Halfie Privacy Policy
Effective date: 24 October 2026
Last updated: 24 October 2026
1. Who we are
1.1. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect when you use Halfie, the iPhone app (with its widgets and Apple Watch app) for couples who live apart, and the related websites and services (together, the "Service"). It also explains why we use the data, who receives it, how long we keep it and what your rights are.
1.2. The controller of your personal data is Individual Entrepreneur Renat Shakirov, an individual entrepreneur registered in Georgia under identification number 305811501, with the registered address Ferdinand Tavadze Street 3, Building 5, Vake District, Tbilisi, Georgia ("we", "us", "our"). You can contact us about anything in this Privacy Policy at shelbulab@gmail.com.
1.3. Please read this Privacy Policy together with our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.
1.4. Halfie is for adults only. You must be 18 or older to use it (see section 11).
2. The short version
- Halfie exists to connect you with one partner. Almost everything you put into Halfie is meant to be seen by that partner, and only by them.
- We have no ads, no tracking, no analytics or advertising software in the app, no AI processing, and we do not sell your data.
- Our servers and file storage are in Germany (Hetzner).
- Private, the 18+ chat, is off until each of you turns it on. Its messages are deleted automatically after 7 days (30 days with Halfie Plus), view-once photos are deleted as soon as they have been viewed, and everything in Private is erased for both of you if you disconnect.
- Private messages, photos and videos are end-to-end encrypted. They are encrypted on your phone, and only your and your partner's devices hold the keys. Our server stores them only in encrypted form until they are deleted, and we cannot read them. We can see delivery information: that a message was sent, when, its size and whether it is a photo or a video. If you report a message, your phone sends us a readable copy of it with your consent, so that we can review it.
- You can delete your account in the app at any time.
3. Personal data we collect
3.1. Account and profile.
| Data | Details |
|---|---|
| Apple account identifier | The app-specific user identifier that Apple issues when you use Sign in with Apple. |
| Email address | The email address Apple shares with us at sign-in. If you choose "Hide My Email", it is an Apple private relay address that forwards to you. |
| Sign in with Apple token | A token from Apple that we keep only so that we can revoke Halfie's access to your Apple account when you delete your account. |
| Name | The first name you enter, and the name Apple shares if you allow it. |
| Profile photo | The photo you choose, cropped to a square. Optional. |
| City and time zone | The city you pick from a search list, the coordinates of that city (not of you or your phone) and its time zone. |
| Dates | Your "together since" date and birthdays, if you add them. |
| Age check | Your age band (for example "18+") and how it was checked: Apple's Declared Age Range feature, or a year of birth you entered yourself. If you entered a year of birth, we keep that year as the record of the check. |
| Settings | Your choices for Private, notifications, quiet hours and the streak. |
3.2. Your couple.
| Data | Details |
|---|---|
| Partner link | Who you are connected with, when the link started and, if it ended, when. |
| Invites | Your invite code and link, and when they expire. While an invite is active, anyone who has the link or code can see your first name and profile photo, so that your partner knows the invite is from you. |
| Photos of the day | Photos you take in the app, including drawings you add and captions, handwritten notes, and when they were taken. |
| Likes | The hearts you put on your partner's photos. |
| Touches | The touches and "Miss you" taps you send, their time and pattern, and any custom touch patterns you record. |
| Voice notes | Voice messages of up to 30 seconds. |
| Question of the day | Your answers (text, choices, rankings or photos), and the days you skipped. |
| Streak | Which days each of you did something in the app. |
| Plans | Dates and visits (with a city), your wishlist (title, link, price, note), items your partner marked "I've got this", and your gift log (title, date, photo, note). |
| About me | Details you choose to give your partner, mostly for gifts: email, phone number, delivery address, clothing, shoe and ring sizes, favorites (such as flowers or a coffee order), things to avoid (such as allergies) and a note. Every field is optional. Only your partner sees it, and it stops being visible to them the moment either of you disconnects. |
3.3. Private. If you turn Private on:
| Data | Details |
|---|---|
| Messages | Text, photos and short videos (up to 15 seconds) you send in Private, and how each photo may be viewed (view once, or keep for 24 hours). |
| Viewing events | When a message was delivered and opened. |
| Screenshot events | When the app detects that you took a screenshot in Private. Your partner is told about it, and so are you. |
| Reports | A report you make about a message, its reason, and what we decided. |
3.4. Purchases. Halfie Plus is sold through the Apple App Store. Apple sends us transaction information through the App Store Server API and App Store Server Notifications: the product, transaction identifiers, dates, the subscription status, and renewal, cancellation and refund events. We never receive your card or bank details.
