Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

SmallWorld collects information you provide, information generated through your use of the service, and limited technical information needed to operate, protect, and improve the app.

Account Information

We may collect your Mainland China phone number, country or region code, SMS verification status, password sign-in status, account settings, and account activity.

The Mainland China version of SmallWorld uses phone-number registration and supports SMS verification or password sign-in.

Profile Information

You may provide profile information such as display name, avatar, photos, bio, gender, birthday, profession, life experiences, interests, boundaries, safety notes, and other profile fields.

User Content

We may collect and store user-generated content you create or send through SmallWorld, including profile content, photos, chat messages, voice messages, decision results, reports, and related content.

Relationship and Interaction Data

We may collect information about trusted-contact requests, accepted trusted contacts, encounter greetings, greeting responses, chat state, visibility state, block records, report records, and other interactions needed to operate the service.

Location-Related Information

When you enable Visible Mode and grant location permission, SmallWorld collects your current precise location and accuracy to determine whether eligible trusted-circle connections are within an approximate nearby range.

This presence data is linked to your account and may remain in operational storage until it is turned off, overwritten, expired for product use, or deleted with your account.

SmallWorld does not show your exact real-time location to other users, does not provide a public live location map, and does not maintain a product location history or movement timeline.

Device, Notification, and Permission Data

If you allow notifications, we may collect and store device push tokens and notification preferences to send alerts about trusted-contact requests, encounter greetings, greeting responses, chat messages, safety updates, account activity, and similar service events.

If you choose to upload, select, or save images, SmallWorld may use the photo permissions you grant for that action.

Safety and Moderation Data

When users report content, report users, block users, or when safety actions are taken, SmallWorld may collect report reasons, optional details, message or profile snapshots, involved account identifiers, timestamps, moderation status, internal review notes, and related safety records.

Service Logs and Diagnostics

Our servers may collect service log metadata such as IP address, request path, timestamp, device or browser user agent, status, error information, and authenticated account context for security, reliability, debugging, abuse prevention, and service operation.

Location coordinates used for presence updates are not intentionally written to standard access logs.

2. How We Use Information

We use information to:

• create and manage accounts
• support SMS verification, account registration, and password sign-in
• show profile information according to product rules
• create and maintain trusted-contact relationships
• provide encounter greetings and trusted-connection opportunities
• send, receive, and sync chat messages and voice messages
• operate decision tools
• process reports, blocks, and safety actions
• protect users and prevent abusive behavior
• send push notifications and update notification badges
• troubleshoot errors and improve reliability
• maintain security and prevent fraud or misuse
• respond to support, safety, or privacy requests
• comply with legal, regulatory, safety, or dispute-related requirements

3. Profile Visibility

Your avatar, display name, bio, interests, gender, birthday, profession, and similar profile fields may be shown to other users according to your settings, relationship status, and product rules.

During encounter-related interactions, users may see limited profile information and a shared trusted-context hint. Regular users do not directly see the full list of shared trusted contacts behind an encounter.

You are responsible for the profile information you choose to provide. Please avoid sharing sensitive personal information in your public or semi-public profile fields.

4. Chat, Voice Messages, and Sand Mode

Text messages, emoji, voice messages, quotes, forwards, and decision results you send may be stored on SmallWorld servers so they can sync between your device and the other user's device.

Deleting a local conversation may not immediately delete message history that remains visible to the other user.

Sand Mode keeps the chat view focused on the latest message. Safety tools, including reporting, blocking, and moderation review, continue to apply regardless of chat mode.

If a message, profile, or user is reported, SmallWorld may retain relevant message or profile snapshots for safety review, dispute handling, abuse prevention, or legal compliance.

5. Push Notifications

If you allow notifications, SmallWorld uses device push tokens to send alerts about messages, trusted-contact requests, encounter greetings, greeting responses, safety updates, account activity, and similar service events.

You can turn notifications off in your device settings or in the app. Turning off notifications does not prevent you from using core features.

6. Location and Visibility

Location-related information is used only when you manually enable Visible Mode and grant system location permission.

SmallWorld uses your current precise location and accuracy to determine whether eligible trusted contacts or users with shared trusted context may be within an approximate nearby range.

SmallWorld does not show your exact real-time location to other users, does not provide a public live location map, and does not allow users to track your movement in real time.

Visible Mode can be turned off at any time. Nearby discovery stops from the product perspective when visibility expires or system location permission is unavailable.

