Privacy Policy

May 28, 2025


Realspace Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Realspace ("we," "our," or "us") collects, uses, shares, and protects your information. By using Realspace, you agree to the terms of this policy.

Data Collection

We collect the following types of information:

Personal Information:

  • Mandatory Information: Email address (required for distinguishing individual accounts and verifying users through Google OAuth and Apple OAuth).

  • Optional Information: Name, birthday, profile photo, and background photo. This optional information helps create your personalized Realspace profile. You may choose what information is visible on your profile, and except for the email, other profile details can be hidden.

Information Collected During Nearby Discovery:

  • User Identifiers for Discovery: When you use the "Nearby" feature, your device uses Bluetooth to broadcast and detect other Realspace users in your immediate vicinity. This process involves the temporary exchange of user identifiers (such as your username or a unique ID) and profile information (like your display name and profile picture) with nearby devices. This data is exchanged solely to display nearby users to you and to enable you to connect with them (e.g., send a friend request or invite to a Circle). This information is not persistently stored by Realspace beyond the active discovery session for general browsing, but interactions (like friend requests) are logged.

  • Bluetooth Signals: To determine proximity, the Nearby feature uses Bluetooth signal strength (RSSI). This is used to estimate how close other users are.

Location Information (Proximity):

We do not request or store your precise GPS location. The "Nearby" feature determines your proximity to other users solely through Bluetooth signal strength. This allows us to show you who is nearby without tracking your exact geographical coordinates.

Automatically Collected Data:

  • Cookies & Session Tokens: We use essential cookies solely to store session tokens. These tokens are necessary for secure login, authentication, and maintaining your session.

  • Analytics: We collect non-identifiable, aggregated usage data (e.g., feature usage frequency, interaction patterns) to improve app functionality, understand user engagement, and inform our development and marketing strategies. This data does not personally identify you.

Data Usage

We use your data for the following purposes:

  • Account Management: To create and manage your account, and verify your identity.

  • Service Provision: To operate the Realspace app and its features, including facilitating connections with friends, family, and community members, and enabling participation in local events and Circles.

  • Nearby Feature Functionality: To display nearby users, allow you to send/receive friend requests, and invite/be invited to Circles based on proximity.

  • Personalization: To customize your experience within Realspace based on your profile information and interactions.

  • Service Improvement: Understanding user interactions with features (through aggregated analytics) helps us enhance our offerings and user experience.

  • Notifications: Sending relevant updates, including new features, Realspace events, app announcements, friend requests, and Circle invitations. You can manage notification preferences in your settings.

  • Marketing & Communication: We may share updates about new features and Realspace offerings with you.

  • Aggregated Insights for Community Organizations: We may share aggregated and anonymized user preferences and activity patterns with community organizations to help them better understand engagement and tailor their offerings. This data will not identify individual users.

Note: Your profile data that identifies you is visible to other users based on your connections (e.g., friends) and your participation in Circles, in accordance with our platform's design and your privacy settings.

Data Sharing

We are committed to protecting your privacy and limit data sharing:

  • No Sale of Personal Information: We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

  • Service Providers: We use third-party services to help us operate Realspace. Our primary backend service provider is Supabase, which stores your data on our behalf and provides essential infrastructure like databases, authentication, and cloud functions. We ensure these providers adhere to strict data protection and confidentiality terms. Data shared with them is only for the purpose of providing and improving Realspace services.

  • Community Organizations (Specific Consent):

    • When you choose to join or interact with a specific Community Organization within Realspace, you consent to that organization having access to your profile information (as visible within Realspace) and your specific interactions with that organization's content, events, or features within the app. This allows the organization to manage its community and engage with its members effectively.

    • Separately, as mentioned under "Data Usage," Community Organizations may also receive anonymized, aggregated analytics about general user preferences within their relevant community scope, which does not identify you personally.

  • Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required by law, subpoena, or other legal process, or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (b) enforce our agreements with you; (c) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations; (d) protect the security or integrity of our Service; or (e) exercise or protect the rights and safety of Realspace, our users, personnel, or others.

User Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

  • Access and Update: You can view and update your profile information at any time through the settings within the Realspace app.

  • Account Deletion: You may delete your account at any time via the app settings. Upon account deletion, your personal data will be permanently removed from our active systems within 1 day. Residual data may persist in backups for a limited period as per our backup cycle before being completely erased.

  • Data Portability: You can request a copy of your personal data.

  • Restriction of Processing & Objection: You may have rights to restrict or object to certain processing of your data, subject to applicable law.

  • Withdrawal of Consent: Where we rely on consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the details provided below. We adhere to applicable data privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, ensuring your rights are respected.

Data Security

Protecting your data is a priority. We implement various security measures to safeguard it:

  • Encryption: All user data is transmitted securely using HTTPS/TLS encryption protocols. Data at rest is also encrypted by our backend provider, Supabase.

  • Session Tokens: We use secure session tokens for authentication. These tokens are essential for maintaining your logged-in state.

  • Row Level Security (RLS): Our database (Supabase) employs RLS to ensure users can only access data they are authorized to see.

  • Data Breach Management: In the unlikely event of a data breach that significantly impacts your personal information, we will take steps to mitigate the harm, reset relevant security measures (like session tokens if compromised), and promptly notify affected users in accordance with applicable laws, typically via in-app notification or email.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

  • Essential Cookies: Realspace uses cookies solely for storing session tokens. These are essential for secure access, authentication, and login functionality. Without these cookies, you would not be able to log in or stay logged in to Realspace.

  • Cookie Management: While you can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings, please note that disabling essential cookies required by Realspace will prevent you from using the app, as they are fundamental to its authentication and session management processes. We do not use cookies for non-essential tracking or advertising purposes.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your Realspace account remains active or as needed to provide you with our services. Upon account deletion, all associated personal data is permanently deleted from our active systems within 1 day. Anonymized and aggregated data, which cannot be used to identify you, may be retained for analytical purposes.

User Control Options

You have control over what data is visible on your profile. You can:

  • Adjust your privacy settings within the app.

  • Choose the visibility of optional profile information (like birthday, background photo).

  • Manage notification preferences for different types of alerts.

  • Opt out of non-essential marketing communications if such options are provided.

Children’s Privacy

Realspace is intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected such information, we will take steps to delete it promptly. Our service is not directed at children under 13 and therefore is not subject to COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) requirements specific to services targeting that age group.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

Realspace may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. When we make significant changes, we will notify you through in-app notifications or other prominent means (such as a modal view upon app launch) and update the "Effective Date" at the top of this policy. We encourage you to review this policy regularly.

Contact Information

For any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us at: Lucas@realspaceapp.com.