3.5. Devices and notifications. To send notifications to your iPhone and Apple Watch, we store each device's push notification token, its platform (iOS or watchOS), whether it is a test or live device, and its time zone.
3.6. Server data. Our servers process the technical data needed to run and protect the Service: the IP address and time of each request, the request path and result, and error messages. We also keep a short audit trail of security-relevant account events, such as sign-ins, pairing, disconnecting and account deletion.
3.7. Messages to us. If you write to us or report something, we keep your message, your email address and anything you attach.
3.8. What we do not collect. We do not collect your precise location or track where you are: we only store the city you choose. Halfie does not access your contacts. It uses your camera and microphone only when you take a photo or record a voice note, and your photo library only when you pick a photo. We do not use advertising identifiers, and the app contains no advertising, analytics or tracking software.
3.9. Our websites. The websites where these pages and invite pages are published do not use cookies, analytics or tracking technologies.
3.10. What you have to give us. An Apple account, a first name, a city and an age check are needed to use Halfie. Everything else is up to you.
4. Who can see what
4.1. Your partner. Halfie is built for two people. Your partner sees your name, photo, city, local time, the weather in your city, the distance between you, a status worked out from your local time (such as "Asleep" or "At work"), and everything you send or share with them: photos of the day, notes, likes, touches, voice notes, your answers once you have both answered, dates, your wishlist, gifts you log, your About me card, your Private messages and screenshot notices. A few things stay hidden on purpose: you do not see which items on your own wishlist your partner has marked "I've got this", your answer to the question of the day stays hidden until you have both answered.
4.2. What your partner can do. We cannot control what your partner does with what you send them. Screenshots in Private are blocked where iOS allows and your partner is told about them, but anyone can photograph a screen with another device (see the Terms of Use).
4.3. Information about your partner. Some things you add are about your partner, such as their birthday or a gift. Please add only what your partner would expect to see in your shared space.
4.4. Nobody else. Halfie has no public profiles, no search for other users and no public sharing. Content leaves Halfie only if you or your partner choose to share it, for example by sharing your monthly recap (which never includes anything from Private).
5. Why we use your data, and our legal bases
5.1. Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the UK GDPR applies, we rely on the legal bases below.
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Creating your account, signing you in, connecting you with your partner and providing the features of Halfie | Account and profile data, couple data, devices | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Showing your partner your local time, the weather in your city and the distance between you | City, coordinates of the city, time zone | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Providing Private | Private data | Your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a)), which you give when you turn Private on (see 5.2) |
| Telling your partner about a screenshot in Private | Screenshot events | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) and, for Private, your consent |
| Sending notifications | Push tokens, the type of event and the sender's name | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Selling and managing Halfie Plus for your couple | Purchase data, partner link | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Checking that you are 18 or older | Age check | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) and our legitimate interest in keeping minors out of an adult service (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Handling reports of non-consensual or illegal content, enforcing our Terms and cooperating with authorities | Reports, the reported content, account data | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) and our legitimate interest in protecting users and others (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Keeping the Service secure and preventing abuse | Server data, audit trail | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Answering your messages | Messages to us | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) and, for requests about your rights, legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) |
| Keeping transaction records for tax and accounting | Purchase data | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) |
5.2. Private and sensitive data. Private messages may reveal information about your sex life, which the law treats as a special category of personal data. We process it only because you explicitly ask us to: Private stays off until you turn it on for yourself, and you confirm this with Face ID or your passcode. You can withdraw that consent at any time by turning Private off, by using Erase Private, by disconnecting or by deleting your account. Turning Private off pauses it; erasing it deletes its contents for both of you. Withdrawal does not affect processing that happened before.
