What we keep, and what we don't
Kawlit is a daily yes/no call and a place to argue about it with people you know. You can read it without an account. We do not sell data, we do not run ads, and there is no money in the app.
Who we are
Kawlit is operated by the developer of the Kawlit app ("we"). Contact: privacy@kawlit.com.
Using Kawlit without an account
When you first open the app it registers a device. That device record holds a random identifier, a hashed device token, a display handle, and your time zone — the time zone decides which day's question you get and when your pick locks. It is not linked to you personally, and we do not ask for your name, email or phone number to use the app this way.
When you make an account
An account is required to make a Kawlit, join one, post in a room, react to or report a message, block or report another player, upload a photo, follow someone, see another player's card, or search for players by handle. Reading the day's question and making your call never require one. Making an account means agreeing to our Terms of Use.
We use Sign in with Apple or Google. From either we store the stable identifier the provider gives us for you and, if you choose to share it, your email address — which may be Apple's private relay address. We never receive your Apple or Google password.
What we store
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Device id, hashed token, time zone | To run the daily question on your local clock and keep your streak |
| Handle | Your name in rooms and on receipts |
| Sign-in identifier and optional email | To recognise you across devices and reinstalls |
| Your picks, streaks and results | The game itself |
| Messages and reactions you post | To show them to the people in that room |
| Profile photo, if you upload one | Your face on your seat |
| Kawlits, stakes, settlements and debts | The record of what was called and who owed what |
| Who you follow, and anyone you muted | To show you how the people you follow called the day, once your own call is locked, and to stop notifying you of the messages and taunts of anyone you muted (their messages still appear in the Kawlit) |
| When someone was told that you follow them | So nobody is ever told twice |
| In-app invitations you send or receive | To seat the people you invite, and to show the Kawlit's creator who has not joined yet |
| Push token, if you allow notifications | To tell you the question dropped, somebody in your Kawlit said something or taunted your take, somebody invited you to a Kawlit or started following you, or a Kawlit settled. Message previews in those notifications pass through Apple's push service. They are removed from your phone when you sign out or delete your account, and when reports hide a message we also try to replace it in notifications that are still waiting to be read. A phone that is offline at that moment may keep the original preview until you open that Kawlit. |
| Reports you submit | To hide abusive content, and so a person on our team can review it. Our team reads a reported message to decide on it. A report you made stays after the reported account is deleted, so it can still be acted on. When you delete your account, the reports you made about people are deleted; the reports you made about messages stay, without your name, because they are part of why a message was hidden. |
| Which version of the Terms you agreed to, and when | To show you agreed to the rules |
| Sign in with Apple token, encrypted | So that deleting your account also ends Kawlit's access to your Apple ID |
| Moderation records: a suspension, when, by which member of our team, and their note | To act on reports and keep abusive players out. Kept after you delete your account, without your name |
| If your account was suspended when you deleted it: a one-way fingerprint of your sign-in identifier | So deleting an account is not a way around a suspension. It cannot be turned back into your identifier |
| Reports other players made about your account or your messages | So our team can still act on them. Kept after you delete your account, without your name |
| If your account was deleted while a report about it was still being reviewed: the same fingerprint, for 30 days | So our team can still act on the report. Deleted after 30 days unless the account is suspended |
What we do not do
- We do not sell or rent your data.
- We do not show ads, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
- We do not read your phone's contacts, and we do not collect your location, photo library, microphone or health data. (Who you follow on Kawlit is the only "social graph" we keep, and only you see your lists.)
- There is no real money, no wagering and no payments in Kawlit. A "stake" is a coffee between friends; we never process it.
- We never show anyone else how many people follow you, or who they are.
Who can see what you post
A private Kawlit is visible to the people in it. On the daily question, your room is visible to everyone on your side of that day's call, and after the question settles both rooms merge and become visible to everyone who took part. Your handle and photo appear alongside what you post. Treat anything you write as visible to that group.
We check handles, messages, Kawlit claims and stakes against a list of words that are not allowed; the check happens on our server as you post, and refused text is not stored.
Who can see your record
Anyone signed in to Kawlit who taps your handle, or finds it by searching, sees your card: your handle, your bird, the month you started calling, your current streak, your share of calls right and your bold calls. Your photo appears on it only to people who share a Kawlit or today's room with you, or who follow you and whom you follow back, and to anyone you invite to a Kawlit until they answer.
How you called a question appears on your card only after both of you have locked your calls on it, and only to people who follow you, or if you posted in that question's room. People who follow you also see how you called the day, and whether you were right, once their own call is locked.
Following is one-way and needs no approval. You may be told once, quietly, when someone starts following you, and never when they stop. You can block or report anyone from their card or from your followers. A block ends following both ways, cancels pending invitations either way, and neither of you can follow, find, see the card of, or invite the other while it stands. In rooms and Kawlits you share, you stop seeing their messages while yours stay visible to them, as a block always has worked, and they are not told. A report goes to a person on our team and changes nothing on its own.
If our team suspends an account, other players stop seeing its card, its messages and its photo until the suspension is lifted.
This website
The home page at kawlit.com counts its visits with PostHog, a web analytics service: the page you opened, the site that sent you, the buttons you tapped, your browser and device type, and a rough location worked out from your IP address. PostHog keeps a random identifier in your browser so that a return visit is not counted twice. We use it only to learn how many people visit the site and how many go on to the App Store.
It runs on the home page and nowhere else. The Kawlit app does not use PostHog or any other analytics service, and the pages that shared Kawlit, invite and receipt links open, this policy, the terms and the support page carry no analytics at all. Website visits are not linked to your Kawlit account or device, and we never use them for advertising.
Who else touches your data
- Apple — Sign in with Apple and the Apple Push Notification service for notifications, and, when you delete your account, Apple's token revocation service.
- Amazon Web Services — our servers and database, which hold everything listed above.
- Anthropic — the daily question and its supporting research are drafted by an AI model. Only the question text and public source material are sent; your picks, messages, handle and account data are never sent to it.
- PostHog — visit counts for the kawlit.com home page only (see “This website” above). Nothing from the app is sent to it.
We disclose data otherwise only where the law requires it.
How long we keep it
We keep your account and its record for as long as you use Kawlit. Database backups are retained for 7 days.
If you delete your account while a report about it is still being reviewed, we keep a one-way fingerprint of your sign-in for 30 days; a check that runs every hour deletes it after that, unless the account was suspended.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account in the app: Profile → Delete Account. This removes your handle, your email, your sign-in identifier and your photo, permanently, along with who you follow, who follows you, and the invitations you sent or received.
If you signed in with Apple, we also ask Apple to revoke Kawlit's access. If your account was suspended, its messages stay hidden after deletion, and the same sign-in is suspended again on any new account. Reports other players made about your account stay, without your name; if one was still being reviewed, we also keep a one-way fingerprint of your sign-in for 30 days.
One thing deliberately survives: the debts, rivalries and receipts from Kawlits you took part in remain, with your name removed. They are other people's record of a shared contest, and deleting an account is not a way to erase what you owed them. Nothing that identifies you remains attached to them.
To ask about data we hold, or to request deletion another way, email privacy@kawlit.com.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, and to object to some processing. Email us and we will act on it.
Children
Kawlit is not directed at children. You must be 13 or older to use it. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under that age; if you believe a child has given us data, email us and we will delete it.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest. Our database is not reachable from the public internet. No system is perfect, and we do not claim otherwise.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page, and say so in the app if the change is significant.