Your privacy at Phone Tag

What we collect, and why

Your mobile number

You sign in with it, and people who already have your number can find you on Phone Tag (you can turn that off). We store it encrypted, together with a keyed fingerprint of it that lets us match it without reading it. Nobody else is shown your number by Phone Tag. When you call someone, your phone shows your number to them as it normally would.

Sign-in codes

We text a code to your number when you sign in or change your number. We keep the code only as a scrambled (hashed) value, for 10 minutes. The record of codes sent to a number, which we use to limit how many can be sent, is deleted a day after it was last used, whether or not an account was ever made.

Your name and time zone

The name you choose is shown to the people you arrange calls with. Your home time zone lets us work out calling hours correctly.

Your calling settings

Your groups (which you name, and fill with other Phone Tag users), the hours you welcome calls from each group, when you've said you're free or busy, pauses, and the people you've blocked. Also how you sort and quieten requests: priorities for people and groups, people or groups you've muted (and until when), people whose urgency you treat as normal, and requests you refuse from a group or from everyone outside your groups. These are private: nobody is ever told what you've set for them. If you let the app use your phone's Focus or Do Not Disturb status, it tells us only whether you're available, not which mode you're in. Group names and members are shown only to you.

Your requests

Who you asked to call (or who asked you), when, how soon you'd like to talk (whenever, today or urgent), the short note and the longer message if you added them, times either of you suggested, and whether you spoke, with a reason if you choose to give one. Notes and messages are deleted 30 days after a request closes. The rest of the request's record (who, when, what happened) is kept without them, so the app and our measurements stay correct, and is deleted 12 months after the request closes.

Your devices

For each phone you sign in on: an app-generated device id, whether it's iPhone or Android, the token used to send it notifications, and whether you've allowed notifications. A device's details are removed when you sign out of it or its session ends.

Sessions

When you sign in we give the app a key, which we store only as a scrambled value. It lasts 90 days after you last use the app.

Your IP address

We use it to limit sign-in attempts, so nobody can flood the service or guess codes. Those counters are deleted 30 days after they were last used. Cloudflare Turnstile also sees it when it checks that a sign-in comes from a person, not a bot.

How Phone Tag is used

We record events such as "a request was made" (and how soon it was wanted), "a match was found" or "a call was reported", with random ids, times and states, but never notes, numbers, names or what was said. We use them to check that Phone Tag is actually helping people connect, and to fix problems, and delete them after 12 months. If you take part in a pilot, we also keep the answers you give to its short diary questions, for 12 months.

Your contacts

The app asks for access to your contacts only when you choose to find people. You pick the people you want to check. Their numbers, and nothing else from your address book, are sent to us to see which of them have Phone Tag accounts that can be found by number. We don't store or log those numbers, and we never use them to contact anyone. Names and other details from your address book never leave your phone.

What we don't collect

• Your location.
• Your calls. Calls go through your phone or calling app as usual. We don't place, hear or record them, and we don't read your call history.
• Advertising identifiers, or anything to track you across other companies' apps and websites.
• Anything about people who don't use Phone Tag.

What other people see

• People you arrange calls with see your name, your requests to them with their notes, messages and how soon you'd like to talk, and whether you're "Ready to chat", "Usually free now" or "Not right now". "Not right now" never says why: busy, Focus, paused, outside your hours or blocked all look the same.
• Someone who has your number can find that you have an account, unless you turn off "Find me by my number". They see nothing else until you connect.
• Someone you've blocked sees only "Not right now", and can't find you by your number.

Inviting someone

Invitations are texts you send from your own phone. We never see who you invite or their number. The link in the invitation carries your first name and, if you choose, your number, so their reply comes back to you. Both sit after the "#" in the link, which a browser never sends to a server. Our invitation page makes no network requests. Anyone the link is forwarded to will see what's in it.

Who helps us run Phone Tag

We share data only with these providers, only as needed for them to do their job for us, and never for their own marketing or advertising. Each is bound by its own terms to protect the data at least as well as this policy does.

• Cloudflare (United States, with servers worldwide): hosts Phone Tag and stores its data, and runs Turnstile, the check that a sign-in comes from a person.
• SMS Manager (Australia): sends sign-in and number-change codes. It receives your number and the code.
• Expo (United States), which passes notifications to Apple for iPhones and Google for Android phones: deliver notifications. They receive your device's notification token and the notification's text, such as "Jamie would like a call". Notes and messages are never sent in notifications.

So some of your data is stored or handled outside Australia, including in the United States. We disclose data to anyone else only when the law requires it.

How long we keep it

• Your account (number, name, settings, devices) is kept until you delete it. If an account goes unused for 60 days and its number is later verified again, we treat the number as passed to someone new: the old account is deleted and a fresh one starts.
• Notes and messages: 30 days after the request closes.
• Sign-in codes: 10 minutes. A number's code record: a day after it was last used.
• Sessions: 90 days after last use.
• IP address counters: 30 days after last use.
• Request records, usage events and pilot diary answers: 12 months. Request records and usage events (random ids, times and states, no notes, messages, numbers or names) stay for those 12 months even if an account is deleted, when nothing links them to a person any more.
• Backups: our database's backups cover the last 7 days, so deleted data is gone from them within 7 days.

Deleting your account

In the app: go to Settings, then Delete account. You're signed out everywhere and disappear from Phone Tag straight away: nobody can find you or send you requests, and your open requests are cancelled.

Without the app: email support@bulksms.com.au with the subject "Delete my Phone Tag account" and the mobile number on the account. To protect you from someone else deleting it, we'll confirm with you before we act, and we'll tell you when it's done.

Everything listed under "Your account" is deleted, together with your notes and messages, what you've set for other people, your requests' place in other people's lists, and any pilot diary answers. Usage events keep only the random id, which no longer links to you.

Your choices and rights

• Turn off "Find me by my number", pause sharing, or block someone, at any time in the app.
• Withdraw notification, contacts or Focus permission in your phone's settings. Phone Tag keeps working, with less help.
• Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct it, by emailing support@bulksms.com.au. We'll reply within 30 days.
• If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, tell us first. If we don't resolve it, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

Keeping it safe

Everything travels encrypted. Numbers are stored encrypted, and codes and session keys only as scrambled values. Our logs never contain numbers, codes, notes, messages or keys. Only the people who run Phone Tag can reach its data, and only to run it.

Children

Phone Tag is for people aged 16 and over. If you think a younger child has an account, tell us and we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we'll update this page and tell you in the app before the change takes effect.