Your privacy

The short version

• Strangers never see your name, email or exact location. They see your city and country only.
• We never sell your data, and there are no ads or trackers on Driftlight.
• You can delete your account and your data at any time, yourself, from Your light.

Who looks after your data

Driftlight is run by Ifeoluwa Oladosu, in Nigeria, who is responsible for your data. You can reach us any time through Contact Driftlight.

What we keep, and why

• Your email address: so you can sign in, and for the emails you choose: when your lantern comes home, when a lantern arrives in your inbox, and a weekly summary. You can turn each one off in Your light or with one tap from any email.
• Your display name: shown only when you sign a personal lantern to someone. Never shown to strangers.
• Your date of birth: to check you're 18 or over. It's never shown to anyone.
• Your city and country: chosen from a list, so lanterns can show where they've travelled. We never collect GPS or your exact location.
• Your username, if you choose one: so friends can send you lanterns. Nobody can browse or search a list of usernames.
• The lanterns you write and receive, your hearts and thank-yous, your light, level, passport and keepsake jar: this is Driftlight itself.
• Photos you add to letters (Plus): kept privately, and shown only to you and the person you sent it to, once they open the letter. Before storing a photo we remove its hidden details, like where and when it was taken. Our team may see a photo only if the letter is reported.
• Lines you add to group letters: your display name, your line and your photo if you add one (cleaned and checked like any letter photo), seen by the person who started the letter, the others who signed, and whoever receives it. If the letter has an event pass, they also appear in its storybook: a file the person who started it can download, keep and share. We make the storybook when they ask for it and don't keep a copy. When you sign, we also note your home city and country from your profile, so the letter can show totals like “from 12 cities in 3 countries” and a map of glowing dots. We never show which person signed from where, and we only name a city if at least two people signed from it.
• A cover photo on a group letter (custom stationery): stored privately like any letter photo, with hidden details removed and checked like words. It's seen by people signed in with the letter's link, the person who receives it, and on the QR card and storybook. It's deleted with the letter starter's account.
• Every-year lanterns (Plus): a copy of the letter (and its photo, if any) and who it's for, so we can send it again each year until you stop it.
• Reports, blocks and messages you send us: to keep people safe and to answer you.
• Payment records, if you buy Plus: the plan, amount, date and a payment reference. We need these to give you Plus, handle refunds, and keep the accounts tax law requires. We never see or store your card or bank details; Paystack handles those.
• Short-lived technical logs (like your IP address) kept by our hosting providers: to keep the service running and secure.

We rely on your agreement when you join, and on keeping Driftlight safe for everyone (for example, checking notes and handling reports).

When you send a lantern to someone's email

We use their email address once, to send them your lantern, and we don't store it. If you schedule it for later, we keep the address encrypted only until it's sent, then delete it. A letter scheduled for later is kept until it's delivered, which can be up to 18 years. We only keep a scrambled fingerprint of it, which can't be turned back into the address. We use the fingerprint to deliver lanterns to their inbox if they join, and to honour their wish if they tap “stop receiving lanterns”. Every email has that link, and it works forever, for everyone.

If you sign anonymously, the person never sees your name or email, though we can see who sent it if it's reported.

The kindness check

Every note is checked before it travels, first by simple rules and then by an AI system (Claude, made by Anthropic). Photos added to letters are checked the same way. Only the words (or the photo) are sent, never your name or email. Anthropic doesn't use them to train its AI. Notes that might break our community rules may be read by a person on our team before they travel, and reported lanterns are read by our team too.

Who helps us run Driftlight

We use a few trusted services, and they may only use your data to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: stores your account and lanterns (servers in Europe).
• Vercel: hosts the website.
• Resend: sends our emails (servers in Ireland).
• Anthropic: the kindness check described above.
• Paystack: takes payments for Plus (based in Nigeria).

This means your data may be stored or handled outside Nigeria, including in Europe and the United States. We only use providers with strong security and data protection commitments.

How long we keep things

• Your account and lanterns: until you delete your account.
• When you delete your account, your profile, lanterns, light, personal lanterns you sent (and their photos), group letters you started, lines you signed, every-year lanterns and messages to us are deleted straight away.
• Journey videos and letter videos are made on your own device, and we don't store them. We only count how many letter videos you've made each month, so the monthly number holds. Letter PDFs are made when you ask and not kept.
• Your “Year in light” book is put together each time you open it. We don't store it.
• Kept without anything linking them to you: the city stops on other people's lantern journeys (so their maps don't change), and reports you made (to keep Driftlight safe).
• “Stop receiving lanterns” requests: kept forever as fingerprints, so we can keep honouring them.
• Payment records: as long as tax law requires (usually 6 years). If you delete your account, they stay, but with nothing linking them to you.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• show you the data we hold about you, or give you a copy;
• correct anything that's wrong;
• delete your data (you can also do this yourself from Your light);
• stop using your data for a particular purpose.

To ask, contact us. We'll reply within 30 days. If you're not happy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, or to the data protection authority where you live.

Cookies

We only use the cookies Driftlight needs: to keep you signed in, and to remember which lanterns this device may open (so a lantern sent to you can't be opened by someone else who finds the link). No advertising or tracking cookies.

Age

Driftlight is for adults (18+). If we learn someone under 18 has joined, we'll delete their account.

Keeping your data safe

Your data is protected by encryption and strict access rules: only you can read your own account, and only a very small team can see more, to keep Driftlight safe. If something ever goes wrong with your data, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Changes and contact

If we change this notice in an important way, we'll tell you in the app first. Questions about your privacy? Contact Driftlight.