Privacy Policy

Scope. This Privacy Policy governs Fonder and all other applications and services distributed by Graphite Labs Pty Ltd(“Graphite Labs,” “we,” “us,” “our”). It applies wherever those apps are distributed, including the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Your privacy matters. This policy explains what data Graphite Labs collects, why we collect it, how it is used, and your rights over it. We are committed to keeping the data behind your experience with our apps personal and protected.

1. Who We Are

Graphite Labs Pty Ltd is a small, independent studio based in South Africa, designing and engineering deliberate mobile software for iOS and Android. References to “we,” “us,” or “our” in this policy refer to Graphite Labs Pty Ltd, the data controller for the personal data described here. Our apps include Fonder, a private journalling and connection app for couples. For privacy inquiries, contact us at [email protected].

2. Data We Collect

We collect only what is necessary to provide and improve our apps and services (collectively, the “Services”). Depending on which app you use, this may include:

• Account info: Name, email address, and authentication credentials when you create an account.
• App usage: Feature interactions, session duration, and usage patterns to help us improve the experience.
• Device info: Device type, OS version, and app version for diagnostics and compatibility.
• Approximate location: A coarse, city-level location worked out on our servers from the internet (IP) address your app connects from: approximate coordinates, an accuracy radius, the city name, and the country code. We do not use your device’s GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth positioning, and our apps never ask for a location permission. In Fonder this is what powers the distance shown between you and your partner. Set out in full in Location data.
• Advertising and attribution data: Your device’s advertising identifier, where you allow it, an attribution provider identifier, install and device metadata, and a short fixed list of in-app events such as creating an account, signing in, viewing the paywall and starting a purchase. Used to measure which ad campaigns bring people to our apps. Set out in full in Advertising & attribution.
• In-app content: Any content you create or submit within our apps. In Fonder this includes your written and recorded answers to daily questions, journal entries, milestones you add to your shared path, moments, and photographs you upload.
• Photographs and images: Images you choose to upload, such as profile pictures and photos attached to entries. We access your photo library or camera only after you grant permission, and only for the image you select.
• Voice recordings: Audio you record inside the app, such as answering a question with a voice note. We access your microphone only while you are actively recording.
• Purchase and subscription data: Product purchased, subscription and entitlement status, transaction identifiers, purchase and expiry dates, and the store the purchase was made through.
• Push notification identifiers: A device messaging token, so we can deliver notifications you have opted into.
• Diagnostics and crash data: Crash reports, error traces, and performance data used to fix defects.
• Correspondence: Messages and enquiries you send us directly.

Payment information. We do not directly collect or store payment card, bank account, or other payment credentials. Purchases are processed by the Apple App Store or Google Play, which handle payment details under their own privacy policies. We do receive and process information about a purchase, as described above, in order to grant and verify your subscription entitlement.

We do not collect biometric data, we do not read your contacts, calendar, health data or browsing history, we display no advertising inside our apps, and we do not sell your data. We do measure which ad campaigns bring people to our apps, and that involves an advertising identifier and a small set of in-app events leaving the app — activity Apple classifies as tracking. It is described in full in Advertising & attribution, and on iOS your advertising identifier is used only if you allow it when asked.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use the data we collect to:

• Deliver and personalise your experience with our apps.
• Sync your data across your devices.
• Show the approximate distance between you and your partner, while location sharing is on.
• Identify and fix bugs, improve performance, and develop new features.
• Send you important account or service communications.
• Measure and optimise our advertising, so we can tell which campaigns brought people to the app.
• Comply with our legal obligations.

We do not use your personal content to train AI models without your explicit, opt-in consent.

4. Third-Party Services & Platform Providers

We use a small number of third-party providers to operate and market our apps. Most process data on our behalf as service providers, and each operates under its own privacy policy. We do not sell your data to any of them. Two of them work in the advertising ecosystem — our attribution platform and the ad network it reports to — and both are named in Advertising & attribution below.