5.3. What we never do. We do not use your data for advertising, we do not sell or rent it, we do not build marketing profiles, and we do not use your content to train AI models. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
6. Who receives your data
6.1. We share personal data only with the following recipients.
| Recipient | What for | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany) | Hosting our servers, database and file storage | All data stored by the Service. Hetzner acts as our processor under a data processing agreement. |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, push notifications (Apple Push Notification service), App Store purchases, and the city search in the app (MapKit) | Your Apple sign-in data; the text of notifications we send you, such as "Alex sent a photo" (with Hide text on Lock Screen on, Private notifications contain no content); your purchases; your city search queries, which go from your phone to Apple directly. Apple's processing is also governed by its own privacy policy. |
| Apple WeatherKit | The weather shown for your partner's city | The Halfie app on your iPhone asks Apple's weather service for the weather at the coordinates of your partner's chosen city. Apple receives those coordinates from your device; we send Apple nothing. |
| Our email provider | Receiving messages and report alerts at shelbulab@gmail.com | Messages you send us, and alerts about reports. |
| Authorities and others where required | Complying with the law, responding to valid legal requests, reporting child sexual abuse material, protecting the safety of any person, and establishing or defending legal claims | Only what is required in the specific case. |
| A successor to our business | A merger, acquisition or transfer of assets | Your data, on terms consistent with this Privacy Policy. We will tell you first. |
6.2. Our processors act only on our instructions and must keep your data confidential and secure.
7. How long we keep your data
7.1. We keep personal data for the periods below.
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Account and profile data | While your account exists. An account without an active Halfie Plus subscription that nobody has opened for 12 months is deleted as an inactive account (see 7.4) |
| Your own photos, notes, voice notes, answers, plans and other content | While your account exists, unless you delete them earlier |
| Private text messages | 7 days after sending, or 30 days with Halfie Plus, unless deleted earlier |
| Private photos and videos set to view once | Deleted from our storage as soon as your partner has finished viewing them. If never opened, deleted when the message expires. |
| Private photos set to keep for 24 hours (Halfie Plus) | 24 hours after they are first opened, and never longer than the message itself |
| Screenshot notices | Until Private is erased, the couple disconnects or the account is deleted |
| Everything in Private | Erased immediately for both partners when either of you uses Erase Private, disconnects or deletes their account |
| About me | While your account exists; hidden from your former partner immediately when you disconnect |
| Shared couple content after a disconnect | See 7.2 |
| Invites | Until used, cancelled or expired |
| Reported content | Hidden for both partners as soon as it is reported, and deleted once we have reviewed it, unless the law requires us to preserve it (for example for a report to the authorities), in which case we keep it only for the period required |
| Report records (who reported, reason, decision, dates) | 12 months after the decision, or longer if needed for a legal claim or a request from the authorities |
| Push notification tokens | Until you sign out, delete your account, or Apple tells us the token is no longer valid |
| Purchase and transaction records | For the period required by tax, accounting and consumer protection law |
| Server logs, including IP addresses | Overwritten automatically on rotation, within 14 days |
| Security audit trail | 12 months |
| Messages to us | As long as needed to deal with your message, and no longer than 2 years after our last exchange |
7.2. If you disconnect. Either partner can disconnect at any time. When you do:
- Private is erased on both phones and on our servers straight away.
- Nothing new is shared between you, and your Halfie Plus status follows the person who pays (see the Terms of Use).
- Each of you keeps your own photos and the things you created.
- The shared copy of your couple's history (the feed with both partners' photos, likes, answers, shared dates and the wishlist) is kept for 30 days and then deleted. If you want your content gone sooner, delete it, or delete your account.
7.3. If you delete your account. Your account and your content are deleted from our live systems straight away, your partner is disconnected and told, Private is erased for both of you, and we revoke Halfie's access to your Apple account. Deleted data can remain in our backups for up to 30 days before the backups are overwritten. We keep only what we must keep by law, such as transaction records.
7.4. Inactive accounts. If you have no active Halfie Plus subscription and nobody has opened Halfie on your account for 12 months, we delete the account as described in 7.3. At least 30 days before, we tell you with a notification and, if we have your email address, by email; opening the app once keeps the account. If you were paired, your partner is disconnected and told.
8. Your choices
8.1. Delete content. You can delete your own photos and other content in the app. In Private, either partner can delete any message for both of you, or erase all of Private, at any time.
8.2. Private. Private is off by default. You can turn it off, disallow photos, blur photos and hide notification text on the Lock Screen in Settings.
8.3. Notifications. You can turn notifications off in the app or in iOS Settings, and set quiet hours.
8.4. Delete your account. In the app, open Settings and tap Delete account. Deleting the app alone does not delete your account. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription; cancel it in your Apple account settings.
