Last updated October 2026
Whoose is developed and operated by Sudheera Kannangara ("we", "us", or "our").
This Privacy Policy explains what information Whoose collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to your use of the Whoose mobile app and related services.
If you enable location access, we use it to let you tag where a post was created, suggest nearby places, and — for Arc goals that support it — detect when you've arrived at a place you've set as a goal. We only check your proximity to places you've specifically chosen; we don't track or store a continuous history of everywhere you go.
Location access is entirely optional and can be turned off at any time in your device settings.
If you enable it on iPhone, Whoose reads specific workout and activity data (like distance or workout sessions) from Apple Health, solely to automatically count progress toward activity-based Arc goals you've set. We only read the specific data types needed for that purpose, and Whoose does not write data back to Apple Health. On Android, Whoose does not read health data.
Health and fitness data is sensitive, and we treat it accordingly — it's used only for the Arc-progress feature you've opted into, and you can revoke access at any time in your device settings.
If you choose "Find friends", Whoose reads the phone numbers and email addresses in your contacts to check which of them already have a Whoose account. Before anything leaves your phone, each number or email is converted into a one-way code (a hash), and we never receive your contacts' names. A hash of a phone number can in principle be guessed by brute force, so we treat these codes as sensitive: we use them only to look for matches and discard them straight away.
We do not store your contact list, and nothing about people in your contacts who are not on Whoose is kept. We keep only which existing Whoose accounts matched, so we can suggest them to you, and we delete that when you delete your account.
People who have your phone number or email in their contacts can find you the same way if your account has a verified phone number or email. This is on by default and you can turn it off at any time from Find friends. Contacts access is optional and can be revoked in your device settings.
Now and then the app asks you one quick question about a feature, such as the dual camera or notifications. Answering is optional. Your answer, any reasons you tick and any note you write are stored without your name, username or account ID, together with the app version and whether you use iPhone or Android, and are used only to improve Whoose. Please do not put personal details in a note.
Whoose has optional AI features: an assistant you can ask questions or ask to do things in the app (like opening the camera, starting an arc, messaging someone, or changing one of your own settings, which you can undo), and caption ideas for a photo you are about to post. They are available to members aged 18 and over, and the rest of Whoose works the same without them. If you tap the microphone, your phone's own speech recognition (Apple's or Google's) turns your voice into text; Whoose does not receive or store the audio.
These features are powered by Google's Gemini models. When you use one, the information needed for that request is sent to Google to produce the answer. For the assistant this is your question and, if you allow it, short labelled facts about what is on your screen and what you tend to like (for example "a friend you haven't talked to in 7 weeks", the title of one of your arcs, or "you like: hiking, coffee"). If your question names someone who is on your screen, the app replaces their name with a label before sending it. We do not send your name, username, account ID, email, phone number, contacts, exact location, or your direct messages, which are end-to-end encrypted. For caption ideas, a reduced copy of the photo is sent only when you tap Suggest. If you ask the assistant about what a photo on your screen shows (for example "where is this?"), a reduced copy of that photo is sent with your question; this can be another person's post that you are able to see. It is used only to answer you and is not stored by us.
The assistant can also look things up for you. For a weather forecast, the coordinates of the place you asked about are sent to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway). To find places nearby, a short search such as "restaurants" and those coordinates are sent to Google. Neither receives your name or account, and we do not keep the results. Questions only the web can answer open Google's own page inside the app.
You choose whether the assistant can use your activity, and you can change that at any time in the assistant. We do not use your content to train AI models. Under Google's terms for the paid service we use, Google does not use this information to improve its products; it may keep it for a limited time to detect abuse and meet legal obligations.
If you rate an answer as useful or not useful, we keep that rating together with the question and the answer, to improve the feature. Ratings are deleted when you delete your account.
If you sign in with Google or Apple, those providers share basic profile information (like your name and email) with us to create your account, subject to their own privacy policies. Apple's Sign In with Apple also lets you choose to share or hide your real email address from us — we only ever see whatever address Apple provides.
If you pick interests for the News card, your phone loads headlines for those topics directly from Google News. Google receives the topic words and the ordinary information any website gets from your device, such as your IP address, but nothing from your Whoose account. Tapping a headline opens the publisher's website, which has its own privacy policy.
We keep your account information and content for as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, we permanently delete your account and associated content, other than what we're required to retain for legal, safety, or fraud-prevention purposes, or content already shared with or reposted by others.
Looking to delete your account? See our Account Deletion page for step-by-step instructions.
Whoose requires everyone to be at least 13 years old to create an account, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 13, we'll take steps to remove that account and its data.
On iPhone, we may ask Apple for your age range when you create an account. Apple shares only a range, never your birthday, and only if you agree. We use it to confirm you are old enough to use Whoose, and we keep that range with your account.
We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit and access controls on our backend. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your data protected and to respond quickly if something goes wrong.
We may update this Privacy Policy as Whoose evolves. If we make a material change, we'll aim to let you know in-app before it takes effect.
Questions about this Privacy Policy or your data? Reach us at whoose.app@gmail.com.