Folkfire Privacy Policy
The short version. Folkfire keeps your friends, your messages and your check-ins on your phone. There's no account, no Folkfire server and no tracking, and we never see your friends, your messages or how you use the app. The only things it sends on its own are a check with your app store for Folkfire Plus and, if the app crashes, a crash report with nothing about your friends in it.
When you check in with someone, Folkfire opens your own texting app, WhatsApp or phone, and you send the message or make the call yourself.
This policy covers the Folkfire app for iPhone and Android and this website. Folkfire is made by Kerbyware LLC, a North Carolina company ("we", "us").
What Folkfire keeps, and where
Everything below is stored in a database inside the app, on your phone. It is not sent to us or anyone else.
- The friends you add: name, phone number, birthday (if you have one for them), and the contact's ID in your address book. To show them at your campfire, remind you when they're due and open a message to them.
- How each friend appears and how often you want to be in touch, how you usually reach them (text, WhatsApp, call or another app), and roughly how far away they live. To set up the campfire and your reminders.
- Your check-ins: when, how, the message you sent through Folkfire, and any plans you made (what, and when). So the fire reflects how things are going, and so you can see your plans.
- Regular plans you set up with friends. To remind you of them.
- Your settings, and which prompts you've already seen. So the app remembers your choices and doesn't repeat itself.
Birthdays come from the contact on your phone, when it has one, and stay on your phone like everything else here.
The conversation prompts are built into the app. Folkfire doesn't download anything.
Folkfire doesn't read your texts, call log or WhatsApp chats. It only knows about a check-in because you made it in the app.
What leaves your phone
Nothing about you or your friends, unless you send it. Folkfire has no server, no account and no analytics, advertising or tracking code. The only things Folkfire sends by itself are a check with your app store and a crash report, both described below.
When you check in with a friend:
- Text: Folkfire opens your phone's messaging app with the message filled in. You review it and press send.
- WhatsApp: Folkfire opens WhatsApp with the message filled in. You press send.
- Call: Folkfire opens your phone's dialer with the number. You place the call.
- Another app (Signal, Discord and the like), or when your phone can't send texts: Folkfire copies the message to your clipboard, and you paste it wherever you like.
Once a message is in one of those apps, that app's own privacy policy applies, along with your carrier's for texts and calls. Folkfire never sends your messages on its own.
Store checks. When you open Folkfire or come back to it, and when you look at Folkfire Plus, Folkfire asks the App Store (on iPhone) or Google Play (on Android) whether your store account has Folkfire Plus and what it costs. Folkfire tells the store only which Plus plan it's asking about and, after a purchase, confirms the purchase using the store's own reference. Apple or Google knows your store account, as for any purchase. Nothing about your friends goes with it. These checks go only to Apple or Google, never to us, and their own privacy policies cover what they keep.
Crash reports. If Folkfire crashes or freezes, it sends a crash report to our crash-reporting service, Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.), so we can fix the problem. A report holds technical details such as the error, where in the code it happened, the app version, and your phone model and system version. It holds no names, phone numbers, messages or other details about your friends, and it isn't linked to you. Every report is scrubbed on your phone before it is sent. Like any server, Sentry sees the internet address a report comes from; we've set it to store neither that address nor the location it suggests. Reports are kept for 30 days.
Permissions, and why
Contacts
Folkfire asks to read your contacts when you add a friend, so you can pick them from a list. It reads names, phone numbers and birthdays. Only the people you pick are saved in Folkfire; the rest of your address book isn't kept. Folkfire never changes your contacts.
You can say no. You can still add friends by typing their name and number.
Notifications
Folkfire asks to send notifications so it can remind you when a friend is due. These reminders are scheduled on your phone; nothing comes from a server. By default a reminder can show a friend's first name on your lock screen. You can turn that off in Settings, or turn notifications off in your phone's settings.
Vibration
Used for a small tap of feedback. You can turn it off in Settings.
Google Play billing (Android)
com.android.vending.BILLING lets Folkfire offer Folkfire Plus through Google Play. Android grants it without asking.
