Simply a Friend
This Privacy Notice for Simply a Friend ("we," "us," or "our") describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your personal information when you use our services ("Services"), including when you:
Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@simplyafriend.com.
What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the choices you make.
Do we process any sensitive personal information? We may process sensitive personal information when necessary with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.
Do we collect any information from third parties? We do not collect any information from third parties.
How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law.
How do we keep your information safe? We have adequate organizational and technical processes in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
What are your rights? Depending on where you are located, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information.
How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way is by visiting your manage page and cancelling your subscription, which permanently deletes all your data immediately.
1. What Information Do We Collect?
2. How Do We Process Your Information?
3. What Legal Bases Do We Rely On?
4. When and With Whom Do We Share Your Personal Information?
5. Do We Offer Artificial Intelligence-Based Products?
6. Is Your Information Transferred Internationally?
7. How Long Do We Keep Your Information?
8. How Do We Keep Your Information Safe?
9. Do We Collect Information From Minors?
10. What Are Your Privacy Rights?
11. Controls for Do-Not-Track Features
12. Do United States Residents Have Specific Privacy Rights?
13. Do Other Regions Have Specific Privacy Rights?
18. Right to Withdraw From Matching
19. Do We Make Updates to This Notice?
20. How Can You Contact Us About This Notice?
21. How Can You Review, Update, or Delete the Data We Collect From You?
In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the Services, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us.
The personal information we collect may include: names, email addresses, mailing addresses, contact preferences, billing addresses, debit/credit card numbers, personal life details and memories shared in letters, communication preferences and letter content, mailing address of letter recipients, subscription plan and payment history, approximate location data, and letter history and correspondence records.
Because Simply a Friend uses AI to write personalized letters, we process the content of the information you share with us — including personal stories, life details, memories, and preferences shared during onboarding and through ongoing correspondence. This content is used solely to personalize your letters and improve the pen pal relationship over time.
We only collect sensitive personal information if you voluntarily share it in your pen pal onboarding form or in your correspondence with us. We do not require you to share sensitive information. When such information is shared and processing is necessary, we do so only with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.
All payment data is handled and stored by Stripe. You may find their privacy notice at https://stripe.com/privacy. Simply a Friend never sees or stores your card details.
We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services, including IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, and information about how and when you use our Services.
Our use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law.
In Short: We only process your personal information when we have a valid legal reason to do so under applicable law.
If you are located in the EU or UK: We may rely on the following legal bases — Consent, Performance of a Contract, Legitimate Interests, Legal Obligations, and Vital Interests.
If you are located in Canada: We may process your information if you have given us express or implied consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
In Short: We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties.
The third parties we may share personal information with are:
In Short: Yes — we use AI to write your personalized letters.
We use Large Language Models (LLMs) provided by Anthropic to generate your letters. We do not use your personal stories or correspondence to train these models for third parties, nor do we allow our AI providers to retain your data for their own model training. All personal information processed using our AI products is handled in line with this Privacy Notice.
To opt out, cancel your subscription at any time from your manage page.
Our servers are located in the United States. If you access our Services from any other region, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored by, and processed by us and our third-party providers in the United States and other countries. If you are a resident in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we will take all necessary measures to protect your personal information in accordance with applicable law.
In Short: Only for as long as your subscription is active. When you cancel, everything is deleted immediately.
We will only keep your personal information for as long as your subscription is active. When you cancel your subscription, all your data is permanently and automatically deleted — your profile, every letter, every reply, and all memories your pen pal has of you. Nothing is kept. No exceptions. There is no waiting period and no way to recover the data after cancellation.
We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, no electronic transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.
We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at support@simplyafriend.com.
In some regions (like the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws, including the right to access, rectify, erase, or port your personal information, and not to be subject to automated decision-making.
If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.
If you would like to terminate your account and delete all your data, visit your manage page. Upon cancellation, all your data is permanently deleted immediately. Nothing is retained.
Most web browsers include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature. At this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals.
In Short: If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have specific privacy rights.
| Category | Examples | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| A. Identifiers | Real name, alias, postal address, unique identifier, IP address, email address, account name | YES |
| B. Personal information (California Customer Records) | Name, contact information, financial information | YES |
| C. Protected classification characteristics | Gender, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity, national origin, marital status | YES |
| D. Commercial information | Transaction information, purchase history, payment information | YES |
| E. Biometric information | Fingerprints and voiceprints | NO |
| F. Internet or other network activity | Browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data | YES |
| G. Geolocation data | Device location | YES |
| H. Audio, electronic, sensory information | Images and audio, video or call recordings | NO |
| I. Professional or employment-related information | Business contact details, job title, work history | YES |
| J. Education information | Student records and directory information | NO |
| K. Inferences drawn from personal information | Profile or summary of an individual's preferences and characteristics | YES |
| L. Sensitive personal information | Contents of messages, financial information, health data, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs | YES |
We retain all categories of collected personal information only for as long as the user has an active subscription. All data is permanently deleted upon cancellation.
You have rights under certain US state data protection laws, including the right to know, access, correct, and delete personal data. To delete all your data, cancel your subscription from your manage page — this permanently and immediately deletes everything we hold about you.
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request information about categories of personal information disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please contact us at support@simplyafriend.com.
We collect and process your personal information under the obligations set by Australia's Privacy Act 1988 and New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020. If you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you have the right to submit a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or the Office of New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.
At any time, you have the right to request access to or correction of your personal information. If you are unsatisfied with how we address any complaint, you can contact the Information Regulator (South Africa).
Your personal stories and correspondence are never used to train AI models for other people. Everything you share with your pen pal stays between you and Simply a Friend — always.
When you cancel your subscription, all your data is permanently and automatically deleted — your profile, every letter, every reply, and all memories your pen pal has of you. Nothing is kept. No exceptions. This happens the moment your cancellation is processed. There is no waiting period and no way to recover the data after cancellation.
Simply a Friend may facilitate anonymous letter exchanges between willing subscribers as part of our human connection mission. Participation is entirely opt-in. No subscriber's personal information is shared with another subscriber without explicit consent from both parties. All exchanges are facilitated through Simply a Friend as intermediary.
Simply a Friend builds compatibility profiles for subscribers who opt in to human matching. These profiles are derived from letter correspondence and onboarding information and are used solely for the purpose of suggesting human pen pal matches. They are never shared with third parties or used for any other purpose.
While Simply a Friend facilitates the introduction between matched subscribers, we are not responsible for the behavior, actions, or communications of human pen pals following a match. Simply a Friend acts solely as an intermediary.
Subscribers may withdraw from the human matching program at any time by contacting support@simplyafriend.com or through their account settings. Withdrawal from matching does not affect their subscription.
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated date at the top of this Privacy Notice. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to stay informed of how we are protecting your information.
Simply a Friend is operated online. For correspondence, please visit our contact page or write to support@simplyafriend.com. A physical mailing address (P.O. Box) is coming soon.
To delete all your personal information, simply cancel your subscription. The moment you cancel, everything is permanently deleted — nothing is retained. To cancel, visit your manage page. For a full overview of what data we store, visit our your data page.