Privacy policy

Draft: this text is waiting for legal review and may change before release.

This draft privacy policy describes how Puro Social handles personal data. It is written from how the app and its server actually work, and it waits for legal review and for the operator details below before it is final.

1. Who is responsible

Puro Social is operated by [operator name, legal form and registered address, to be completed before release], the controller of the personal data described here. Privacy questions and requests go to the support address shown in the app (More, Help and support) and on the support page.

2. What we collect and why

Your account. When you sign in with email we keep your email address. When you sign in with Apple we keep the identifier Apple gives Puro Social and the email Apple shares, which may be a private relay address. When you sign in with Facebook we keep the user identifier Facebook gives Puro Social and the email Facebook shares, if you allow it. When you sign in with Google we keep the identifier Google gives Puro Social and the email Google shares. We also keep your language, the date you confirmed you are an adult, the version of the terms you accepted, and your sign-in sessions (stored only as a fingerprint that cannot be turned back into the session). We use these to run your account.

Your profile. The name and photo you choose, your friend code, your sharing choices and your preferred strengths, origins and shapes. Your name shows wherever you take part. A new photo is seen by your accepted friends at once and by everyone else after a moderator approves it.

Your private records. Your collection, your tasting notes, ratings and photos, your wishlist and the discussions you follow. They are visible only to you, unless you share sections with friends you accepted: the cigars you like, the cigars you have tasted (with dates), your collection, your wishlist, the discussions you follow and your preferences. Notes, ratings and photos are never shared. While a section is shared, your friends are also told when you add to it, for example when you add a cigar to your collection or write a tasting note (only that you did, and for which cigar), and when you publish a review.

What you publish. Reviews and ratings, forum discussions and replies, and the photos in them. Moderators review them before they appear, and we keep their versions and moderators’ decisions so decisions can be explained and appealed. The forum posts you like are counted, and members who open the list of who likes a post see your name there. We also keep the reports you make and the members you block.

Notifications. The alerts you receive in the app, including what your friends share as they add to it, and, if you turn push notifications on, the push token your phone gives Apple or Google, so we can deliver them. You can turn off your friends’ activity, or all notifications, in Settings.

Support messages. When you write to us from Help and support, your message, your member id, the email addresses of your account and the address you give for the reply are sent by email to our support mailbox, where we keep them while we handle your request. The app itself keeps only when you sent it.

Band scanning. When you scan a cigar band, the phone reads the words on it and sends only those words to look the cigar up; the photo stays on your phone. If you then ask for AI identification, that photo and the words go to Anthropic, our AI provider, which compares the photo with the catalog’s cigars of that brand and answers within seconds. We do not store the photo; Anthropic does not use it to train its models and deletes it within 30 days. We keep only when you asked and how much of the AI service it used, for your plan’s AI scans a month and the daily limit.

Paid plans. Subscriptions are sold and paid through the App Store or Google Play. RevenueCat, our subscription service, tells us which plan your account has; we never receive your card details.

Technical data. Our server records each request (time, address requested, result and the IP address it came from) to keep the service secure and to limit abuse. These records do not contain what you write.

We do not use advertising, analytics or tracking tools, we do not build advertising profiles, and we do not sell personal data.

3. Legal bases

We process your data to provide the service you signed up for (performance of a contract), to keep the service safe, moderate the community and prevent abuse (our legitimate interests), with your consent where we ask for it (push notifications, sharing with friends, which you can change at any time), and where the law requires it.

4. Who receives data

Only the providers we need to run Puro Social, each for its own part: our hosting and network providers (currently Cloudflare); Brevo, which delivers sign-in and deletion codes, and the messages you send to support, by email; Apple (Sign in with Apple, push notifications and App Store purchases); Google (Sign in with Google, if you choose it, push notifications through Firebase Cloud Messaging and Google Play purchases); Meta, only if you choose to sign in with Facebook; Anthropic, only when you ask for AI identification of a scanned band; and RevenueCat for subscriptions. Other members see only what you publish and, for friends you accepted, what you share. Some of these providers process data outside the European Economic Area; where they do, the transfer relies on an adequacy decision or the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

5. How long we keep it

Your data stays while you have an account. When you delete your account in the app, it is deleted at once: your account, sign-in methods, sessions, profile, private records, photos, reviews, posts, likes, blocks and notifications. Discussions you opened that others replied to remain as a placeholder without your name or words, so their replies keep their place. Reports you made remain without your identity. Photo files are removed from storage shortly after. Server request records are kept for [retention period to be confirmed] and database backups for [backup period to be confirmed, proposed 30 days], after which deleted data is gone from them too.

6. Your rights

You can see and download your data (More, Settings and privacy, Export my data), correct your name and photo (Edit profile), and delete your account and its data (More, Settings and privacy, Delete account) at any time, from the app or by writing to support from the address you signed in with. You may also ask us to restrict or stop processing, object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and withdraw any consent. If you think we handle your data unlawfully, you can complain to the Commission for Personal Data Protection in Bulgaria (cpdp.bg) or to the authority where you live.

7. Adults only

Puro Social is for adults (18 or older). We do not knowingly hold data about anyone younger; the app asks you to confirm your age before it can be used.

8. Changes

When this policy changes in a way that matters, we tell you in the app before the change applies.

Version draft-2026-09-22