Privacy Policy

Effective 19 October 2026

Driftr is a private-beta app that lets you know when a friend's travels bring them near you. This page explains what information Driftr collects, why, who can see it, and what choices you have. It's written to describe exactly what the app does today, in plain language. Our Terms of Service cover the rules for using Driftr.

Who's responsible for this data

Driftr is built and operated by Dan Skirrow as an independent developer, not a registered company at this stage. He is the "controller" of your personal information under UK data protection law. For anything relating to your data or this policy, contact dan@teamdriftr.com or support@teamdriftr.com.

Information we collect

Account and profile information

• Your email address and how you sign in (email and password, Google, or Apple on iPhone). If you use Apple's "Hide My Email", we only get the relay address Apple gives us.
• The handle (username) and display name you choose, and a short shortcode we generate so friends can add you.
• A profile photo, if your Google account has one.
• Your Instagram handle, if you choose to add it.
• Your settings, such as distance units, notification preferences and how your location is kept up to date.

Your email address is never shown to other users and can't be used to find you.

Location information

This is the core of how Driftr works, so we want to be precise about it:

• Driftr reads your device's precise GPS location only while the app is open, and only with your permission. It never reads your location in the background. It reads it when you tap to update your location and, while you're sharing your location, each time you open the app, to check whether you've moved to a new city.
• You choose what happens when Driftr notices you're in a new city. With "Automatically", your current city is updated straight away, and friends nearby may get a "near you" notification. With "Only when I choose", Driftr only offers to update it, and nothing changes until you tap. You can switch between them at any time in Settings.
• Before anything is saved, your position is moved by a random distance of up to about 3 km. Only that fuzzed point is stored, together with the city, region and country it falls in. Your exact GPS position is never stored.
• The fuzzed point is kept in your private account record, which only you and our servers can access. Our servers use it to work out whether friends are within about 50 km of each other, so they can send "friend nearby" alerts. For that feature they also keep a record of your last "arrival" point and of when each friend was last alerted. Nobody else can access that record.
• You also choose a home base city. We store it, along with a reference point for it, so Driftr can tell whether you're at home or travelling. That point isn't fuzzed, but friends never see it, only your home city's name.
• Friends never see coordinates, a map pin, or how far away you are. They see your current city, region and country, and whether you're at home or travelling. Any distance Driftr shows is estimated from city centres on the viewer's own device.
• Sharing your location is your choice. It turns itself off after the period you pick, and you can turn it off at any time. While it's off, friends don't see your current city.

Friends, messages and notes

• Your friend list, pending friend requests, and the people you've blocked.
• Messages you exchange with friends in the app. These are stored so both of you can read them. They're deleted when the friendship ends (unfriending, blocking or account deletion), unless they've been kept as report evidence (see below).
• Private notes you write about a friend. Only you can see them.

Device information

• A push-notification token issued by your device's notification service, so we can send you notifications. It's removed when you sign out.
• Your device's time zone, used to notice when you've travelled and offer to update your location. This check happens on your device only, and your time zone isn't sent to us.
• Your clipboard, once. Straight after you create an account, Driftr checks your clipboard a single time for a Driftr invite link, so you can be connected to the friend who invited you. Anything else on the clipboard is ignored and not stored. Driftr never reads your clipboard again after that.

Safety reports

If you report someone, or someone reports you, we store the report: who made it, who it's about, the reason chosen, any details written, and when it was made. See "Safety reports and moderation" below.

Who can see your information

• Anyone with your exact handle, shortcode, QR code or invite link can see your handle, display name, profile photo and home city, so they know who they're adding. They can't search by name or email, and people you've blocked can't find you this way.
• Accepted friends can also see your current city, region and country (while you're sharing), whether you're at home or travelling, your Instagram handle if you've added one, and when your status was last updated.
• Nobody else can see your email address, coordinates, home reference point, notes, notification settings, or who you've blocked.