8.5. Email. You can hide your email address from us with Apple's "Hide My Email". We only email you about your account, your requests or legal matters.
9. Your rights in the EEA, the UK and Georgia
9.1. Subject to the conditions and exceptions in the law, you have the right to:
- access your personal data and get a copy of it;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data erased;
- restrict how we use your data;
- object to processing based on our legitimate interests;
- receive the data you gave us in a structured, machine-readable format and have it sent to another service; and
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.
9.2. To use these rights, write to shelbulab@gmail.com. We may ask you to confirm the request from the email address linked to your account. We reply within one month. If a request is complex, or we receive many, we may extend this by up to two more months and will tell you if we do.
9.3. Some data, such as messages and photos in your couple's space, also concerns your partner. When you ask for access or a copy, we give you what you sent and received, but we may need to protect your partner's rights, for example by leaving out data that is only about them.
9.4. You can complain to a data protection authority, in particular in the country where you live or work or where you think your rights were breached. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner's Office. In Georgia, where we are established, it is the Personal Data Protection Service of Georgia, and our processing is also subject to the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection.
10. Your rights in the United States
10.1. If you live in California or another US state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you have the right, subject to exceptions, to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose and to get a copy of it; to have it deleted; to have inaccurate information corrected; and not to be discriminated against for using these rights.
10.2. In the last 12 months we have collected these categories of personal information: identifiers (Apple account identifier, email address, IP address, push notification tokens); customer records (name); characteristics (age band); commercial information (purchases); internet or other electronic network activity (use of features, screenshot events, server logs); approximate geolocation (the city you choose); audio, electronic and visual information (photos, videos, voice notes); and sensitive personal information (the contents of your Private messages, and information about your sex life that Private may reveal). Sections 3 to 7 describe the sources, purposes, recipients and retention.
10.3. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we have not done so in the last 12 months. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
10.4. We use sensitive personal information only to provide the Service you asked for, to keep it secure and to comply with the law. We do not use it to infer characteristics about you. Because of this, the right to limit the use of sensitive personal information does not apply.
10.5. To make a request, write to shelbulab@gmail.com or delete your account in the app. We verify requests by confirming that they come from the account concerned. You may use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof of your signed permission and ask you to confirm your identity with us directly.
10.6. If we turn down your request, you can appeal by replying to our decision or by writing to shelbulab@gmail.com with "Privacy appeal" in the subject line. We answer appeals within the time the law requires.
11. Adults only
11.1. Halfie is not for anyone under 18. At sign-up we check your age band with Apple's Declared Age Range feature or, where that is not available, ask for your year of birth. If you are under 18, you cannot create an account.
11.2. If we learn that a user is under 18, we close the account, disconnect their partner and delete the data. If you think someone under 18 is using Halfie, please tell us at shelbulab@gmail.com.
11.3. Sexual images of anyone under 18 are never allowed. We report child sexual abuse material to the competent authorities, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) where applicable, and we preserve it only as the law requires for that purpose.
12. Security
12.1. We protect your data with measures suited to the risk, including:
- encryption in transit (HTTPS) for all traffic between the app and our servers;
- end-to-end encryption of Private messages, photos and videos, with keys that never leave your devices;
- private file storage, where each photo, video or voice note can only be fetched through a link that expires after an hour (60 seconds for Private);
- deletion of view-once media right after viewing;
- Face ID or passcode every time Private is opened, and hiding Private during screen recording and AirPlay;
- sign-in sessions kept in the iOS Keychain; and
- access to production systems limited to authorised personnel.
12.2. No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and the authorities where the law requires it.
13. International transfers
13.1. Our servers and storage are in Germany. We operate from Georgia, and Apple processes data in the United States and elsewhere.
13.2. When we transfer personal data from the EEA or the UK to a country without an adequacy decision, we use appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum where needed) or, for certified recipients, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us about these safeguards at shelbulab@gmail.com.
14. Changes to this Privacy Policy
14.1. We may update this Privacy Policy. The date at the top shows the latest version. We will tell you about material changes in the app before they take effect.
14.2. If a change affects how we process Private content, we will ask for your consent again before it applies to you.
15. Contact
Individual Entrepreneur Renat Shakirov
Ferdinand Tavadze Street 3, Building 5, Vake District, Tbilisi, Georgia
shelbulab@gmail.com