Ripple Privacy Policy
This policy explains what Ripple collects, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it. Ripple is based in Australia. If anything here is unclear, email hello@ripplesocial.me.
Last updated: 29 September 2026
The Short Version
- We don't show ads, and we don't sell your information.
- We don't track you across other apps or websites.
- We never ask for a selfie, a face scan, biometric data or government ID.
- AI never reads your messages, your photos or your profile.
- You can delete your account in the app at any time, and your data goes with it (see How Long We Keep It).
What You Give Us
- Phone number. You enter it at signup. We use it to verify your account and to help keep one account per person.
- Name and date of birth. Your name is shown on your profile. We use your date of birth to confirm you're 18 or over; it's hidden from others unless you choose to show your age.
- Gender (optional; you can choose "Prefer not to say").
- Suburb. You pick it from a list. We store it with approximate coordinates for that suburb, so we can show you events and people nearby.
- Interests, bio, prompts and social links you add to your profile.
- Photos you add to your profile, events, albums and chats. Photos are optional to sign up. Some features, such as RSVPing to most events, need at least 3 profile photos. We don't analyse your face.
- Email address, if you sign in with Google, Apple or email, or give one at checkout.
- What you do on Ripple: events you create, RSVP to or comment on, messages, connections, reactions, and reports or blocks you make.
- Answers to optional signup questions, such as how you heard about us.
- Payment details for hosts (optional): if you add bank or PayID details so guests can pay you, we store them encrypted and show them only to guests of your events.
Your Contacts (Optional)
If you allow access to your contacts:
- Your contacts never leave your phone in readable form. Before anything is sent, each phone number is scrambled into a one-way hashed code on your device.
- We receive and store only those codes. We never receive your contacts' names, phone numbers, photos or any other details, and we don't try to turn the codes back into numbers.
- We use the codes for one thing: matching them against the codes of people already on Ripple, so we can show you which contacts are here, suggest them as friends, and tell you when a contact joins later.
- We never use them for advertising, never sell them or give them to advertisers, and never use them to send anyone a message.
We still treat these codes as personal information and protect them that way, including for people in your contacts who don’t use Ripple. Codes for people who aren’t on Ripple are deleted 12 months after you last synced your contacts, and all the codes you uploaded are deleted when you delete your account. You can turn contact access off in your phone’s settings at any time.
What We Collect Automatically
- Device information: device type, operating system, app version and a device identifier.
- IP address, when you sign up and when you open the app.
- How you use the app and website, including session recordings (see Analytics and Session Recordings).
- Location. We don't track your location. If you tap "find me" on the map, your phone's GPS moves the map once; the location is not stored or sent to us.
- Cookies and similar storage on our website, used only by our own analytics. We use no advertising cookies.
How We Use It
- To run Ripple: accounts, events, RSVPs, tickets, messages and notifications.
- To suggest things. Event suggestions use your suburb, age, interests, friends, the organisers you follow and what you've RSVP'd to or hidden. Friend suggestions use your contacts (if you allowed access), mutual friends, events you've both been to, distance, age and shared interests.
- To keep people safe. Reports, blocks and verification decide what an account can do (see Automated Decisions). We use phone numbers, email addresses, device identifiers and IP addresses to spot people who try to come back after being banned.
- To fix and improve the app, using analytics, session recordings and error reports.
- To contact you about your events, friends and account, by push notification, SMS or email. You can turn push notifications off in your phone's settings, and every marketing SMS and email has an unsubscribe option.
Analytics and Session Recordings
We use PostHog to understand how Ripple is used. This includes session recordings, which capture what was on your screen while you used Ripple, including text and images. We pause recording during payment and sign-in screens. We use recordings to find bugs and improve the product. We delete them after 30 days. PostHog does not store your IP address for us.
Who We Share It With
Other Ripple users see your profile, and see events, RSVPs, comments and photos according to each event’s visibility settings.
Service providers process information for us, and only for the purposes above:
| Provider | What for |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosting, database and photo storage |
| PostHog | Analytics and session recordings |
| Sentry | Error reports |
| Stripe | Ticket payments and host payouts. We never see your card details |
| Twilio | SMS, including verification codes |
| Resend | |
| Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) | Push notifications |
| Suburb search (Places) and Google sign-in | |
| Apple | Apple sign-in |
| Anthropic | AI that reads event listings only, to categorise events and to fill in an event from a link you paste. It never receives your messages, photos or profile |
Some of these providers are in the United States, so your information may be stored and processed outside Australia.
We share information with authorities only when the law requires it, or to protect someone from serious harm.
What we don’t do: we don’t sell your information, show ads, share data with advertisers or data brokers, or buy information about you from others. When we reach out to event organisers and hosts, we may use information they’ve published themselves, such as public event listings and social media profiles.
How Long We Keep It, and Deleting Your Account
You can delete your account in Settings > Delete account. (If you’re hosting a future event with paid tickets, you’ll need to cancel it first so guests can be refunded.) When you do:
| What | What happens |
|---|---|
| Your account, profile, messages, comments, RSVPs, connections, contacts codes and notifications | Deleted immediately |
| Events you created | Deleted immediately, including guests' comments and photos on them |
| Your photos (profile, album, chat, event banners) | Deleted within 2 days |
| Analytics data and session recordings | Deleted with your account |
| Email and SMS delivery logs | Your address and number are removed immediately. Logs are deleted after 90 days |
| Database backups | Deleted information disappears from our rolling backups within 7 days |
| Safety record (only if your account was reported, blocked or restricted) | A scrambled (hashed) copy of your phone number and email, plus counts of reports and blocks, is kept for 2 years to stop banned people rejoining. It contains no profile, messages or photos |
Some of our service providers keep their own copies of limited information under their own retention rules and legal obligations, and we don’t control how long they keep it. In particular, Sentry keeps error reports, and Stripe keeps records of ticket payments and host accounts. Those copies are covered by each provider’s own privacy policy. Hosts can close their Stripe account directly with Stripe.
If you delete a single message, we keep a copy for 90 days in case it’s reported, then delete it. If you delete an album photo that has been reported, we keep it for up to 90 days while we review the report.
While your account is open, we keep your information for as long as you use Ripple.
Your Rights
- See or correct your information. Most of it you can edit in the app. For anything else, email hello@ripplesocial.me and we’ll respond within 30 days.
- Delete it: see How Long We Keep It, and Deleting Your Account.
- Complain. Email us first. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.
Automated Decisions
Ripple has trust levels. Some features, such as RSVPing to most events or messaging people you haven’t met, open up as you verify your phone, complete your profile and take part in events. Reports and blocks from other users can lower your level automatically. If you think a decision about your account is wrong, email hello@ripplesocial.me and a person will look at it.
Age and the 18+ Requirement
Ripple is 18+. We collect your date of birth at signup to confirm this and don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. The law requires us to take reasonable steps to confirm our users are adults, and we may introduce more age checks later. If we do, we’ll update this policy and tell you before collecting anything new for that purpose.
Security
We encrypt information in transit, store host payment details encrypted, and limit staff access to what’s needed to run and moderate Ripple. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we’ll tell you and the OAIC as the law requires.
Changes
When we change this policy we’ll update the date at the top. For significant changes, we’ll tell you in the app before they take effect.
Contact Us
Questions about this policy or your information: hello@ripplesocial.me