How we treat what you share
This is a working draft, reviewed by legal counsel before we open to our first members. It describes the principles yern is built on today.
The short version
We built yern to be the opposite of the apps that wore you out. Privacy is the first principle, not a setting. We never sell your data. We never run ads. We never show one person another person's private information.
What we collect
Your account details (email, and a display name and birth date you provide).
What you tell us about yourself: your personality answers, your head and heart and core-need preferences, your music, the aesthetics you pick, your photos, and the prompts you write.
What your friends share about you, if you invite them: their answers to a short set of questions, which we aggregate. You only ever see a warm summary, never who said what.
How you use the app: the matches you see, the choices you make, and the conversations you have. Messages are visible only to the two people in them.
How we use it
We use what you share for one thing: to introduce you to people you might genuinely connect with. That is the whole job.
We do not sell your data to anyone, for any reason. We do not show advertisements. We do not use your data to build profiles for third parties.
Personality and peer-review data inform matching. They are never shown to other users as raw scores, and your friends' individual answers are never shown to anyone.
Collecting before you have an account
If you join the waitlist, you can choose to answer a short personality taster and invite friends to describe you. Those answers are stored with your waitlist email and used only to build your profile when you join. You can skip all of it, and your place on the list stays exactly where it is.
How it is protected
Every table that holds your data enforces row-level security, so your psychological profile, your peer reviews, your contact details, and your messages are readable only by the people entitled to see them.
Sensitive judgments are never automated into a verdict about you. Any wellbeing prompt is an invitation you can decline.
Your control
You can see and edit what you have shared. You can delete your account, and we remove your personal data on the timelines the law requires. You can ask for a copy of your data.
Cancellation is one step. We will never put obstacles in the way of leaving.
Questions
Reach us at privacy@yern.dev and a person will answer.