Privacy Policy

1Who processes your information

Simmel is developed and operated by an individual developer ("we"), not a company. We are the personal information handler described in this policy. Contact us at privacy@simmelai.com.

This policy covers the Simmel iPhone app, the desktop app at app.simmelai.com, and related services. The informational website simmelai.com does not collect personal information.

2What we collect

Account information: Your Apple-provided user identifier and any name or email you choose to share when signing in with Apple (which may be an Apple relay address); your email when signing in with an email code; and any phone number or email you link.

Profile details you provide: Your name, nickname, company name and company nickname, department, role, products or services you offer, home city, and how partners should address you. These are shown to trusted partners you approve.

Your relationship network: Companies; contacts’ names or preferred names, nicknames, departments, cities, decision stages, connection strength, tags, and notes; optional phone numbers, WeChat IDs, and emails; event contacts; and customer profiles.

Your interactions with partners: Partner applications, introduction requests and messages, offers to help, updates, connection history, reports, and appeals.

Feedback: What you submit under My › Feedback, plus the app version and device model.

Purchases: App Store transaction records (what you bought, when, validity period, and refund status); no payment-card details.

Device and diagnostic data: Device type and last-use time; the network address used to request a verification code; daily app-use status (only to count active users); and crash, performance, and website error reports. These reports contain only stack traces, version, device model, and operating-system version—not the content you enter.

3Why we collect it

To provide your relationship network, coverage and gap calculations, company-level matching among trusted partners, introductions, offers to help, and notifications; to sign you in and recover accounts; to prevent verification-code abuse; to handle reports and maintain community safety; to diagnose issues and improve the product; and to process purchases, subscriptions, and refunds.

We do not use your information for advertising or ad profiling, sell or rent it, or use it to train AI models.

The company-page public introduction is generated by DeepSeek from the company name and website only. We do not send it your contacts or relationship details. If you enter only a company name, DuckDuckGo may be used to find its website; only the company name is sent.

City search sends only your city query to Photon through our server—not your account identifier, contacts, or network. A GeoNames offline snapshot is used when the online service is unavailable.

4What partners can see

Only trusted partners you approve can see your basic profile and company-level signals: which company and decision stage you have a connection at, whether you are willing to introduce, and how recent the connection is.

Partners cannot see contact names, job titles, contact details, or connection strength. At a small company, or one where you know only one person, they see only “has a connection,” not the specific stage. Companies you mark sensitive are excluded from all matching.

You can separately control each partner’s access to target companies, customer profiles, and updates. When both partners enable resource sharing, company-level signals are shown only for companies in both networks. Sharing is on by default; if either person turns it off, neither can see the signals. If a target already has a covered budget decision-maker, it is normally hidden from partners and excluded from gap matching. You can enable “Still ask partners for help” for that company.

5Processors and sharing

We do not provide your personal information to third parties except for service providers we engage to operate necessary features (see the Third-Party Service List): Alibaba Cloud (servers, SMS and email verification, reminder emails, and human verification) and Apple (sign-in, purchases, and push notifications). They may process information only on our instructions and may not use it for their own purposes.

We may disclose information when required by law, in response to a lawful request from law-enforcement authorities, or when necessary to protect your or another person’s life or property.

6Where and how long we keep it

Data is stored on Alibaba Cloud servers in Singapore. This is an overseas transfer of personal information; after sign-in, we separately disclose it and obtain your consent (see the Cross-Border Personal Information Notice).

We keep account data while your account is active. Deleted companies, contacts, and customer profiles are permanently removed from the database after 14 days; during that period, you can restore them from My › Recently Deleted. Previous versions of company and contact records (excluding contact details) are kept for 14 days to diagnose sync issues and recover accidental edits. Encrypted daily database backups are retained for up to 31 additional days.

Account closure has a 7-day waiting period. After it ends, all account data is deleted; backups may remain for up to 31 additional days.

Verification codes and the network address used to request them are deleted after 1 day. Sign-in sessions expire and are deleted after 180 days of inactivity. Crash and error records are kept for 180 days. Daily app-use status is kept for 13 months.

7How we protect it

Data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS. Contact-detail fields are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM; the database stores ciphertext only. Partner matching runs on the server and returns company-level signals only.

The operations console shows aggregate statistics and masks phone numbers and emails. It cannot view anyone’s relationship network. The only exception is when a reviewer must inspect the specific reported content to handle a report. Every operations-console action is logged.

8Information about people you enter

You are responsible for ensuring that customer and contact information you enter—including information you organize from your own address book with an automation tool—has a lawful source and a legitimate business purpose. We store and process this information only as you direct and do not use it for other purposes.

Anyone who believes they have been recorded may email privacy@simmelai.com to request review and deletion. We will respond within 15 business days and notify both the person who entered the record and the requester of the outcome.

9Your rights

You may access, copy, correct, supplement, or delete your personal information; withdraw consent; close your account; and ask us to explain our processing rules.

Most actions are self-service: edit your profile in My, add or remove network records at any time, export your full network on desktop (phone verification required), or close your account under My › Account & Security. You may also email privacy@simmelai.com; we will reply within 15 business days.

If you withdraw consent to the overseas transfer, we cannot continue providing the service and will delete data as described in Section 6.

10Automated decisions

Suggestions such as “you can help” and “a partner can help you” are generated by rules to point out possible opportunities. They are not probabilities of closing a deal and are not, by themselves, used to make decisions that adversely affect you.

Content hiding, warnings, feature restrictions, and account bans are reviewed by a person. We state the rule involved each time, and you may always appeal.

11Cookies and similar technologies

The desktop app stores sign-in credentials and interface preferences locally in your browser. It does not use cookies to track you or include third-party analytics or advertising code. The app does not use advertising or third-party analytics SDKs and does not access your address book, photo library, or location.

12Minors

Simmel is for people 16 and older and is not offered to anyone under 16. Users aged 16 or 17 should use the service with a guardian’s guidance and consent. If we find that a user under 16 registered, we will disable the account and delete the related personal information. A guardian may contact us at privacy@simmelai.com.

13Policy updates

We will notify you in the app when this policy changes. Material changes to what we collect, why we use it, or with whom we share it require your renewed consent; they will not take effect silently. You may request previous versions from us.

14Contact and complaints

For questions, requests, or complaints about personal information, email privacy@simmelai.com. We generally reply within 15 business days. If you believe we have mishandled your information, you may also complain to the relevant cyberspace or other competent authority.

Appendix 1Third-Party Service List

No advertising, attribution, or third-party analytics SDKs.

Appendix 2Personal Information Collection List

Items marked “Optional” are not needed for core features.