
You can refuse location access and still use Yalu. You will type addresses in by hand instead.
3. Automated image safety review
When you upload a photo, we send it to Google Cloud Vision for automated safety review. For profile photos we also check whether a human face is present.
Profile photos and Circle photos are stored in a public bucket, which means the image file can be fetched by anyone with its address. Photos you attach to feedback are stored privately and are visible only to us. When you replace a profile photo, we keep the previous file rather than deleting it.
When a photo is uploaded, we also record a code computed from the photo file (not from anyone's face), so we can find identical copies of a photo we have removed and keep it from being uploaded again. When we remove a photo for breaking our rules or after a removal request, we keep a private copy for a limited time: 90 days for a rule break, 12 months after a copyright notice, and, for an intimate image, sealed until the request is closed plus 30 days. We keep a copy longer only while the law or an open case needs it. The code of a photo removed after a copyright notice, or as an intimate image, is kept as a block with no end date; the code of any other photo is deleted when the photo is.
4. Chat and content moderation
Your messages are stored so they can be delivered and so you can read them later. They are not end-to-end encrypted, which means we are technically able to access them. We do not read them routinely. We look at specific messages when someone reports them, when we are investigating a safety problem, or when the law requires it.
When you report a message, we keep a copy of it even if the sender deletes it, because otherwise we could not review the report.
We check the text of comments, Sessions, Circles, profiles, and messages in Session and Circle chats against a list of words that are not allowed on Yalu. Text that contains one is not posted, and you see why. When text is refused for the most serious kinds of words, we keep a record that it happened, without the text. We don't block words in direct messages or group chats, but a message there that contains certain terms linked to the sexual exploitation of children is flagged for review by a person. We keep a copy of a flagged message until a person reviews it. If it was fine, we delete the copy 30 days later; if it was not, we keep it for a year. We keep it longer only if the law requires it.
5. Push notifications
We send notifications about Sessions, messages, requests and safety matters. Delivery runs through Expo, which passes them to Apple or Google to reach your device. You can turn notifications off in your device settings, and you can control categories in the app.
6. The providers we use
Yalu is a small team, and we rely on other companies to run it.
| Provider | What it receives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Everything in your account | Our database, sign-in and file storage |
| Twilio | Your phone number | Sending your one-time sign-in code |
| Google Cloud Vision | Photos you upload | Automated safety review |
| Google Maps Platform | Your device's coordinates and the place names you type | Drawing the map and finding venues |
| Expo, with Apple and Google | Your push token, and the contents of each notification, which can include the sender's name and a preview of their message | Delivering notifications |
| Resend | Your email address and first name; for a removal request, the address you give us | Account emails, and acknowledging removal requests |
| Google Workspace | Emails you send to support@yalu.co, copyright@yalu.co and removal@yalu.co, and our replies | Our mailboxes |
| RevenueCat, with Apple and Google | Your account identifier, your purchase receipts, and basic device and store information | Managing Yalu Plus |
| Cloudflare | Requests to this website, including the bot check on the removal request form (Turnstile) | Serving these pages, and keeping automated requests out of the form |
Each provider listed above, other than Google Maps Platform, publishes data processing terms that apply to our use of its service, and handles your information as a processor acting on our instructions rather than for its own purposes. Google Maps Platform is different: it receives this information as an independent controller under the Google Privacy Policy, not as a processor acting on our instructions. The recipients described in the next section are not providers and are not engaged under data processing terms.
7. Legal and safety disclosure
We may disclose information:
- in response to legal process, such as a subpoena, court order or a law-enforcement emergency request;
- to protect the rights, property or safety of you, other people, Yalu, or the public;
- to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline, where 18 U.S.C. 2258A requires it; and
- to a buyer or successor in a merger, acquisition, financing or sale of assets, in which case we will tell you before your information becomes subject to a different policy.
On child safety specifically, see the Community Guidelines. The permissive wording here is about when we may disclose your information; it is not a statement that the underlying legal duty is optional.
8. We do not sell your information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are defined by California and other state privacy laws. We have never done so.
Yalu contains no advertising SDKs, no analytics SDKs and no crash-reporting SDKs, and we do not send your personal information or your messages to any generative AI or large language model service.
If you are a Nevada resident, support@yalu.co is our designated address for opt-out requests.
9. Automated decisions and moderation
Some things in Yalu happen automatically:
- a photo can be rejected by the automated safety review;
- a profile photo can be rejected for having no visible face;
- text that contains a word on our list is not posted, except in direct messages and group chats, where certain terms flag the message for a person to review instead;
- a photo identical to one we removed as an intimate image, or after a copyright notice, cannot be used again as a profile or Circle photo;
- when someone reports a profile or Circle photo as an intimate image of them, the photo can be hidden until a person reviews the report; and
- an action can be blocked temporarily by a rate limit, if you are doing something unusually often.
Warnings, suspensions and account terminations are decided by a person. We may act automatically first where waiting would put someone at risk, or to stop abuse in progress. If we do, a person reviews the decision on request.
If an automated check rejects your photo or restricts your account, you can email support@yalu.co and a person will review the decision.
10. How long we keep things
By default we keep your information while your account exists. The exceptions:
- After you delete your account, 30 days pass before the permanent purge runs.
- After the purge, we keep your username together with the phone number it was linked to for 6 months, so that if you sign up again from the same number you can reclaim your handle. The phone number itself is released at the purge and can be registered by someone else.
- An account permanently suspended for a violation is anonymised 18 months after the suspension. A timed suspension is never purged; it lifts automatically.
