Privacy Policy

Effective date & last updated: May 2026

Meld ("we", "us", "the app") is a social drawing & AR reveal game. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what choices you have.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Account information

Email & password – stored and managed by Firebase Authentication. We never see or store your password in plaintext.
Sign in with Google – when you choose this option, we receive your Google account email and display name from Google to create or sign in to your Meld account.
Sign in with Apple (iOS only) – when you choose this option, we receive an Apple user identifier and, if you allow it, your name and email address. You may choose to share a private relay email (Apple-generated) instead of your real address; either works.
Display name & username – chosen by you, stored in our database.
You may also sign in anonymously; no personal data is collected in that case. If you later link an email address, Google account, or Apple ID to an anonymous account, all data created during the anonymous session becomes associated with your new account.

1.2 Content you create

Drawings – PNG images created in game rooms, stored temporarily in Firebase Storage.
Selfies – photos taken during the room reveal phase, stored temporarily in Firebase Storage.
Gallery screenshots – AR screenshots you choose to save, stored persistently in your private gallery until you delete them or delete your account.

1.3 Device & usage data

Firebase Analytics collects anonymous event data (e.g., mode switches, feature adoption, ad views). We also store a single user property (user_type: free or premium). No names or emails are attached to analytics events.
Push-notification token (FCM token) – stored to deliver notifications you have opted into.
Presence – an "active" flag and a timestamp updated while the app is in the foreground, so friends can see when you are online. You can disable this in Settings.

1.4 Purchase data

In-app purchases are processed entirely by Apple App Store or Google Play. We store only the product identifier and purchase timestamp to unlock features.
Watching a rewarded ad (Google AdMob) grants a temporary premium unlock (max 24 hours). Meld does not show banner, interstitial, or any other ad format.

2. How We Use Your Information

Purpose	Data used
Provide the game experience (rooms, drawing, AR reveal)	Account info, drawings, selfies
Show friends' online status	Presence flag & timestamp
Send push notifications (friend requests, drawing ready, etc.)	FCM token, notification preferences
Content moderation	Uploaded images (see §3)
Improve the app & fix bugs	Anonymous analytics events
Serve non-personalized ads	Coarse location (IP-derived) and the device advertising identifier
Unlock premium features	Purchase identifiers

3. Content Safety & Moderation

Every drawing, selfie, and gallery screenshot is automatically scanned for sexual and violent content using Azure AI Content Safety.

The image is sent to Azure's API in encoded form. Azure does not retain images after processing.
If a severity score of 2 or above (on a 0–6 scale) is detected, the image is immediately deleted from our storage and the upload is blocked.
Violations are logged in an internal audit trail that records the user ID, storage path, flagged categories, and timestamp.
The system is fail-closed: if the safety API is unreachable, the upload is rejected rather than allowed through.

4. Third-Party Services

Service	Data shared	Their privacy policy
Firebase (Google)	Auth credentials, Firestore data, Storage files, analytics events, FCM tokens	firebase.google.com/support/privacy
Google AdMob	Device advertising identifier, IP address, ad interaction data (non-personalized ads only)	policies.google.com/privacy
RevenueCat	Pseudonymous app user ID and purchase events (used to manage entitlements and restore purchases)	revenuecat.com/privacy
Azure AI Content Safety (Microsoft)	Uploaded images for moderation	privacy.microsoft.com
Sign in with Apple	Apple user identifier; optionally name and email (which may be an Apple-generated private relay address)	apple.com/legal/privacy
Google Sign-In	Google account identifier, email, and display name	policies.google.com/privacy
Apple / Google IAP	Transaction data for purchases	Platform privacy policies

5. Data Retention

Room data (drawings & selfies) – automatically deleted 7 days after the room is created via a scheduled cleanup process.
Gallery screenshots – kept until you manually delete them or delete your account.
Account data – kept until you delete your account.
Presence – the "active" flag is cleared automatically if the app is inactive for more than 5 minutes.
Security audit logs – retained indefinitely for compliance and abuse prevention.

6. Your Choices & Controls

Presence visibility – toggle "Show Active Status" off in Settings to hide your online status from friends.
Notification preferences – enable or disable each notification category (friend requests, accepted requests, drawing submitted) independently in Settings.
Gallery management – delete individual gallery items at any time.
iOS personalized ads – Meld serves only non-personalized ads on iOS. We do not request the App Tracking Transparency permission and do not link advertising data with third-party data for tracking purposes.
Delete your account – available in your Profile under "Danger Zone". This permanently deletes:
- Your profile, username claim, gallery, entitlements, and purchase records
- All friend requests and friendships
- All files in Firebase Storage associated with your account
- Your Firebase Authentication account
This action is irreversible.
Access & portability – you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you by contacting us at the email below. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Camera and Face Data

Meld uses the device camera, and on supported iOS devices the TrueDepth face-tracking API (ARKit ARFaceTrackingConfiguration), to align AR drawings to the user's face during the Reveal feature and to capture selfies in game rooms. On Android and on iOS devices without TrueDepth, face detection and face-mesh processing are performed with Google ML Kit.

What is collected. A transient 3D face mesh (vertex positions and head pose) and standard camera frames. No raw depth maps, biometric templates, FaceID data, or identity signatures are accessed.

How it is processed. Face geometry and camera frames are processed entirely on your device, in memory, on a per-frame basis. They are consumed frame-by-frame to render the AR overlay and discarded immediately when the frame is rendered or the user exits the Reveal screen.

Retention. Face data is not retained. Nothing derived from the face mesh or camera feed is written to disk, to iCloud, to Firebase, or to any analytics provider. Only photos you explicitly choose to save are uploaded to your private gallery.

Sharing. Face data is never sold, shared, transmitted, or otherwise disclosed to any third party, advertiser, analytics provider, or affiliate.

Purpose limitation. Face data is used solely to align hand-drawn sketches to the user's face in the AR Reveal experience. It is not used for identity verification, authentication, advertising, profiling, fraud detection, or training machine-learning models.

8. Children's Privacy

Meld is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.

9. Security

We use Firebase's built-in security (TLS in transit, encryption at rest), Firestore security rules, and server-side Cloud Functions with authentication gates to protect your data. Content safety scanning adds an additional layer of protection.

10. Data Location & Jurisdiction

Your data is stored and processed on servers in the United States via Google Cloud (Firebase). Content safety scans are processed by Microsoft Azure. By using Meld, you consent to the transfer of your data to these services. Our operations are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, contact us at:
deverobelfon@gmail.com

Your use of Meld is also subject to our Terms of Service.