How we use your information, and why we're allowed to

UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use of your information. Ours are:

• Providing Driftr to you (performing our agreement with you, i.e. the Terms of Service): creating and securing your account, letting friends find and add you, showing your status to friends, delivering messages, and sending the notifications you've chosen.
• Your consent: reading your device location and sending notifications, which your device asks you to allow. You can withdraw either at any time in your device settings or in Driftr's settings.
• Our legitimate interests in keeping Driftr safe and working: handling safety reports, keeping report evidence, enforcing blocks, preventing abuse, and fixing problems.
• Legal obligations, where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.

We don't use your information for advertising, we don't build advertising profiles, and we don't make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Safety reports and moderation

You can report a user from their profile in the app. Here's exactly what happens next:

• Chat evidence is copied. If the two of you have chatted, our servers copy the 20 most recent messages between you into a private evidence record attached to the report (stored in our database at reports/{id}/evidence). This happens first, because a person who reports someone often blocks them straight away, and blocking deletes the chat. No user, including the person who made the report, can access the evidence. It's deleted automatically 90 days after it's copied.
• A moderator is alerted on Discord. Our servers post an alert to a private moderation channel on Discord that only Driftr's moderators can see. The alert contains the report's reference number, both users' account IDs, handles and display names, the reason chosen, the details written (shortened if long), how many earlier reports have been made about the same user, and whether evidence was saved. It never contains message text or any location information. We delete these alerts from Discord when we close the report, and in any case within 90 days.
• We review it. A moderator reviews the report and evidence, and may take action under our Terms of Service, such as removing content or an account.
• The reported person isn't told who reported them.

Report records (but not the evidence, which is deleted after 90 days) are kept for as long as we need them to deal with the report and to spot repeated abuse by the same account. That includes after either person deletes their account.

How we share your information

We never sell your data, and we never share it with advertisers or data brokers. Apart from the people described under "Who can see your information", we share it only with:

• Google Firebase (Google), which hosts our database, sign-in, Cloud Functions, push notifications and website, and processes data on our behalf.
• Apple or Google sign-in, if you choose to sign in that way.
• Your device's geocoding service (provided by Apple or Google, depending on your device), which turns coordinates into city names and city names into coordinates.
• Discord (Discord Inc.), which carries the moderation alerts described above. Only the information listed there is sent, and only when a report is made.
• Authorities, if required by law, for example under a valid court order, or where we believe someone is at risk of serious harm.

How long we keep information

• Your account, profile and location status: for as long as your account exists.
• Messages: until the friendship ends, at which point the whole chat is deleted for both people.
• Chat evidence attached to a report: 90 days from when it's copied, then deleted automatically.
• Moderation alerts on Discord: until the report is closed, and no longer than 90 days.
• Report records: as long as needed to handle the report and prevent repeated abuse (see above).

Deleting your account and data

You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Delete Account inside the app. This immediately and permanently removes your profile, location data, friendships and pending requests, chats, private notes and blocked-user list, frees your handle and shortcode, and deletes your sign-in account. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke Driftr's access to your Apple ID. Reports and their evidence are kept as described above.

If you'd rather we do it for you, or you run into any trouble, email support@teamdriftr.com and we'll delete your account and data on request. See Delete your account for full details.

Your rights

You have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or receive a copy of your personal information, to object to how it's used, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these, email dan@teamdriftr.com. We'll respond within one month. If you aren't satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, or to your local data protection authority if you live elsewhere.

International data transfers

Google and Discord may process and store data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where that happens, it's covered by safeguards recognised under UK law, such as the UK–US data bridge or standard contractual clauses.

Security

We use industry-standard security practices, including database rules that control exactly who can read or write each piece of your data, and server-side enforcement of blocks. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your information appropriately for what it is.

Age requirement

Driftr is only for people aged 18 or over. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 is using Driftr, contact us and we'll delete their account and information.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Driftr changes. If we make a material change, we'll update the effective date above and let you know in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data? Email dan@teamdriftr.com or support@teamdriftr.com.