Depending on which app you use, this may include providers for:

• Application hosting and data storage: Stores your account record, profile, and the content you create in the app, including media you upload such as photos and voice recordings.
• Authentication and push notifications: Sign-in (including Google and Apple sign-in) and delivery of notifications you have opted into. Processes your email address, name, authentication identifiers, and a device messaging token.
• Subscription management: Manages in-app purchases and subscriptions. Processes an app user identifier, subscription and entitlement status, purchase history, product identifiers, and transaction information necessary to provide subscription management. Purchase, trial-start, trial-conversion and renewal events are also reported from this provider to our attribution platform server-to-server, as described in Advertising & attribution.
• Crash and error reporting: Processes crash reports, stack traces, and device and OS metadata so we can diagnose defects.
• Product analytics: Processes pseudonymous usage events such as screens viewed and features used, so we can understand how the app is used and improve it.
• Advertising attribution (AppsFlyer, TikTok): AppsFlyer measures which ad campaign an install came from, and forwards a short list of in-app events to the ad networks we buy from — currently TikTok — through AppsFlyer’s self-attributing-network integration. TikTok is an advertising network and uses that data for campaign measurement and optimisation under its own privacy policy. Processes your advertising identifier where available, an attribution identifier, install and device metadata, and the events listed in Advertising & attribution.
• IP geolocation (IPinfo): Turns the internet (IP) address of a request into an approximate country, region and city on our servers. Processes the IP address only. See Location data.
• Apple App Store and Google Play: Distribute our apps and process all payments. We never receive your payment card details. We receive limited purchase and subscription information as governed by their respective privacy policies.
• Build and update infrastructure: Delivers app builds and over-the-air updates to your device.

When you use an integration you have authorised, we access only the data scopes you granted and use that data solely to deliver the relevant functionality. We are not responsible for the independent data practices of third-party providers. A full list of the specific providers behind each category above is available on request at [email protected].

5. Location Data

Fonder shows you roughly how far apart you and your partner are. That single number is the only reason we handle location at all, and we derive it without ever asking your device where you are.

• How we get it: our servers resolve the internet (IP) address your app connects from into a place, using IPinfo. We never use GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth positioning, and our apps never request a location permission from your device.
• How precise it is: the result is the centre of a city, not where you are. We record it with an accuracy radius of roughly 25 km and treat it as approximate everywhere it is used.
• What we store: on your account record, the approximate coordinates, the accuracy radius, the city name and country code, a note that the fix came from an IP address, and when it was taken. Only the latest fix is kept — each refresh overwrites the previous one, so there is no location history. We do not store the IP address itself: we keep a one-way hash of it, used only to notice that your network has changed.
• How often: at most once every 15 minutes, and sooner only when your IP address changes.
• What your partner sees: a single distance. Your coordinates, city and country are never shown to your partner and are never sent to any other user.
• Turning it off: open Settings in the app and switch Location sharing off, under App preferences. The distance is then hidden for both of you, the location stored for you is deleted, and no further lookups are made. You can turn it back on at any time.
• Retention: the stored fix exists only while location sharing is on. It is deleted the moment you switch location sharing off, and when you delete your account.
• Not used for advertising: this location is never sent to an advertising network or attribution provider, and never leaves our own infrastructure except as the distance shown to your partner.

Separately, the approximate country, region and city resolved when you first sign up are recorded once on your account, so we know which markets our apps are used in. They are not refreshed, not shared with advertising networks, and are removed when your deleted account record is purged.

6. Advertising & Attribution

We buy ads to put our apps in front of people, and our apps include an attribution SDK so we can tell which of those ads worked. This is the one place where data about you leaves our control for a purpose other than running the app, so it is set out here in full rather than summarised.

