Privacy Policy

Firestarters is a service operated by Aeriox, LLC (“Aeriox”, “we”, “us”). Firestarters collects the minimum needed to run the Service and keep it safe. We do not sell your data, and we run no advertising.

What we collect

• Account & profile: email, handle, display name, and what you choose to add (bio, avatar, city, country).
• Age: a birth year at signup, used only to apply minor protections and enforce the 13+ requirement (we store an is-minor flag derived from it).
• Content you create: posts, testimonies, comments, prayers, reactions, direct messages, and who you connect with (friends and follows).
• Location (opt-in): if you enable it, an approximate location for map pins and soulwinning features. Location is coarsened for safety (see “Location & sensitive contexts” below) and is never required to use the Service.
• Contacts (opt-in): if you choose to find friends from your contacts, we match using a one-way hashed version of contact emails. Your raw contacts are never uploaded to or stored on our servers.
• Camera & microphone (opt-in): used only when you capture photos, video, or audio in the app. We do not access your camera or microphone in the background.
• Usage & safety: basic activity needed to operate the feed, presence, notifications, and moderation, plus limited technical/device data for security and abuse prevention.

How we use it

To operate the Service (show your content to your chosen audience, deliver messages and notifications, surface presence and map features you opt into), to keep the community safe (moderation, abuse prevention, child-safety obligations), and to communicate with you. We do not use your data for advertising and we do not sell it.

How it’s stored

Your data is stored in our backend hosted on Supabase (Postgres database, authentication, and file storage), protected by access controls and row-level security. Data is retained while your account is active and deleted or anonymized after account deletion, except where we must retain limited records for legal or safety reasons.

Location & sensitive contexts

Location sharing is strictly opt-in. Because some members share from regions where practicing or spreading faith is dangerous, we coarsen or withhold location data by a persecution risk-tier: precise coordinates are never shown, locations are rounded to broad areas, and data from the highest-risk regions is dropped entirely and never displayed on the map. You can turn location off at any time in settings.

Contacts & hashed matching

If you use the “find friends” feature, contact email addresses are hashed on-device and only the hashes are compared against existing members to suggest connections. We never upload, store, or share your raw address book. This feature is optional and can be skipped.

Third parties we use

We share data only with service providers that help us operate the platform, acting on our instructions:

• Supabase — database, authentication, and file/media storage.
• Mapbox — renders maps for the location/soulwinning features (only coarsened location data is used).
• Giphy — powers GIF search when you add a GIF (your search terms are sent to Giphy).
• Resend — sends transactional email (verification, notifications).
• Apple & Google — if you choose “Sign in with Apple” or Google sign-in, they authenticate you and share basic profile info with us.
• Stripe — processes donations when giving is enabled.

We also disclose information where required by law or to protect safety. Suspected child sexual abuse material is reported to NCMEC and law enforcement.

Children’s privacy

Firestarters is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Members identified as minors (13–17) receive additional protections, including restricted discoverability, tighter default privacy, and limits on certain interactions. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Your rights & choices

You can edit your profile, control post visibility, block/mute others, and manage your location, contacts, camera, and microphone permissions at any time. You may request a copy of your data and you can delete your account and associated personal data directly in the app (Settings → Account → Delete account). Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights (access, correction, deletion, portability, objection); contact us to exercise them.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: Aeriox, LLC — support@firestarters.us.