This is the privacy policy for the HeyGroop mobile app. It says what the app collects, what it deliberately doesn't, and where we've chosen to be blunt rather than flattering.
HeyGroop helps a small group make decisions together without the noise. It is built to be Ultra-Private: no ads, no data harvesting, nothing sold. You don't give us your name, your phone number, your contacts, or an email to use the app. Every permission is opt-in, and everything you share is scoped to the one Groop you share it in — not the app as a whole. The rest of this page is the plain-language detail behind that.
There's no traditional account. When you first create or join a Groop, the app creates an identity that lives on your device — a private key that never leaves your phone — plus an anonymous sign-in that lets the app talk to our servers. We don't attach a name, email, or phone number to it. Inside a Groop you choose a display name, which the other members of that Groop can see; you can use a different name in a different Groop.
We don't create anything for you just for opening the app and looking around. Data exists only once you take an action:
Your Groops' content — decisions, constraints, and messages — is stored on our servers as readable data, not end-to-end encrypted. It is transmitted over encrypted connections and kept in a database that is not publicly readable, and access is restricted by security rules, but we want to be straight with you: HeyGroop does not currently offer end-to-end encryption, and we don't claim it anywhere. The app's decision engine needs to read a Groop's thread to do its job, and end-to-end encryption would blind it. If that ever changes, this page will say so.
HeyGroop asks for exactly three permissions, each at its least-invasive level, each tied to a feature the app actually has. We explain each one on its own screen before the system asks, and "Not now" is a real answer — declining costs you only the feature it powers, and you can turn any of them on later from the You screen.
Used only to tell you when a decision is ready to move — for example, when one more answer would lock in a plan. We never notify you about chat activity, presence, unread counts, or to lure you back into the app.
By design, HeyGroop does not request your contacts (you join by link, with a name only — no phone number needed), background or "Always" location, full calendar event contents, or your camera, microphone, photo library, health, motion, or other sensors. If a future feature ever needs one of these, we'll ask for it then, in the release that adds that feature, and update this page.
If you report a message, decision, constraint, or member, the report records what was reported, where, by whom, and the reason you chose — never a copy of the content itself. The content stays only where it already lived. Reports go to a private queue that a person at Steamboat reviews. You can also block another member's content within a Groop; blocking is applied on your device.
You can delete your data at any time, in the app, at You → Delete my data. Here is exactly what that does, because "delete" means something specific for a shared record:
Deletion also removes your notification token and any location you were sharing. There is no server-side copy of your device's private key for us to hold — it only ever existed on your phone.
HeyGroop's backend runs on Google Firebase (Firestore, Authentication, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging), which processes data on our behalf. Push notifications are delivered through Apple and Google's notification services. We don't sell, rent, or share your data with advertisers or data brokers, ever.
HeyGroop is not directed to children and is not intended for use by anyone under 14.
If we change how the app handles your data, we'll update this page and change the "Last updated" date above. Material changes to a shipped feature will be reflected here before or when that change ships.
Questions about your data, or a request related to it, can go to support@steamboatsoftware.com. HeyGroop is built by Steamboat Software LLC.