Privacy Policy

Last updated 21 September 2026 · Future Me Says is for people aged 18 and over.

Future Me Says is designed to hold what you share gently and use it for one thing only: writing letters to you in the voice of your future self. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect and the choices you have.

What we collect

• Your email address — only if you choose to sign in by a one-time magic link. In v1, email is used for sign-in, not for delivering letters.
• What you tell Future Me Says — the answers you give at the start, the notes you leave in the Hollow, your daily check-ins, quiz answers, and anything you write into the Sea.
• A small amount of technical data your browser sends when it loads the app.
• AI usage records — request time, feature, model, token counts, estimated cost and outcome. This meter does not store the text of your letter.
• Abuse prevention — for first-letter requests, we turn the network address into a keyed, pseudonymous counter to limit automated requests. The counter does not contain your raw IP address or journal text, is not used for advertising, and is cleared after its short two-day window when requests next arrive.
• Membership status — the App Store product identifier and whether Apple reports an active entitlement, so premium features can be opened. Apple handles payment details.

Before you create an account

You can explore without an account. Your saved journal and activity stay in this browser or on this device until you choose cloud sign-in. Clearing browser storage or losing the device may lose local-only records. Personalized AI letters require sign-in, server-verified membership and consent; they are generated by a remote service, not on your device. Accelerated activity trials make no AI requests and do not create substitute letters.

The launch Sea

Incoming bottles in this version are curated by us. Your releases and replies are private reflections, not messages delivered to strangers. They are saved with your journal; if you sign in, they can sync as part of your account state. We do not use Sea replies to train a model.

How we use it

The IPIP personality questionnaire is scored on your device, without sending answers to an AI. If you save the result, the score summary and interpretation become a Drawer item; they are not automatically added to AI letter personalisation. Optional voice input uses your browser or device speech-recognition service, which may process audio remotely under that provider's settings. The app does not save the recording; only words you choose to save become part of your journal or bottle reply.

Your words are used to personalise the letters and reflections Future Me Says writes for you. We do not use your content for advertising, and we do not sell your data to anyone.

AI processing and your choice

Before a generated letter, the app asks for explicit permission to send the minimum relevant unsealed answers and notes through our Google Cloud-hosted letter service to OpenAI (GPT-5.6 Sol). The text is sent only to generate the letter or reflection you request, after server-side membership verification. Sealed entries are filtered before the request. A previous permission for Gemini does not authorise OpenAI: we ask again when the processor changes. You can keep playing free without consenting; no AI request is made. If generation fails, we keep your answers and show a retry message rather than presenting a template as a new AI letter. Accelerated activity trials do not generate AI letters. Historical editorial records remain available in your personal-data export.

OpenAI states that API data is not used to train its models unless the customer opts in. We request no stored response history (store: false) and do not enable browsing or external tools for private letters. This is not a zero-retention guarantee: abuse-monitoring records may be retained for up to 30 days, or longer for legal or safety reasons, and temporary prompt caches may remain for up to 24 hours. Processing may take place outside Australia. See OpenAI's data controls.

Sealing and safety

Anything you mark as sealed is never quoted back to you in a letter, a weekly recap, or an email. A separate on-device safety check can show crisis resources. This does not send a sealed entry to the AI provider. Content that indicates a crisis is not emailed or shared.

Who helps us run Future Me Says

We use Vercel for application hosting, Supabase for account authentication and stored content, Google Cloud for hosting the letter service, OpenAI for generated letters after consent, and Google Workspace SMTP through Supabase for sign-in emails. Letters arrive inside the app, not by email. Optional iOS reminders are scheduled locally on your device. Each provider processes data only to provide its part of the service.

Storage and retention

Your account content is kept while your account is active so the Drawer and future letters can work. It is not end-to-end encrypted: authorised server processes must be able to read unsealed content to provide the features you request. When you delete your account, the live authentication account and related application records are deleted. Limited encrypted backups and security logs may remain temporarily under our providers' recovery and security schedules, remain access-controlled, and expire without being used for personalisation or advertising.

Your rights

• Export everything. In Settings you can download a complete copy of your data at any time.
• Delete everything. In Settings, “Delete my account and data” permanently removes the authentication account, private state, entries, letters, Sea activity, reports and sender blocks. This cannot be undone.
• Reset personalisation. You can remove the memory used to shape new letters while keeping the letters already in your archive.
• Reminders. Local reminders are optional and can be disabled in your device notification settings. We do not send letter or marketing emails in v1; sign-in emails are sent when you request a login link.

Contact

Future Me Says is published and operated under the registered Australian business name Smiling Quokka (ABN 72 680 153 860). For any privacy question or request, email privacy@smilingquokka.app.

The current app policy is published at future-me-says.smilingquokka.app/privacy.