Presence data may remain in operational storage until it is turned off, overwritten, expired for product use, or deleted with your account. SmallWorld does not maintain a product location history or movement timeline.

7. Phone Numbers and Trusted-Contact Calls

The Mainland China version of SmallWorld uses phone numbers to create and sign in to accounts. Account phone numbers are stored on the server for authentication, account safety, trusted-contact search, and service operation.

If you choose to call a trusted contact, SmallWorld only opens the iPhone phone dialer. The call itself is handled by the system phone service.

SmallWorld does not upload your device address book and does not use phone numbers for advertising tracking.

8. Contacts and Address Book

SmallWorld does not upload your device address book.

Trusted contacts are added through product-specific actions such as searching by phone number, sending trusted-contact requests, and accepting trusted-contact requests.

9. Reports, Blocks, and Safety Review

SmallWorld does not tolerate objectionable content or abusive users.

The app provides report and block actions for users, profiles, messages, chats, and encounter-related surfaces where applicable.

When you submit a report, we may collect the report reason, optional details, related message or profile snapshot, involved account identifiers, timestamps, and moderation status.

When you block a user, the blocked user may no longer appear in your trusted connections, encounters, or message surfaces. Blocking may also create a safety review record for the SmallWorld safety team.

Reports may be reviewed for harassment, bullying, hate speech, sexually explicit content, impersonation, spam, scams, privacy violations, repeated unwanted contact, and other safety issues.

Offending content or accounts may be restricted, removed, suspended, or terminated under the Terms of Use.

10. Sharing, Transfer, and Disclosure

SmallWorld does not sell your personal information.

SmallWorld does not use advertising SDKs and does not use your data for cross-app or cross-website tracking.

We may share the minimum necessary information with service providers that help us operate SmallWorld, such as cloud hosting, database hosting, email delivery, push notifications, storage, security, reliability, debugging, and abuse-prevention providers.

These service providers may process information only as needed to provide services to SmallWorld and are expected to protect user information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose information when necessary to:

• comply with law or legal process
• protect user safety
• investigate abuse, fraud, or security issues
• enforce our Terms of Use
• protect the rights, property, or safety of SmallWorld, users, or the public
• respond to disputes or support requests
• complete a business transfer, such as a merger, acquisition, financing, sale of assets, or reorganization, subject to appropriate privacy protections

11. Data Retention and Deletion

We retain information for as long as needed to provide SmallWorld, maintain security, support safety review, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent fraud or abuse, and enforce our Terms of Use.

You can request account deletion in Settings. After deletion, your account and associated server data are deleted according to our deletion process, except where limited records must be retained for safety, security, compliance, dispute handling, fraud prevention, abuse prevention, or legal reasons.

Reports, block records, moderation records, service logs, and safety records may be retained for a limited period where necessary to protect users, prevent abuse, comply with law, or resolve disputes.

Presence data linked to your account may remain in operational storage until it is turned off, overwritten, expired for product use, or deleted with your account. Account deletion removes account-linked presence records through the deletion process, except where limited records must be retained for safety, security, compliance, dispute handling, abuse prevention, or legal reasons.

Local data on your device may also be removed through the app's deletion flow.

12. Your Choices and Rights

You can:

• view and edit your profile
• adjust visibility settings
• turn Visible Mode on or off
• manage notification preferences
• block users
• report users or content
• sign out
• delete your account in Settings
• contact us for privacy-related requests

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information.

For privacy requests, account deletion support, or safety questions, contact:

support@smallworld.social

13. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information, including access controls, encrypted transmission, server permission management, and log auditing.

No internet service can guarantee absolute security. If you notice account abnormalities, suspicious activity, or security issues, please contact us promptly.

14. Minors

SmallWorld is not intended for children under 13.

If local law requires a higher minimum age or parental consent, users must comply with those requirements.

If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child where parental consent is required, we will take appropriate steps to delete or restrict that information.

15. International Processing

SmallWorld may process information through cloud service providers and operational systems located in countries or regions where we or our service providers operate.

By using SmallWorld, you understand that your information may be processed and stored in locations outside your country or region, subject to appropriate safeguards.

16. Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time based on product changes, operational needs, safety requirements, or legal requirements.

If we make material changes, we may notify users through the app, website, or other reasonable means.

Your continued use of SmallWorld after an updated Privacy Policy becomes effective means you accept the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you should stop using SmallWorld and may delete your account.

17. Contact

For privacy, safety, or support questions, contact:

support@smallworld.social