Privacy policy

Who we are

PickleSphere (picklesphere.app and the PickleSphere Android app) is run by i G Education Limited, United Kingdom, the data controller for your personal data. Questions, requests and complaints: info@igeducationlimited.com.

What we collect

• Account: email address, password (stored hashed by our sign-in provider), display name, @handle, profile photo, banner, bio and social links you add.
• Sign-up details: date of birth, gender, nationality, country and city of residence, mobile number, occupation, interests, language and, where your country requires it, a parent or guardian’s email and consent. These are never shown publicly.
• What you post: posts, photos, videos, stories, comments, likes, reposts, bookmarks, Pickle Market listings, reports and direct messages (including photos, videos and voice notes you send).
• Activity: follows, blocks, mutes, XP, badges, wheel spins, notifications, screenshot alerts in chats, and your privacy and notification settings.
• Device and usage: IP address, approximate country (from your IP address, used for prices in your currency), browser and device type, pages viewed and session times, used for security, abuse prevention and service statistics.
• Push notifications: if you turn them on, the push address your browser gives us for that device.
• Payments: Ad-Free subscriptions and ad campaigns are paid through Stripe. We receive your Stripe customer and subscription references and the amount paid; we never see or store your card details.
• Contacts: if you use “Find friends”, the emails and phone numbers from contacts you choose are sent to us only to look for matching members. They are not stored.

Face ID / fingerprint unlock stays on your device; we never receive biometric data.

How we use it

• To run PickleSphere: your account, feeds, stories, messages, the Pickle Market, rewards and notifications.
• To apply the minimum-age and parental-consent rules of your country and to keep under-18 accounts private.
• To keep the community safe: moderating reports, preventing spam and abuse, and enforcing our terms.
• To show sponsored posts from businesses (not shown to Ad-Free members) and count their views and clicks.
• To take payments and keep financial records.

Our legal bases under the UK GDPR are performing our contract with you, our legitimate interests in running a safe service, your consent (for data sharing, contact matching and push notifications) and legal obligations.

Who we share it with

• Other members see what you post and your profile, according to your audience and privacy settings.
• Service providers that process data for us: Netlify (hosting, database, file storage and sign-in, servers in the United States), Stripe (payments) and your browser’s push service (Google, Apple or Mozilla) for notifications.
• Data and marketing partners, only if you opt in: account details such as name, email, date of birth, gender, nationality, location, occupation, interests and activity statistics may be included in data sheets shared with third-party data and marketing partners. This is off unless you opt in when you join, members under 18 are never included, and you can turn on “Don’t share my data” in Settings → Privacy at any time.
• Authorities, when the law requires it.

Phone numbers, passwords, messages and contact lists are never shared with partners. We don’t sell data in any other way.

Where data is stored outside the UK (for example in the United States), it’s protected by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or equivalent safeguards.

How long we keep it

• Your account and content are kept until you delete them or your account.
• Stories disappear after 24 hours; disappearing messages are deleted once seen.
• When you delete your account, your login, profile, posts, stories, comments, likes, messages, listings and uploaded files are deleted straight away. A copy of content that was reported to moderators, records of payments and moderation, and security logs may be kept for as long as needed for safety, legal and accounting reasons (normally up to 6 years for financial records).

Your rights

You can see and change most of your data in Settings, switch data sharing off, and delete your account at any time. Under the UK GDPR you can also ask for a copy of your data, correction, deletion, restriction, or object to processing, and withdraw consent: email info@igeducationlimited.com. You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

Children

You must meet the minimum age for your country to join (13 or more, depending on the country), and younger teens need a parent or guardian’s consent where the law requires it. Under-18 accounts are always private, can only receive messages from people they follow, can’t sell in the Pickle Market and are never included in data sharing.

Cookies and storage

We use only what the app needs: sign-in cookies, your language and “Remember me” choice, an admin security cookie for moderators, and on-device storage for your theme, device unlock and app files so it opens quickly. We don’t use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

Security and changes

Data is sent over HTTPS, passwords are hashed, and moderators use two-step sign-in. If we change this policy we’ll update the date above and, for important changes, tell you in the app.