- Notifications in your activity feed are deleted automatically: chat notifications after 30 days, Session reminders shortly after the Session ends, and most read or dismissed notifications after 90 days.
- Operational records, such as delivery receipts, rate-limit events and webhook logs, are deleted on a short cycle, generally within 30 days.
- Your record of accepting these documents is kept even after the purge. It records which version of each document you accepted and when. It holds no name, phone number or email address, and we keep it as our record of the agreement between us.
- Removed photos and removal requests are kept as described in Automated image safety review and People who send us removal requests.
- Open reports and legal holds override all of the above. If there is an unresolved report about you, or we are required to preserve information, we keep it until that is finished.
11. People who send us removal requests or copyright notices
You do not need a Yalu account to ask us to remove an image or to send a copyright notice. When you do, we collect what you give us: where the content is, your name, your contact details, and your answers to the form. We use them only to handle your request: to find and review the content, to write to you, and to keep a record of what we did. Only the people who handle requests at Yalu see them. Apart from the providers listed in The providers we use, we do not share them, except that a copyright notice and a counter-notification are passed on as our Copyright policy explains, and except where the law requires.
We keep a closed removal request for one year, and a copyright request for three years. After that we delete your name and contact details. If you gave an email address, we keep a code computed from it so we can recognise repeated requests. Emails about a request are deleted on the same schedule.
We keep a basic record of every request for at least 10 years, as our record of what we did: its number and kind, which kinds of information it included, what we removed, its dates and its outcome. It holds no name or contact details.
The form keeps a code computed from your internet address for about 48 hours, to limit how many requests one connection can send. It does not keep the address itself. Our hosting and bot-check providers see internet addresses as part of serving the page.
12. Deleting your account
You can delete your account in the app, under Settings, or by following the steps on our Delete your account page.
Deleting starts a 30-day grace period. Sign back in within those 30 days and confirm on the Reactivate screen, and your account comes back. After 30 days it is permanent.
When the purge runs, we permanently remove your profile photo, bio, date of birth, location and pronouns, and we replace your name and username with an anonymous placeholder.
Your phone number is removed from your sign-in record and released, so someone else can register it. We keep one copy of it, paired with the username you were using, for 6 months. That copy exists only so you can reclaim that username if you sign up again from the same number. See How long we keep things above.
Some records stay, because other people rely on them:
- your attendance at Sessions you already went to;
- kudos and shout-outs you gave or received;
- poll votes you cast;
- messages you sent in direct messages, group chats, Circle chats and Session chats;
- comments and questions you posted on Sessions; and
- Sessions you already hosted, including any that were cancelled.
The profile all of these are attached to is anonymised, so they no longer show who you are. We do not edit the content itself, so anything you typed stays as you wrote it. If you put your name or another detail in a message or a comment, that text remains.
Sessions you host are handled as soon as you ask to delete. A Session with a co-host is transferred to them. A Session with no co-host that has not started yet is cancelled, and everyone who had joined or was on the waitlist is told. A Session already under way is left to finish. Your upcoming RSVPs are released so those places go back to other people. Signing back in during the 30 days does not un-cancel a Session or take back one that was transferred.
13. Security and data incidents
We protect your information with row-level database security so people can only read what they are entitled to, phone-based authentication, encryption in transit, isolation of administrative credentials, and no third-party analytics collecting your activity.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you, and anyone else we are required to notify, in the way and within the time that the law applying to you requires. If you believe you have found a vulnerability, please email support@yalu.co.
14. Your privacy rights in the United States
We give the following rights to everyone who uses Yalu in the United States, regardless of which state you live in:
- Know and access. Ask what we hold about you and get a copy.
- Correct. Fix anything inaccurate. Most of it you can edit yourself in the app.
- Delete. Delete your account, as described above.
- Portability. Get your information in a portable form. Email us and we will run the export for you.
- Non-discrimination. We will not treat you worse for exercising any of these rights.
- Appeal. If we refuse a request, you can appeal by replying to our decision. We will answer in writing within 60 days. If we still refuse, you may complain to your state Attorney General; the Connecticut Attorney General publishes a complaint form that Connecticut residents can use.
To exercise any of these, email support@yalu.co from the address on your account.
We will respond to a request within 45 days. If the request is complex, we may take one further 45 days, and if we do we will tell you why before the first 45 days are up. Before we act, we need to be satisfied the request really comes from you; if we cannot confirm that, we will tell you rather than act on it.
We do not offer opt-outs of sale, targeted advertising or profiling, because we do not do any of those things. There is nothing to opt out of.
Other things California law asks us to tell you
- Categories of information we collect are listed in section 1 above, along with the categories of provider we share them with in section 6.
- Changes to this policy are made by updating this page and changing the effective date at the top. Where a change materially affects you, we will also tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
- Do Not Track. Yalu does not track you across third-party websites or services, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to switch off, and we do not respond to those signals.
- Other parties collecting information over time. We do not allow anyone to collect your activity across other websites or services through Yalu.
15. Children
Yalu is for adults. You must be 18 or older, and the app is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we delete the account and the information. If you believe a child is using Yalu, tell us at support@yalu.co.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. When we do, we change the effective date at the top of this page. Where a change materially affects you, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
17. How to reach us
Email support@yalu.co, or write to Yalu LLC, 4539 N 22nd St STE 7413, Phoenix, AZ 85016. A person reads every message.
To ask us to remove an intimate image of you, use Remove an image. You do not need an account.