Internet (Android)
Used only to send a crash report. Android grants it without asking. The check with Google Play goes through the Play Store app.
What Folkfire doesn't ask for
No location, camera, microphone, calendar or photos, and no permission to read or send texts or place calls.
Backups
Your phone's own backup can include Folkfire's data, as it does for most apps, so a new phone still has your friends:
- iPhone: an iCloud backup, or a backup to your computer.
- Android: your Google backup, and moving your apps to a new phone.
That copy is made by your phone, not by Folkfire. It's protected by your Apple or Google account, or by your computer, and we can't see it. Your phone's backup settings decide what goes in a backup.
Third parties
Folkfire shares no data with anyone, apart from the crash reports sent to Sentry and the store checks with Apple or Google (above). There are no advertising, analytics or social-media SDKs in the app.
Apple and Google provide the app stores and the phone's operating system. Their own privacy policies cover what they collect, such as app downloads and the usage statistics you agreed to share with them.
Purchases (Folkfire Plus)
Folkfire Plus is bought through the App Store or Google Play, and Apple or Google handle the payment. We receive no payment details, and we don't learn who you are.
Folkfire keeps, on your phone only, whether Plus is active, which plan you have, when you bought it and when you first subscribed, when it renews or ends and whether it will renew, the price you subscribed at, when it last checked, which reminder it last showed you in the app, and, while a purchase waits for payment or approval, which plan it is for and since when. It checks this with the App Store or Google Play when you open or return to the app. Those checks go between your phone and the store; nothing comes to us.
Folkfire reminds you before your plan renews: twice before a yearly plan renews (about 35 and 20 days before), and once a year for a monthly plan (about 30 days before the anniversary of when you subscribed, naming the next monthly charge). Each reminder says what you'll be charged and, when the store has shared the date, when it renews and the day to cancel by. The next reminders are scheduled ahead, so they come even if you don't open Folkfire in between. If notifications are on, the reminders are notifications scheduled on your phone, like your friend reminders; if they're off, Folkfire shows each reminder in the app instead, the first time you open it in that reminder's window. Nothing comes from a server. To cancel, use your App Store or Google Play subscription settings, or Settings → Folkfire Plus → Manage subscription in Folkfire.
Keeping and deleting your data
Your data stays on your phone until you delete it.
- Remove a friend: open their settings and choose Remove from campfire. Their details, check-ins and history are deleted from Folkfire. They aren't told.
- Delete everything: uninstall Folkfire. That deletes all of its data from your phone. A copy in your phone's backup stays until that backup is deleted or replaced.
Apart from crash reports, which aren't linked to you and are deleted after 30 days, we don't hold any of your data, so there's nothing for us to export, correct or delete on our side. If you have a question about it, write to us.
Children
Folkfire is for people 13 and older, and isn't directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect anything from children; in fact, we collect nothing from anyone beyond crash reports.
This website
folkfire.app is a set of plain pages hosted on Cloudflare. It has no forms, and we set no cookies.
We count visits to the website with Cloudflare Web Analytics. It adds a small script to each page, sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser and doesn't follow you across sites. It tells us totals, such as which pages were visited, the site you came from, and the browser, type of device and country of each visit. We don't use it to identify you. This is on the website only; the app has no analytics.
Like any web host, Cloudflare may keep standard request logs (such as IP address, browser and the page asked for) to run and protect its service. We don't use them to identify you. Cloudflare's privacy policy is at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data, such as to see, correct or delete it. Since Folkfire keeps everything on your phone, you can do all of that yourself in the app. For anything else, contact us.
This policy is governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, USA, without taking away any rights the law where you live gives you.
Changes to this policy
If we change how Folkfire handles data, we'll update this page and the date at the top before the change reaches the app. If a change means something would leave your phone that doesn't today, we'll say so in the app before it happens.
Contact
Questions about privacy: support@folkfire.app
Kerbyware LLC
4030 Wake Forest Rd Ste 349
Raleigh, NC 27609
USA