• Who is involved: We use third-party attribution and advertising services to measure and optimise our campaigns.
• What is sent: your device’s advertising identifier where it is available, a service-specific device identifier, and install and device metadata such as device model and OS version.
• What is never sent: anything you write, record or upload. No journal entries, question answers, photographs, voice notes or partner details, and not the location described above. Your email address is not sent either.
• Why: to measure and optimise ad campaigns, so we can tell which campaigns brought people to the app. Apple classifies this as tracking, and our apps declare it as such.
• What we do not do: we show no advertising inside our apps, we run no ad networks of our own, and we do not sell your data to anyone.
• Your choices: on iOS we ask, on first launch, whether we may use your device’s advertising identifier. If you decline it is not used, and you can change your answer at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Nothing in the app is withheld, changed or degraded based on your answer. On Android you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads. Declining stops the advertising identifier being used; our attribution service still receives the install metadata above, which is how campaigns are measured without it.
• Retention: Our third-party services retain what they receive under their own policies, not ours. To have attribution data about you erased, email us at [email protected] and we will pass the request on.

7. Data Storage & Security

Your data is stored on secure cloud infrastructure with encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest. We apply industry-standard security practices including:

• Access controls limiting who can view your data internally.
• Regular security reviews of our infrastructure and third-party integrations.
• Prompt notification in the event of a data breach affecting your information.

No system is perfectly secure. While we take strong precautions, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Services. If you delete your account:

• Your profile and associated data are deleted within 30 days.
• Anonymised, aggregated analytics may be retained indefinitely.
• The approximate location stored for the distance feature is deleted as soon as you switch location sharing off, and when you delete your account — see Location data.
• Advertising and attribution data already received by AppsFlyer and the ad networks is retained under their policies, not ours — see Advertising & attribution.
• Legal or compliance obligations may require us to retain certain records longer.

9. Deleting Your Account

You can delete your account and its associated data at any time. Two routes are available, and you do not need to contact us to use either:

• In the app: Open the Account tab, tap Delete account, and confirm. This takes effect immediately.
• On the web: Submit a request at usegraphitelabs.com/delete-account, without needing to install or reinstall the app.

Deleting your account removes your profile, your journal and other in-app content, your uploaded photographs and voice recordings, your relationship and partner-pairing records, your pending invites, and your push notification tokens. If you are paired, the shared relationship record is dissolved and your partner is notified that the connection ended. Your partner’s own entries belong to them and are not deleted.

Deletion requested in the app is carried out immediately, not queued. Requests made by email are completed within 30 days of us verifying the request. We retain a limited subset of data for longer only where we are legally required to: records of purchases and refunds needed for tax, accounting, and store reconciliation, and any records subject to a legal hold. Anonymised, aggregated analytics that can no longer be linked to you may be retained indefinitely.

Subscriptions are billed by the app store, not by us, so deleting your account does not automatically cancel a paid subscription. Cancel your subscription in your Apple App Store or Google Play account before deleting, or you may continue to be billed.

10. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights over your personal data:

• Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Correction: Update inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion: Request erasure of your account and associated data.
• Portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Opt-out: Withdraw consent for non-essential data processing at any time. Two controls are directly in your hands: Location sharing in the app’s Settings (see Location data) and the tracking permission on your device (see Advertising & attribution).

To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. We respond to requests within 30 days.

11. Children’s Privacy

Our Services are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from individuals under 13. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly.

If you believe we have inadvertently collected such data, please contact us at [email protected] and we will take immediate action.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as our practices evolve or as required by law. We will notify you of significant changes via in-app notification or email. The “last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of our Services after a policy update constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms.

13. Jurisdiction & Legal Basis for Processing

Graphite Labs is based in South Africa and operates globally. If you access our Services from outside South Africa, you do so at your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with your local laws.

For users in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions with applicable data protection laws, our legal bases for processing your personal data include: performance of our contract with you, our legitimate interests in operating and improving the Services, compliance with legal obligations, and your consent where explicitly requested.

14. Contact

Privacy questions, requests, or concerns:

[email protected]